Yesterday was maybe the greatest day of my existence. Okay well that’s an exaggeration, but it was a pretty awesome day. Why you ask? I will tell you why. In fact, I will now regale you with the tale of how I made a speech in front of SNSD. Y’all probably know by now that this is going to be lengthy….sorry………………that I’m not sorry that is heheheheh also beware: fangirl spazz level is at like a 63 on a scale of 1 to 10 here. Sheesh this blog is becoming less and less about studying abroad and more and more about K-Pop. Whatever.
So Jangwon, the guy who got me and Jennie tickets to see Sunny’s musical a few weeks back texted me earlier in the week and said, “Hey can you give a speech to SNSD and the RP Association?” and on the inside I was like flubberpuddyasdfklasjdf;asldkfjas;ldfkj but when I texted him back I said, “Definitely, just let me know what I need to do!” So basically this was the set up: Taeyeon, Sooyoung, Seohyun, and Tiffany were made official ambassadors of the RP Association, which Sooyoung’s dad is the president of. The Association is a non-profit organization whose goal is to raise research funds to help find a cure for a retina disease called Retenitis Pigmentosa, or RP. The disease is genetic and slowly turns patients blind over the course of 10-30 years. Anyways, the association has been getting a lot of foreign attention lately, and so they wanted an obviously foreign looking person (AKA THIS blonde-haired-blue-eyed kid) to make a speech about how they found out about the association and talk about SNSD.
So we got to the very shmancy venue, where we were sat at the very front table with Mr. Choi (Sooyoung’s father). We weren’t sure whether I would actually be speaking in front of SNSD because they could only be there for 30 minutes due to their crazy schedules, so I was trying not to get my hopes up. However, they were going over the program, and realized that only one speech could be said in front of SNSD, and they decided they wanted it to be mine. They asked me if that was okay and I was like ;LAKSJDFAISDUFAOPISDFJASKDNALWER in my mind but I said “Of course!” back to them. I seriously don’t know how I got so lucky. So we listened to some medical experts and Mr. Choi talk about the association and the progress they’ve made etc, etc. At one point Mr. Choi was talking about a particularly generous American who donated $100 million to the association and turned to me from the podium and said “Hannah Waitt, I am very jealous of your country” in English, which was pretty funny. After all of that, it was dinner time and good lord it was so delicious but I knew I’d be standing next to SNSD so I had use every little fiber of willpower in my body not to totally pig out.
Okay here comes an exciting part: after dinner, I went to the bathroom to go check my teeth and hair and whatnot and on my way out, who else but CHOI SOOYOUNG was walking right towards me with her sister. She was staring right at me and we held eye contact for the entire time we were walking towards each other. LASER BEAM LOCKED. I sort of tiny-smiled and nodded to her and she did the same back. Then, when I looked back after I passed her, HER HEAD WAS TURNED AROUND LOOKING BACK AT ME TOO. Haha the best part was that she was wearing these really long, flowy white pants, so it looked like she was floating towards me I was waiting for little naked winged babies with trumpets and harps to flutter down and start playing or something. Also oh my lord she was so skinny. SNSDiet was futile. I never stood a chance standing next to her. Aigoo.
Okay so I got back from the bathroom and sat down at the table next to Jennie and said, “………………………I just saw Sooyoung going to the bathroom.” I then had to clarify that I meant ‘on the way to the bathroom’ because that sounded awkward. In the meantime, all of the press were setting up their bazooka cameras and tripods and whatnot. They started the ceremony before SNSD got there, and this guy was in the middle of a speech when suddenly the clicking of cameras and “oohs” and “ahs” drowned him out. He eventually gave up and said “Ahh it seems SNSD has arrived, I’ll end here, thank you” and everyone sort of laughed and he got down. Then the girls came up and sat in the chairs on the stage and the cameras straight-up blitzed them. I understand why celebs wear sunglasses all the time now. They all looked kind of tired, but Sooyoung and Taeyeon looked super duper exhausted, Seohyun just looked classy, and Tiffany somehow looked different in real life than she does on TV and in pictures…I can’t really put my finger on why or how, she just did…? They’re all super gorgeous in real life though but I feel like everyone already knows that.
So Mr. Choi introduced me, and I went up to the stage and bowed and made eye contact and smiled to all of them. Tiffany smiled and tiny-waved at me so I smiled and tiny-waved back. Seohyun just politely smiled at me. Taeyeon made an effort at a smile but she was tired so you could tell she had to sort of grit it out. I could see that Sooyoung recognized me from earlier on the way to the bathroom because her eyes sort of widened and she smiled at me.
I said “Hello everyone” in Korean and the crowd went “WAAAAAHHHHHH” because they weren’t expecting the most non-Asian looking girl ever to be able to speak Korean it at all. Then when I proceeded to introduce myself in Korean I got another chorus of wah’s and a round of applause. I looked over at the girls and they were all smiling and sort of laughing and Tiffany gave me a two thumbs up.
