On episode 13 of 'The Glow Up Podcast', Jay Park- introduced as K-Pop superstar- joined as the guest. During the talk, the artist shared about his transition from Seattle to South Korea and the cultural differences he experienced.
Jay Park first revealed that he decided to make the move to Korea for his family who was financially struggling. He stated that his goals were to make money and that he was "naive," thinking that he could move right back to the states after achieving his goals.
Overall, the transition was perceived as a sacrifice for Jay, who could barely speak Korean and had a minimum knowledge of the Korean culture at the time.
SEE ALSO: Jay Park delivers holiday joy with 'Merry Merry Christmas :)' lyric video
In Korea, Jay Park received training under JYP Entertainment for about 3 and a half years. He named the time as "artist development" where trainees received vocal and dancing training. He stated, "It helped in a lot of ways but it kinda killed my passion and creativity", and that is, "Kind of like programming. Sing it like this, do it like this. So you lose your individuality."
Jay confessed that the time was extremely hard and lonely for him and that he even cried at times.
He also revealed, "The culture in itself was kinda like when you get certain lyrics or you get certain dance move wrong, they would like literally hit you. That's kinda like the Korean way you know. It's not like that now. Much better now but back then there were like, 'You motha f*ck'.. (laugh) but they wouldn't do that to me because I was good at dancing. But I would see this dude next to me, he would be getting some sh*t wrong and get his ass whooped."
Next, he shared about his past MySpace controversy that ultimately got him cut from the group 2PM. "You know I was in culture shock. I was very ignorant. I was very naive. I said some comments. Someone dug up some of the comments that I said, 'Korea's wack', 'I don't know what's going on'. That's how you talk when you're young. Like 'Korea's gay'... Over here, everyone talks like that but if you translate it literally... They were like 'Ahh, Jay Park's racist. He doesn't like Koreans'."
Jay moved back to Seattle a year after 2PM's debut and eventually made his return to Korea where he has become a successful artist with his own record label.
Check out the full podcast interview with Jay Park below.
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