Red Velvet member Wendy confessed to an incident of racial discrimination she experienced while studying in Canada.
On the afternoon of the 26th, a video titled "Wendy, who went from being bullied in the U.S. to ranking first in her school, recounts a shocking incident she experienced while studying abroad" was uploaded to the channel 'Go Eun unni Han Go Eun'.
Wendy said her older sister went to Canada for language training and, after pleading with their parents, she went to study in Canada too, "I went as soon as I became a fifth grader, but I couldn't speak any English at all. I stayed in a foreign homestay, and even when someone spoke to me I couldn't understand at all. I said that day I wanted to go back to Korea," she said.
She continued, "(In 2005) there were no East Asians at all, so it was hard, but a month later I started to be able to speak and slowly understand English. Even though I couldn't communicate at first, school was fun," and "After two to three years, my parents told me to move to the city from rural Brockville, so I went to Toronto. The English level there was different, and the kids were haughty and had a city snob vibe. I attended a Catholic school known for good academics and the kids were very snobbish. There were many diverse friends and many races, so I couldn't fit in. From then the racial discrimination began: I ate in the bathroom and there was nowhere that included me," she said.
Wendy said, "When I asked the kids, 'Can I play with you? Can I play soccer?' they said, 'You can't! You're Korean,' and ignored me and rejected me. I went to the teacher and said, 'They discriminated against me,' but the teacher said, 'You two go out and talk it out.' Even after the teacher gave us that time, they never apologized, and I ended up with a lot of time alone, always going into the closet to cry, eating alone in the bathroom, and thinking that school life would be hard. So I stopped studying and focused on making friends. I hung out with the most fun kids and my style naturally changed," she revealed.
Experiencing changes in middle school, Wendy said, "In the first year of middle school I partially bleached my hair, wore a skull tie, and wore suits, which was strange. During that time I ate like crazy abroad and gained more than 10kg in a year," and "Later I went to the airport to meet my mother and sister, and I had gained 15kg, so when I got off at the airport my mother and sister didn't recognize me. 'What happened to you? Why are you like this?' they asked. From that day my parents kept a bit of distance. They were very conservative parents, so when I returned to Korea I got a cut, dyed my hair, and completely changed my style," she recalled.
[Photo] 'Go Eun unni Han Go Eun' screen capture
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