The rest of the speech was in English and Jangwon translated. I basically talked about how I found out about the association, how I found out about SNSD, how I am here in Seoul researching the history and development of K-Pop, and how SNSD is at the frontline of Hallyu and that’s why they will be great ambassadors and whatnot. In part of the speech, I tell a story about a friend from Chile recognizing the song “Genie” when it came on shuffle in my car. At that point I say something like, “I thought she would be confused since the song wasn’t in English, but she totally surprised me when she went: ‘Sowoneul marhaebwa, ni maeumsoke inneun jageun kkumeul marhaebwa’”. And at that part I actually like snapped my head to the front and had a really intense look on my face and sang the song and even did the K-Pop standard little twisty hand move thingy, and the girls and the crowd laughed pretty hard. Like Taeyeon threw back her head and covered her face and Tiffany was like clapping her hands and laughing and said “nice, nice” to me in between laughs.
[Muahahaha made them laugh. Not in the picture, but I’m like two feet to Sooyoung’s right in real life!]
Jangwon was translating about every two to three sentences, and when he didn’t, I turned to him and said “You’re not gonna do it?” in Korean, which got another good laugh out of everyone. I’m really glad that part went well. I was pretty terrified that I was going to crash and burn and everyone would just be like ‘why is this white girl mumbling SNSD songs on stage’. I’m especially glad I got Taeyeon to do her ajuhmma laugh – it was actually my secret mission to get her to do it hehehehe. MISSION SUCCESS. There were even a couple of photo articles about it:
[Link: http://news.nate.com/view/20120414n08536 This the the pic from the article. The title of the article roughly translates to: “Foreigner Sings SNSD Song, Taeyeon and Seohyun Burst Out Laughing”]
[This one is my favorite because of the title - link: http://news.nate.com/view/20120414n08147 The title of this newsphoto roughly translates to: “Taeyeon Bursts Out Laughing Alone, Other Members Become Embarrassed” hahahahaha YOU’RE WELCOME KIM TAEYEON]
[Link: http://www.clubcity.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=109109 I’m not so sure about this one’s title, but I think it roughly translates to: “Taeyeon’s Seldom, Hard-To-See ‘Taengoo’ Wide Smile”]
So I finished up my speech and one of the last sentences is: “So, thank you to Taeyeon, Seohyun, Tiffany, and Sooyoung for supporting such an amazing cause, and congratulations to you, the RP association for choosing Korea’s best representatives. I wish you every success in creating awareness and raising donations.” While Jangwon was translating, Tiffany got my attention and said “thank you so much” and smiled really big at me. Oh yeah, and when I said Tiffany’s name I said it the American way and then said “Oh wait…TEE-PAN-EE” which made Tiffany laugh, but I don’t think anyone else really got it hahaha whoops. Anyways, then I wrapped it up and said “SNSD and RP association, fighting!” in like a cute little aegyo Korean way, which I think people got a kick out of since it’s a super Korean thing to do and here’s this rando foreigner doing it.
On the way back down I bowed to the audience and to the girls and they all bowed to me and smiled and clapped. When I got down, I asked Mr. Choi how it was in Korean, and he said “chal haesseo, chal haesseo! Sugo haesseo!” Which means, “Good job, good job! You worked hard!” and he pulled me into a little one-armed hug and patted me on the back. Then the girls were given their ambassador certificate and Sooyoung made a quick speech, and then their managers and security rushed them out.
[Hannah the fancammer is BACK - Mr. Choi giving them the certificate]
[Making their acceptance speech]
Okay here comes another cool part: Tiffany came and found me! She was on her way out but she was like looking for me and I waved and she said “You did a really great job!” and gave me a thumbs up, and I said “Thank you!” and waved before she got rushed away. Seohyun was right behind her though and she waved at me and did a pretty deep bow to me and I bowed back and then she got rushed away too.
I still can’t believe that I was so close to them and spoke to them and Tiffany talked to me. I’m super grateful to Jangwon and Jennie for hooking me up I don’t even know how to thank them. I bought us all food and drinks afterwards, but I still feel like I owe them big time. It was a really, REALLY cool experience: the girls were really polite and nice despite how exhausted they were, and Mr. Choi is like my new favorite person. He was hilarious.
The only thing is I’m really sad that I don’t have any pictures/videos of me giving the speech. They asked us not to take photos, but honestly no one listened except for Jennie, who was gonna be my source (we both were facepalming so hardcore afterwards because we failed at taking pics). I took a couple with my iPhone, but I when I took the last one, Tiffany looked at me and laughed so I got too embarrassed to take any more. I wanted to look cool or something idk.
But there were literally at least 40 press people there, so there HAS to be a way to hunt down the video and some pics. One reporter gave me her card…maybe I’ll email her. GAHHHH the one time that I need fancammers and there are none WAEEEEEEEEEE. Oh well. I’ll always be extremely grateful for the experience and I will always have my memories.
