After reading the post “Confessions

After reading the post “Confessions of an EX-SM Trainee” I have very much been thinking a lot about my whole trainee life with YG. I read a lot of comments for that post and people are saying it’s a fanfic and whatever and obviously you guys are going to say that about this post as well, but whatever, I’ll let you guys believe what you guys want to believe. I, myself, don’t even know if that post is true, but reading it, it is pretty close to what us trainees go through to reach our dreams. Let me share my experience as an ex-YG trainee.

Let me tell you guys a little about myself first. I am currently 19 years old, full Korean, born and raised in the US, not specifying where. I became a trainee in 2010 and left in 2012 after my two-year contract with YG ended. I was never so relieved to have left.

It was some time toward the end of 2009 because I was on Winter Break from school, I was 16 at the time. My mom told me that my aunt was getting married (now she has a baby girl) and that we were invited. My mom also told me that my aunt requested a song from me to sing at the wedding ceremony. It was an intense request, I always enjoyed singing for school talent shows and whatnot but my specialty was singing in English, I knew nothing about my culture’s music. Fortunately, my aunt had a specific song for me to sing, it was called Proposal by Noel, so I just easily found it on the net and learned it, of course it took some time to perfect. My family bought airline tickets to go to South Korea, this was by the time Winter Break had already finished, I remember because I was super happy I got to miss the first week of the new semester in school. We arrived in South Korea, we were two days early, I also remember this because we stayed in a crappy hotel for two nights where I rehearsed quietly in the bathroom for hours. The big day finally came and my aunt and her husband, as well as the rest of the family and friends were all excited to hear me sing. I went up to the stage and sung Proposal by Noel. I was so scared to make a fool out of myself in front of everyone, especially during this kind of event. I finished and remember everyone complimenting me, it was nerve-wracking.

As soon as the guests began to leave, there was this older man who approached my family. My parents didn’t seem to know who he was, turns out he was an old friend of my aunt’s husband. He had little conversation with my parents and turned to me and asked me how long I had been singing, I remember I was so shocked that he had been talking to me because he seemed extremely professional and it would seem he would ignore the teenager. I told him I had been singing since I was 10, he continued to ask other questions.. don’t really remember them though.. Probably just based off my singing interests. He then gave me a card and told me he was a representative from YG Entertainment. I didn’t know what that was, remember I didn’t know much about my culture’s music. He told me that they were holding auditions (YG Audition 2010) and told me to go audition and tell them that he sent me. I was going to ignore his request, but my mom said it was a great opportunity for me as a singer. I still didn’t want to do it. Being raised and born in the US, as well as not knowing much about Korean music genres, the only groups I knew were SNSD because GEE was everywhere, Shinhwa because my mom was a huge fan (which was weird), and 2NE1 because who doesn’t know them. We returned to our hotels that night and I searched up what this ‘YG Entertainment’ was and saw that 2NE1 was under their label. If I had not done research that night, I might’ve just left back to the US.

Seeing that 2NE1 was in their Agency, I gave it a try. The auditions were held two days after the wedding.. I think..? Not sure. But yeah and I went and auditioned. I actually was able to skip the whole application process since I had proof that a rep requested me to audition, so I was actually given an advantage and went straight to the audition room.

It was in a smaller building, not the YG building, but I actually don’t know what this building was mainly used for.. The audition room was extremely small, super cramped. It was a private audition and there were two ladies judging me. No camera or anything. They asked me a couple questions.. I don’t remember what they were.. but they were probably just general questions.. But yeah, so I began to sing. Guess which song I sung? I sung Proposal by Noel! It was the only Korean song I had fully memorized, being that I sung it at a wedding. So yeah, finished that and they thanked me for auditioning and I was just on my way. In all honesty, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I knew nothing about the entertainment industry. But yeah, after about 3 days I think, a representative called me and said that I was one of the few chosen to advance to the final round. Yes, there were only two rounds in the audition process, only a few even made it that far and the final cut was drastic. I went in and auditioned for the final cut, they allowed me to sing any type of song, actually it was like that for the first audition too but I wasn’t informed I could sing ANYTHING, so I figured I had to sign a Korean song, but for the final audition they made it clear that I can sing ANYTHING, so I sung Halo by Beyonce, my favorite song! After the audition, I went back to my cousin’s house, where my mom and I were staying for the time being. After about three days a rep called me and told me and my guardian to come to the YG Building. We did as they said and we went there the next day.

