[TRANS] Kim Jaejoong for ELLE Japan Magazine (2013 Nov Issue)
ترجمه انگلیسی مصاحبه ججونگ برای مجله ELLE Japan
ترجمه در ادامه...
At the seaside 2-hour trip from Seoul.
JaeJoong has been composing for his album till late at night (before the interview). He’s been sleeping on the way here and just woke up after noon time. Appearing at the site filled with the Korean language, he said in Japanese ‘Konichiwa’ and I replied without thinking in Japanese, ‘Konichiwa’. It’s been long since JaeJoong last spoke Japanese.
I’ve asked JaeJoong to bring a book he’s recently been reading and what he brought here was Richard Carlson’s ‘What About the Big Stuff’. (It’s a gift from fans. It’s difficult to explain what the contents are. It’s about life, but not to describe life as heavy/burdensome. With the book as the starting point, we started out photo shoot. The interview was done all in Japanese, as requested by JaeJoong.
ELLE (E): It’s been long time since you last accepted to be included in a Japanese magazine?
JaeJoong (J): Yes, it’s also been a long time since I last had an interview in Japanese. I haven’t been speaking Japanese for long as well.
E: You have quite a few Japanese friends so you should be using Japanese for your phone calls?
J: I don’t like to talk on the phones but I do use Japanese when I text my friends through line and Kakaotalk.
E: You’re coming to Japan in November and you’ve started your activities in Japan this year, JYJ in April, and your solo concert in June.
J: We were very nervous for the April Tokyo Dome concert, especially during the first day. We did not have enough preparation time within the tight schedule. We were also worried how many fans would attend since it was held during weekdays and fans had to take leaves to come from anywhere in Japan…(small voice) sorry. It has been a really long time so I was afraid that the fans would forget me. It was great that so many fans came.
E: What do you have for your new album and the concerts?
J: Although I have had a mini album, a full album of rock music is a first time thing and it is also my first time holding a solo concert for an album. What could it be like? Compared to concerts being prepared from the director’s point of view, I have more freedom in preparing my concerts this time. It was a pity that all of the songs in this album are in Korean. I’d love to sing in Japanese, especially in Japan…although I did sing five or six songs in Japanese at the Yokohama Arena. However, I could not help but accept the fact that my Japanese is deteriorating since I haven’t been speaking Japanese. I have some expectations of this trip to Japan, shopping, and visiting friends.
E: What would you talk about with your Japanese friends?
J: Nothing meaningful (laughs). Eat and drink together and talk about trivial things. There are several people that I want to see other than my close friends but we won’t be talking about anything related my job.
E: What are you enthusiastic about?
J: Composing and lyric writing. I have written most of the lyrics for this album. When you write lyrics, isn’t it very likely that you’d recall many pieces of memory? The theme is love. When you meet someone, you fall for him or her and then you are deeply in love. Then you leave each other after some time. I have written all I have experienced about love into the lyrics, be it happiness or pain, even though not all of the lyrics are based on my experiences (laughs). I think that as long as I am honest in writing the lyrics, I can be able to express my feelings. I put my mind together, thinking that I’d write for a song or two, like assigning homework for myself. For those songs that I compose both melodies and lyrics, it would be melodies first then lyrics, and the melodies would be composed with piano.
E: Are you preparing for development in both singing and acting careers?
J: Yes, in fact, I am more myself when I make music. Being an actor is like trying hard to ‘make’ feelings/emotions. That is what acting is and it is interesting to me.
E: If you were not a singer, what would you be?
J: ….that’s a very difficult question. I don’t know…Since what I like is cooking, design, painting and interior design, I’d probably go into these fields, and beauty.
E: What types of cuisine are you good at cooking?
J: I enjoy making tasty food with very few ingredients. I want others to make exclamations like, ‘Such delicious food can be made with so few ingredients!’ I don’t use ingredients according to recipes and I can cook good food with almost nothing. Doesn’t that show my talents in cooking (laughs)? I’d cook when I am at home alone. I’d also make simple dishes when friends visit. I hate waiting for food to be ready when I’m hungry. (laughs). That is why I try my best to make good food for my friends in a very short time. For instance, I’d cook noodles first and then add chili paste, sugar, vinegar and then use clams as garnish. Ah, it’s such pity that there aren’t that kind of clam in Japan. The dish would look like noodles without soup and with clams as garnish is my own recipe.
E: Do Yuchun and Junsu go to your place?
J: Not recently. We have been concentrating on living our own lives at the moment but we did go to each other’s place before.
E: How would you introduce your members to others?
J: I can’t show others my members as I see them because we have different images when we are with our members and when we are in front of others. If someone speaks ill of our members, I can’t help but saying, ‘What do you know about him? If you know nothing, why don’t you shut up?’ I am very different as well when I am with my members. I become really talkative, to the extent that you can consider as ‘noisy’. People around us wonder why we have so many things to talk about since we’ve been together for ten years or so since we first met.
