K-pop artist DARA described her life as an 'expat' in Korea after returning from the Philippines.
On December 18 episode of SBS POWER FM's radio show 'Cultwo Show', DARA joined the talk.
During the talk with the hosts and other guests, DARA looked back on her early debut days.
"I basically started out again in Korea after already being in the entertainment business in the Philippines. It wasn't easy at first. One of the things that gave me a difficult time was seeing my fans being attacked because I wasn't speaking Filipino. At the time, I was better at English than Filipino, so I chose to speak in English."
"At one point though, I thought to myself, 'I can't stand this anymore. I've got to improve my Filipino.' From that day forward, I studied Filipino really hard. I pushed myself so hard that I'm now able to speak Filipino like a native speaker. I've actually forgotten most of my English; I'm far better at Filipino now."
Then, DARA went back further and reminisced about the time when she had returned to Korea from the Philippines.
Bitterly smiling, the K-pop star said, "I felt completely new here. It almost felt foreign. Since I spent most of my childhood in the Philippines, I was more used to the culture there. At the beginning, I just behaved like I did in the Philippines. But that resulted in some people thinking that I was rude when I simply didn't know Korean culture."
When DARA was 11 years old, her family moved to the Philippines for her father's business.
DARA lived in the Philippines for about 11 years before coming back to Korea to start training at YG Entertainment.
She initially made her debut in the Philippines in 2004 and had a successful acting and singing career.
She began training at YG Entertainment in 2007, so it took her about two years to make her debut as a member of 2009-debuted 2NE1 in Korea.
The group unfortunately disbanded in 2016; DARA officially kicked off her solo career this summer.
(Credit= SBS POWER FM Cultwo Show, Online Community)