At the time, the YG building was still rather new, it had just been built, so it was still a bit empty and still being constructed in some places. It was so crazy because my mom and I walked to the YG building, but we honestly didn’t know for sure where it was, so we got to the building unknowingly and there were a bunch of girls standing outside the building. My mom went up to one of them and asked if the building was the YG building and the girl went ballistic! I just remember her saying something like “Of course it is, are you kidding me?!” in a really bad attitude. My mom and I walked into the building and there was an escort standing at the door specifically waiting for auditionees. He took us to the main floor and guided us to YG’s office. My mom and I went in to see YG himself. We talked bits and pieces and he pulled out 3 different pieces of papers. These were the different contracts they had. There was a 2 year one, 3 year and 4 year. He made it clear that I was eligible to become a full-time trainee and asked my mom which contract she preferred for me to sign. He explained everything to us and made sure we knew what we were doing. I eventually signed the 2 year contract.

Immediately after, we contacted my school back at home and I transferred out and moved to a school in South Korea. Everything was going so quickly, I honestly didn’t even know what was going on. My mom stayed with me for about two weeks and she returned home. It was very difficult adjusting to everything in SK all by myself. My Korean was average and honestly I wasn’t a big fan of the Korean food. The taste is different to the Korean food at home.

I was said to be in “good hands”, they put me in a dorm where I shared it with two other Korean girls. I attended school and everything. After school, I rushed to the YG building and began my training schedule. YG had about 40 trainees and each trainee had a specific schedule to follow, very much like School. They did this to pair us up with other trainees, linking us to maybe becoming possible groups in the future. My vocal lessons were very much independent, it was a three hour long lesson, the first hour was with the coach and the next two were alone, the coach would check up every 30 minutes. My dance lessons were with 5 other girls. I remember when I first entered the dance studio, they were doing a cover of Fire by 2NE1. One of the girls was Chinese and she was from Australia, it was really cool. Honestly the training process wasn’t as hard, I mean of course it was, but it just wasn’t to the point where I would break down piece by piece. My schedule was vocal, dance, language lesson and then after that it was whatever I wanted to do. By the time I finished my schedule it would already be almost 10pm, I would rush home and finish my studies and start the day over. I did this for two years. My schedule changed every now and then, due to the different trainees the company wanted to put together.

It was in early 2011 when the new girl group and new boy group rumor was spreading throughout trainees. We had all began to work extremely hard. Education turned to our last priority and making an impression on the reps, staffs and CEO was first priority. This was a terrible time for me. Friends that had been made were slowly turning to rivals. We all began to battle each other and whatnot. I have to say that YG is definitely a serious agency, as in like the competition is dead on, there is no time for laughing and fooling around. Being in an agency that focused mainly on talent made things extremely difficult. We had monthly evaluations in the main practice room where most dance videos were shot and whatnot. Unexpected eliminations were delivered several times amongst trainees during the evaluations. Groups like ‘The Future 2NE1’ were a favorite amongst the reps and staffs, which is why they got themselves a video on youtube. My group wasn’t much a favorite, but we worked hard. Like I said, the training process itself wasn’t as difficult, but the evaluations and competition was extremely overwhelming.

I remember it was late 2011 when the first line up for the girl group was to be announced also the whole plan for the group would be announced as well. Day by day more and more information was announced. Obviously the first two line up

