Seohyun : My ‘IDOL’ idol.

Born on June 28, 1991; Seohyun is the youngest member of Asia’s biggest girl group, Girls’ Generation (GG,SNSD,SoShi). Even if she’s the ‘maknae’ of the group, Seo is known as the most matured member. Although she was never my ultimate bias in SoShi ( Jessica, Yoona and SooYoung are) , SeoHyun will always have a place in my heart because she’s the one I look up to of all the nine members.

Last August 21, 2014 at 11 A.M ( KST ) , the 23 year-old graduated from one of the most respected universities in South Korea, the Dongguk University. It might take longer for her to graduate, but the bottomline here is she valued education and did her best to make it all the way through; from passing exams, attending classes if she can despite her busy schedule, up to her graduation day.

“I am still a student. My classmates study really hard, so I feel like I should too. But they always say things like “You don’t have to.””Aren’t you busy?” “Just give up, you have another way”;But I don’t think that’s right. There’s no reason for me to give up, I didn’t quit high school.  “People look down on us because we don’t go to school because of work,  right?” “Entertainers have no brain…I get frustrated when I hear things like that from people. We have different goals. We have our own ways. I try to do the best.”

Unlike other people, Seohyun has a choice. SNSD is popular globally. During their vacation and free time, she can just simply hang-out with her friends or go somewhere else for a short vacation. But no; she chose to attend her class, maintaining a good school attendance. Fans can also see her reading a thick book about self-improvement instead of partying and if there’s a chance; she likes sleeping at 12 midnight sharp because that is when her cells ‘regenerates’ and wakes up at 7 just to read books. She even made her ‘husband‘ Yong-hwa of CNBlue a bookworm during their ‘We Got Married‘ days.

As a huge fan of their group, who follows their Twitter and Instagram accounts as well visiting allkpop.com and soshified .com everyday; I know how tiring and challenging it is to be a member. Travelling from South Korea to Japan simultaneously, along with the never-ending dance and song rehearsals, commercial and music video shooting, television and radio guestings, numerous pictorials , studio recordings and preparing for their concerts and live performances; you can never imagine how SeoBaby  managed to make time for her studies and the fact that she pushed for it even if she knew it will not be easy for her is truly admirable!

Unlike other girls, Seohyun’s ideal type isn’t a handsome celebrity. Her ideal man is none other than the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon! Her favorite quote from him is this: “anybody can study depending on how much effort they put in”. It really shows how much she value education and continuous learning.

Seohyun‘s all-time favorite is sweet potato. She is obsessed with it and her eight unnies are teasing her for it. She also hates fast food and told the other members that they will die early if they keep eating unhealthy foods.

 

Aside from being one of the lead vocalists of SNSD, she also plays piano, violin and guitar. I also admire her passion in learning other languages.  Sooyoung is a fluent Nihongo speaker because she started her singing career in Japan while Tiffany and Jessica can speak English very well because both of these girls came from America and English was their native language. On the other hand, as hard-working as she is; Seohyun learned these languages on a short period of time. SNSD have been promoting in Japan since 2010 and she and Soo are the only members who can speak the Japanese language fluently! At the recent KCon concert in LA; I was impressed at how Seohyun can express herself very well in English! She barely has an accent and she can give Fanny and GorJess a run for their money. Our maknae can also speak Chinese and earlier this year, they performed their debut single in China – (Find Your) Soul at an event and she was the only one who can sing along with the lyrics.

I’ve been a K-Pop fan since high school so I can at least speak quite a few Korean terms I’ve learned naturally.  Unfortunately, I still can’t even understand a single word every time I listen to their songs and it’s a total struggle to watch their interviews without subtitles -_-

Although I don’t even have any idea what the hell they’re sayin’, just by listening to her speaking; you know that Seo is a one articulate lady who uses her heart and brain before she opens her mouth.