‘G-Generation’ Korean Ok Taecyeon’s Chosun Times interview[‘G-Generation Koreans’ to lead the new century] Not jealous of success myths.. Running for ‘my own special world’
He, who was attending high school in Boston, USA as of 2005, had his future secured. 185cm, 76kg, he was good at sports with a well-built body. His grades got him in the top 5% of America. He was also a member of the National Honor Society, with could only be accomplished if you were a well-behaved top student. During his second year of high school he was accepted into the University of Massachusetts. His dream job was a doctor or a businessman.
This young man’s whole life was shaken up when he entered JYPE Korea’s auditions, run by Park Jinyoung for young Koreans living overseas, purelu for fun but was accepted in one go. He was at a crossroad – To walk a secured path in the familiar territory that is America, or to experiment, almost gamble, by going to unfamiliar Korea in the hopes of ‘becoming a star’
“My dream is to live differently!” Idol group 2PM’s member Ok Taecyeon spread out his arms wide at the trade center in Samsungdong, Seoul. He, born in 1988, chose to take the path of being a trainee at an entertainment company without any secured success instead of going to medical school in America. This is a common trait found in G-Generation Koreans around the same age; focusing on personal satisfaction rather than what others think about them. /reporter Lee TaeKyung ecaro@chosun.com
He put himself on a plane to Korea without thinking twice. He’d chosen the highly unpredictable lifestyle of a trainee. 4 years have passed. He has become a star that receives the hottest love from teenagers of Korea. He is idol group 2PM’s Ok Taecyeon(21).
“I was just a student that studied like everyone else. But suddenly the chance to live a different life from others sprang up, and it made my heartbeat quicken. It meant jumping into a totally different world but I wasn’t afraid. Don’t they say that when you are young, you go through challenges no matter what you do?”
600-odd thousand G-Generation Koreans born around the 1988 Seoul Olympics and raised in a global century are reaching maturity each year. Unlike the older generation who quietly went with the flow, these young people have a new motto, ‘I can’t live like everyone else’
Ok Taecyeon is one of those people. Born in 1988 and moving overseas with his parents in year 6 of primary school, he said “6 years later when I returned and met with friends my age, I was surprised that so many shared the same mindset as me. People my age have a strong get-up-and-go spirit, to ‘create my own special world’”
Yonsei University’s Psychology department professor Hwang SangMin says “much of the older generation’s young people got a taste of success while trying to meet the expectations of family and those around him, but mostly the young people of the G-generation are liberated from peoples’ stares and during the process of working for what they want, they make excellent accomplishments.”
CAU’s International Relations department professor Kim HoSeop said “compared to the Baby Boom generation/386 Generation who spent a lot of time thinking about how they would come off to other people, the G-generation, who grew up in abundance, value individuality and personal happiness over anything else.”
Like this, G-generation people were optimistic about their own future, but among experts, worried upon. Konkuk Medical University’s nervous psychiatry department professor Ha JiHyeon said that “due to the fact that the G-generation grew up in abundance, when faced with issues such as heartbreak or low performance they will be extremely depressed, opposed to their upper generation who would just think about it for 2~3 days.
Additionally, they think of military training as more difficult than those in the older generation.” This means that although the military service isn’t as violent or as suppressive as in the past, they are stressed from the sheer lifestyle of eating, sleeping and bumping into others.
credit:2pm-online
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