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

Sau khi đọc bài viết "Confessions of an EX-SM viên" tôi có rất nhiều suy nghĩ rất nhiều về cuộc sống của tôi toàn bộ học viên với YG. Tôi đọc rất nhiều ý kiến cho bài đăng đó và mọi người đang nói rằng nó là một fanfic và bất cứ điều gì và rõ ràng là bạn guys sẽ nói rằng về bài đăng này là tốt, nhưng bất cứ điều gì, tôi sẽ cho bạn guys tin rằng những gì cậu muốn tin. Tôi, bản thân mình, thậm chí không biết nếu đăng bài đó là đúng, nhưng đọc nó, nó là khá gần với những gì chúng tôi học viên đi qua để đạt được ước mơ của chúng tôi. Hãy để tôi chia sẻ kinh nghiệm của tôi như là một học viên cũ-YG.Hãy để tôi nói với anh một chút về bản thân mình đầu tiên. Tôi đang hiện nay 19 tuổi, đầy đủ Hàn Quốc, sinh ra và lớn lên ở Mỹ, không chỉ định nơi. Tôi đã trở thành một học viên trong năm 2010 và còn lại trong năm 2012 sau khi kết thúc hợp đồng hai năm với YG. Tôi đã không bao giờ nên nhẹ nhõm đã bỏ lại.Nó đã là một thời gian cuối năm 2009 bởi vì tôi đã trên nghỉ mùa đông từ trường học, tôi đã là 16 lúc đó. Mẹ tôi nói với tôi rằng dì của tôi đã nhận được kết hôn (bây giờ cô ấy có một con gái) và rằng chúng tôi đã được mời. Mẹ tôi cũng nói với tôi rằng dì của tôi yêu cầu một bài hát từ tôi hát tại buổi lễ cưới. Đó là một yêu cầu cường độ cao, tôi luôn luôn thích hát học tài năng biểu diễn và whatnot nhưng đặc biệt của tôi ca hát bằng tiếng Anh, tôi biết không có gì về âm nhạc văn hóa của tôi. May mắn thay, dì của tôi đã có một bài hát cụ thể cho tôi hát, nó được gọi là đề xuất bởi Noel, do đó, tôi chỉ cần dễ dàng tìm thấy nó trên mạng và đã học được nó, tất nhiên nó mất một thời gian để hoàn thiện. Gia đình tôi mua vé máy bay tới Nam Triều tiên, đây là thời gian mùa đông Break đã đã hoàn thành, tôi nhớ bởi vì tôi là siêu hạnh phúc tôi đã bỏ lỡ trong tuần đầu tiên của học kỳ mới trong trường học. Chúng tôi đến ở Hàn Quốc, chúng tôi đã hai ngày đầu, tôi cũng nhớ điều này bởi vì chúng tôi ở lại trong một khách sạn crappy cho hai đêm mà tôi ngủ lặng lẽ trong phòng tắm cho giờ. Ngày lớn cuối cùng đã đến và dì của tôi và chồng bà, cũng như phần còn lại của gia đình và bạn bè đã là tất cả vui mừng khi biết tôi hát. Tôi đã đi đến sân khấu và hát đề xuất của Noel. Em đã rất sợ để làm cho một kẻ ngốc ra khỏi bản thân mình ở phía trước của tất cả mọi người, đặc biệt là trong loại sự kiện. Tôi đã hoàn thành và nhớ tất cả mọi người complimenting tôi, nó đã được nerve-wracking.Ngay sau khi các khách hàng đã bắt đầu để lại, có là này người đàn ông lớn tuổi đã tiếp cận gia đình của tôi. Cha mẹ tôi dường như không biết những người ông đã lần lượt ra ông đã là một người bạn cũ của dì của tôi chồng. Ông có chút hội thoại với cha mẹ tôi và quay sang tôi và hỏi tôi bao lâu tôi đã hát, tôi nhớ tôi đã bị sốc vì vậy rằng ông đã nói chuyện với tôi bởi vì ông có vẻ cực kỳ chuyên nghiệp và có vẻ như ông sẽ bỏ qua các thiếu niên. Tôi nói với ông tôi đã hát kể từ khi tôi đã 10, ông tiếp tục đặt câu hỏi khác... không thực sự nhớ họ mặc dù... Có lẽ chỉ dựa vào lại sở thích ca hát của tôi. Sau đó, ông đã cho tôi một thẻ và nói với tôi ông là một đại diện từ YG Entertainment. Tôi không biết điều gì đó, hãy nhớ rằng tôi không biết nhiều về văn hóa của tôi âm nhạc. Ông nói với tôi rằng họ đã tổ chức thử giọng (YG Audition 2010) và nói với tôi để đi thử giọng và nói với họ rằng ông đã gửi cho tôi. Tôi sẽ bỏ qua các yêu cầu của ông, nhưng mẹ tôi nói rằng đó là một cơ hội tuyệt vời cho tôi như là một ca sĩ. Tôi vẫn không muốn làm điều đó. Được nâng lên và sinh ra ở Mỹ, cũng như không biết nhiều về thể loại nhạc Hàn Quốc, nhóm duy nhất tôi biết đã SNSD vì GEE là ở khắp mọi nơi, Shinhwa vì mẹ tôi là một fan hâm mộ lớn (đó là lạ) và 2NE1 vì những người không biết họ. Chúng tôi trở về khách sạn của chúng tôi đêm và tôi tìm kiếm này 'YG Entertainment' và thấy rằng 2NE1 là nhãn hiệu. Nếu tôi đã không thực hiện nghiên cứu đêm đó, tôi có thể đã chỉ còn quay lại Hoa Kỳ.Seeing that 2NE1 was in their Agency, I gave it a try. The auditions were held two days after the wedding.. I think..? Not sure. But yeah and I went and auditioned. I actually was able to skip the whole application process since I had proof that a rep requested me to audition, so I was actually given an advantage and went straight to the audition room.It was in a smaller building, not the YG building, but I actually don’t know what this building was mainly used for.. The audition room was extremely small, super cramped. It was a private audition and there were two ladies judging me. No camera or anything. They asked me a couple questions.. I don’t remember what they were.. but they were probably just general questions.. But yeah, so I began to sing. Guess which song I sung? I sung Proposal by Noel! It was the only Korean song I had fully memorized, being that I sung it at a wedding. So yeah, finished that and they thanked me for auditioning and I was just on my way. In all honesty, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I knew nothing about the entertainment industry. But yeah, after about 3 days I think, a representative called me and said