My name is G.NA. My real name is Choi Gina.
I was born in Canada on September 13th, 1987 and lived in a suburb in Vancouver. My father passed away, so I have my mother and one little sister. Since she was born in 1991, she’s 21 in Korean standards…Oh my, already? That can’t be possible! The last time I saw my younger sister was when she was 17!
As I was growing up, I learned a variety of languages at the same time. My grandfather originated from the American military so he spoke English well and among my grandmother’s parents, one was Japanese so I used Korean, English and Japanese at the same time. That’s why I sent strange messages like “I’m so dap-dap-hae(frustrated),” haha. I used to have a hard time pronouncing ‘grandfather(hal-a-beo-gee)’ so I always went ‘Ha-beo-gee, ha-beo-gee’ but after coming to Korea, people fixed it for me. Before I went to Korea to audition, my family and I went to a karaoke room. I was having a hard time following the lyrics to a really slow ballad and my grandmother was worried. I asked, “Why does ‘wolf(neuk-dae)’ show up?” and she said “That’s not ‘wolf’ that’s ‘late(neut-kae).” Haha! That’s why I studied ‘Ability Languages’ really hard. After I came to Korea, I did ‘Eye-To-Eye Languages’ and wrote a diary entry everyday.
In reality, my real debut song was ‘Anticipation Gone Wrong’ for 2002 drama
The real reason I joined the cheerleading club in high school was because the clothes were so pretty. I like wearing clothes that are worn a bit lower but my grandparents hated clothes that exposed the bellybutton. But at the time, the cheerleading practice apparel and stage apparel were pretty and inexpensive so I was going to wear it! Haha.
When I was in JYP New York, I received Lim Jeonghee-unnie and Minyoung-ie(Miss A’s Min). But New York was a really~ cold and depressing place. Minyoung-ie flew around but I always got confused with the avenues and streets and it was hard. It dreaded me to have to leave the house.
‘I’ll Back Off So You Can Live Better’ was about to become “I’ll Leave So You Can Live Better.” However, I was in a condition where I was really angry with this girl, and I wanted to say that that was not how I truly felt. Being that the front and back of “I’ll back off so you can live better / That’s all I can say / I’ll forget you so live better / Be happy without me,” was like this, it shows the wavering feelings of this girl.
Wheesung-senior, who wrote the song for me, said to me “Your craziness isn’t a joke either, is it?” He said I’m different than I look. Haha. It was good to have an extremely honest person working on your album.
Being that we were close, it was awkward to shoot the ‘I’ll Back off So You Can live Better’ music video with BEAST’s Doojoon-ie. We had to do things like skinship, and also seeing as to how it’s been a while since I’ve dated, I don’t really know how it feels to say I love you. Haha.
I shot the ‘Black & White’ music video with 2AM’s Jinwoon. It was a relief that the concept was enjoyable and fun. Jinwoon-ie is my dongsaeng but my senior so he did the more professional scenes rather quickly. As I looked on, I learned and adapted.
I like Yoon Mirae-senior, Park Junghyun-senior and Christina Aguilera. Recently, I met Park Junghyun-senior and I felt as though my heart would pop out of my mouth. When I practiced, I gained lots of strength listening to her songs. I felt that although I didn’t speak Korean very well, I could still sing.
The thing that is both good and bad about me is my chest. If I wear my clothes right, it’s “Oh, glamour!” but if I wear it wrong, it looks like maternity clothes. I got lots of stress because if I wear my pants even a bit higher, it looks like I have no waist. I take a lot of care with clothes. However it’s my body that’s like this so I can’t really do anything about it. If there’s anybody who’s jealous, I am extremely thankful.
I’ve seen negative comments like, “She’s dark like a person who came back from farming.” It wasn’t about my song but It was about my looks that gained so many criticizing comments on my mini-homepage, fancafé and bulletin. I had seen that kind of comment over a hundred times but at first, I didn’t even know what they meant by ‘farming(nong-sa).’ Honestly… hm, that, isn’t a totally wrong statement but it did become a scar. I thought about it a lot, thinking ‘Did I do something wrong?,’ ‘Did I act too pretty?’
But now, I fix whatever I feel is poking me and decided to just work harder. A long time ago, my Korean was awkward but I challenged myself so that I could do the variety shows and radio appearances that I couldn’t do before. Although it may be troubling to people at first, the more you look at people, the more justice you feel so I might be able to look pretty at some point.
I want to act with confidence so I can look pretty all the time. Like the way people tell me before I go on stage, “Even if you fall, fall with confidence and stand up with confidence,” if I’m ugly, then I’ll be ugly with confidence. Haha!
<10Asia>
Writing. Choi Jieun five@
Photo. Chae Kiwon ten@
Editing. Jang Kyungjin three@
CREDITS: NATE NEWS (SOURCE); hyunnypoo@ROYALGNA (TRANS)