SNSD talks about their Japanese experience

Having made their comeback with “Hoot,” the members of SNSD recently met with reporters on November 2nd in order to share their thoughts on their achievements as the new Hallyu leaders.

- Do you feel the level of your popularity in Japan?

Tae Yeon: “I was really surprised when I heard ‘Gee‘ as the ring tone of a random passerby. One time, a French person even noticed who we were.”

Tiffany: “I left the house with my face covered and went into the city. I saw a crowd of about 10 or so teenage girls taking a picture with our SNSD pose.”

Soo Young: “I never feel our popularity so I always ask our manager. ‘Are we really that popular?’ We never meet anyone other than celebrities so it’s hard to feel it for ourselves. It still makes me proud when I see people that go, ‘Wow, it’s SNSD’ whenever we go to broadcast halls.”

- Do your Japanese fans acknowledge each member like your Korean fans?

Tae Yeon: “They can go on the internet so it’s easy to find out stuff about us like our personal nicknames and whatnot. I recently saw some fans that were holding up placards with my nickname, Taenggoo, and Sooyoung’s nickname, Piggy. There are even some fans that are trying to learn Korean as well.”

Seo Hyun: “Because of ‘We Got Married,’ I became known as sweet potato. Even in Shanghai, I saw a board that had ’sweet potato’ written on it. I wondered if they were referring to me and waved to them.”

- You returned to Korea with glory…

Yuri: “There were a lot of people that congratulated us on doing well so it made us feel that we did something important as Korean citizens. However, it does make us feel more careful with our actions and words whenever we’re out. It’s a bit pressuring.”

- Unlike your seniors, you’re learning Japanese while physically promoting there.

Tiffany: “We’re not that good at it yet, but we are able to converse naturally. We’re just hoping to show us as is in order to prevent any awkwardness. We never thought of trying to fit ourselves into the trends of the Japanese music market, but are instead focusing on showing as much of our energy and color as possible.”

- How do you spend your days?

Jessica: “When we have performances scheduled, each of us have so many different schedules that we have to cut back on our sleeping time in order to rehearse. And when we actually do rehearse, we all get so into it that we go very late into the night. Even individually, we all listen to our own parts and practice our facial expressions and choreography on our own.”

Yoona: “When we’re resting, I sleep or watch a movie. Even when I want to be left alone, we have to stick together for everything so I don’t have any outside friends. Still, it’s not boring or anything. We have so many members so I can just go around and play with each of them (laughter).”

- Who are your ideal men?

Yoona: “I’d like to meet Kimura Takuya. We fell in love with him while watching the drama, ‘Pride.’ I’m going to study Japanese more and meet him one day.”

Hyo Yeon: “It changes all the time… It’s different in May, it’s different in June. Anyone that has interest in me can just show that they’re a hard working person. I like that about people.”

- What are your future plans?

Soo Young: “We hope to show a performance that manages to capture every second of the viewers’ attention. Hopefully perform more in other countries and hold unique concerts as well.”

Sunny: “We once performed with a live band and I remember it being really fun and exciting. There is a sort of greed where I want to present the dreams I have going on in my head to my fans. We’re idols, and because of that, we’re criticized for performing idol music, but those criticisms are like nutrients to us. It makes us want to do better and try to achieve more. We’re not busy trying to chase the market, we’re trying to become leaders that will make the market chase us.”

- How did you feel while performing at the Daejong Film Awards?

“We don’t really look into the crowd while performing on stage. We’re too busy focusing on the actual stage to pay so much attention to the crowd. Before we appeared at the Daejong Film Awards, we made our comeback at KBS ‘Music Bank’ so we were all very tired. As soon as our performance at the awards ceremony ended, we went straight home and fell asleep. It was not until later that we found out there was such a big controversy surrounding it. Still, we’re not upset or anything. We understand that it’s a serious event.”