that I was one of the few chosen to advance to the final round. Yes, there were only two rounds in the audition process, only a few even made it that far and the final cut was drastic. I went in and auditioned for the final cut, they allowed me to sing any type of song, actually it was like that for the first audition too but I wasn’t informed I could sing ANYTHING, so I figured I had to sign a Korean song, but for the final audition they made it clear that I can sing ANYTHING, so I sung Halo by Beyonce, my favorite song! After the audition, I went back to my cousin’s house, where my mom and I were staying for the time being. After about three days a rep called me and told me and my guardian to come to the YG Building. We did as they said and we went there the next day.At the time, the YG building was still rather new, it had just been built, so it was still a bit empty and still being constructed in some places. It was so crazy because my mom and I walked to the YG building, but we honestly didn’t know for sure where it was, so we got to the building unknowingly and there were a bunch of girls standing outside the building. My mom went up to one of them and asked if the building was the YG building and the girl went ballistic! I just remember her saying something like “Of course it is, are you kidding me?!” in a really bad attitude. My mom and I walked into the building and there was an escort standing at the door specifically waiting for auditionees. He took us to the main floor and guided us to YG’s office. My mom and I went in to see YG himself. We talked bits and pieces and he pulled out 3 different pieces of papers. These were the different contracts they had. There was a 2 year one, 3 year and 4 year. He made it clear that I was eligible to become a full-time trainee and asked my mom which contract she preferred for me to sign. He explained everything to us and made sure we knew what we were doing. I eventually signed the 2 year contract.Immediately after, we contacted my school back at home and I transferred out and moved to a school in South Korea. Everything was going so quickly, I honestly didn’t even know what was going on. My mom stayed with me for about two weeks and she returned home. It was very difficult adjusting to everything in SK all by myself. My Korean was average and honestly I wasn’t a big fan of the Korean food. The taste is different to the Korean food at home.
I was said to be in “good hands”, they put me in a dorm where I shared it with two other Korean girls. I attended school and everything. After school, I rushed to the YG building and began my training schedule. YG had about 40 trainees and each trainee had a specific schedule to follow, very much like School. They did this to pair us up with other trainees, linking us to maybe becoming possible groups in the future. My vocal lessons were very much independent, it was a three hour long lesson, the first hour was with the coach and the next two were alone, the coach would check up every 30 minutes. My dance lessons were with 5 other girls. I remember when I first entered the dance studio, they were doing a cover of Fire by 2NE1. One of the girls was Chinese and she was from Australia, it was really cool. Honestly the training process wasn’t as hard, I mean of course it was, but it just wasn’t to the point where I would break down piece by piece. My schedule was vocal, dance, language lesson and then after that it was whatever I wanted to do. By the time I finished my schedule it would already be almost 10pm, I would rush home and finish my studies and start the day over. I did this for two years. My schedule changed every now and then, due to the different trainees the company wanted to put together.

It was in early 2011 when the new girl group and new boy group rumor was spreading throughout trainees. We had all began to work extremely hard. Education turned to our last priority and making an impression on the reps, staffs and CEO was first priority. This was a terrible time for me. Friends that had been made were slowly turning to rivals. We all began to battle each other and whatnot. I have to say that YG is definitely a serious agency, as in like the competition is dead on, there is no time for laughing and fooling around. Being in an agency that focused mainly on talent made things extremely difficult. We had monthly evaluations in the main practice room where most dance videos were shot and whatnot. Unexpected eliminations were delivered several times amongst trainees during the evaluations. Groups like ‘The Future 2NE1’ were a favorite amongst the reps and staffs, which is why they got themselves a video on youtube. My group wasn’t much a favorite, but we worked hard. Like I said, the training process itself wasn’t as difficult, but the evaluations and competition was extremely overwhelming.

I remember it was late 2011 when the first line up for the girl group was to be announced also the whole plan for the group would be announced as well. Day by day more and more information was announced. Obviously the first two line up