To become a Kpop idol, Sana (Twice) had to overcome many challenges, especially when she is a foreigner.
Known as a multinational group, Twice has members from many different countries such as Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Sana – a Japanese member of the group recently frankly confessed the difficulties and disappointments of being a foreign trainee in Korea, according to Koreaboo.
According to the Twice member, she has been in Korea for 10 years. The female idol admitted that she was very excited when she went abroad to participate in the entertainment environment. However, the biggest challenge she faced was her inability to communicate with other people when she first arrived there.
“I don’t even know how to answer questions like ‘How are you? Have you eaten anything?”. I don’t know how to answer. I was very disappointed, when by nature I am a talkative person,” Sana confided.
Frustrated by the language barrier, she tried her best to learn to speak Korean. She wanted to understand what the other trainees were saying, why they were laughing, and wanted to communicate with the others.
But practicing choreography and vocal training took up all of her time, leaving her not much time to learn Korean. The female idol has come up with an effective way to learn. She often read aloud the signs on the street whenever she passed. Sana even recorded her own words.
“I recorded and listened to it again because I wanted to improve my pronunciation and try to correct the wrong parts,” the Twice member shared.
Listening to Sana’s story, Chaeyoung said she felt admiration for the foreign members of Twice such as Sana, Momo, Mina and Tzuyu. They all have the courage and resilience to start a new life in a foreign country, accepting living away from home for many years.
Minatozaki Sana was born in 1996, is a Japanese member of the group Twice. She was once voted as the 17th most popular idol in Korea and the highest ranked Japanese person in Gallup Korea’s annual music poll in 2018.