E: Do the three of you have disputes when you work?
J: No. We have clearly expressed what we like and dislike and all of us know.
E: So what is JaeJoong good and bad at?
J: (thinking…) For instance, I’ve heard people saying that ‘JaeJoong is definitely indifferent to others’ and after we met, they would then say, ‘I’m surprised to know how JaeJoong can chat’. I’m quite proud of this. (People think that) I spend a lot on my what I eat? Actually, I eat ramen, katsudon, food that is not over 1000 yen in Japan (laughs)! I am the kind of person who can be friends with people around in a very short time. My weakness is….I don’t know how to reject others. I won’t turn down friends’ invitations even if I have to get up early the next day morning. When we go drinking and I feel that I have to go, I can’t say that I want to go home if friends look like having a really good time. (laughs).
E: So what do you do when you are drunk?
J: My Japanese becomes really fluent! What we human beings can do are amazing. I’d realize..eh…I know this vocabulary?
E: Even though you drink, you have a fit body. Do you work out?
J: I’m the kind of person who doesn’t get fat easily. I go on a diet before photo shoots. I go running three times a week but I consider running as a way for me to sweat a lot instead of as self management (on weight and figure). Basically, what I do for sports are golf, mountain climbing, biking, and basketball and I do sports when I’m free of schedules.
E: Is there anytime that JaeJoong is free?
J: Do you think I’m so busy that I don’t even have time to get in contact with friends? I don’t think I’m busy to that extent.
E: What is your way to reduce your stress?
J: Shopping, shopping for interior decorations. I enjoy decorating my house. I think I’m a bit …(it’s hard for me to say it out loud) paranoid. I can’t bear seeing things not neatly put into place, even just a little out of order. I don’t like my house to be untidy and disorderly. You’d like to go out if you have bought good-looking clothes, wouldn’t you? It’s the same. If your home is clean and tidy, you’d want to go home everyday and you’d feel freshened up. When you get really tired, it’s annoying that you have to do cleaning when you get home.
E: Where would you go for a personal trip?
J: Honestly, Japan. Although there are many countries that I would love to go, I really want to go to Japan now. There are many good friends and I had memories there when we were rookies. I’d like to stroll on the streets that are filled with those memories.
E: Is there anyone that has influenced your life or your career?
J: Personal or job-wise, there are people whom I have only met once that stimulate or inspire me, bringing small or big influences.
E: What is your favorite phrase?
J: There are two: Thank you (Arigato) and Sorry (Sumimasen). The Japanese culture of ‘sumimasen’ is great. ‘Sumimasen’ is a good phrase to be used when you feel sorry, when you do something impolite or even when you feel grateful. There is nothing like this in Korean.
E: How do you recover from feeling depressed?
J: Just let the feelings go and you’d recover as time passes. Just patiently wait for the moment to come.
E: What would you be after ten years’ time?
J: I’d be single after ten years.
E: So certain?
J: Yes, I will still be working around for all sorts of reasons like what I do now.
E: Don’t you have any thoughts of getting married or having kids?
J: …I’ve just been thinking about these recently. I’d like to get married and have kids! But…just as expected, this may be my destiny, can’t get married early. I am being loved by so many people. Isn’t betrayal If I get married? It’s all right for all of you. Go get married and have kids. It’s important to have heroes or super stars that belong only to oneself. I believe I should take on such responsibility. You can all get married but I can’t. Isn’t this a good idea? Although discussion of life and death is quite heavy, I think I should not die before you. There may be people who can’t live without JaeJoong and that’s why I should take on such responsibility.
E: Oh, but it should be alright if you get married ten years later.
J: Um? I’d still have this awareness ten years later. The responsibility also entails taking care of my appearance. There are people who like the image of JaeJoong so if I age more than my fans or wrinkles appear…I asked on my Japan concert this year, ‘Have I changed?’ They said, ‘Nothing changed!’ Then I asked, ‘You’re all getting older!’ (laughs). It is alright for you to get older. I will grow old slowly.
E: What is your type of girl?
J: It doesn’t matter if she is not bright and smart. (Korean) As long as she is not someone with violent personality. It is 粗暴(sobou=rude) in Japanese right? Am I S or M? Perhaps I change according to my partner (laughs).
E: Has your heart been moved recently?
J: ….Yes. My staff has been working really hard for me. Recently, pictures were taken of my private life and the incident caused a lot of troubles to the staff. I thought that I shouldn’t even go to convenience stores because of this incident. I should just stop running daily errands and should diminish my sense of presence. After apologizing to my staff, they told me, ‘It isn’t JaeJoong’s fault.’ I cried even though we were at work.
E: Lastly, can you leave a message for the Japanese fans? (Manager says, ‘How about writing ‘sumimasen’?’ and everyone laughs.)
J: Very funny (laughs)…It’s meaningless to say things like I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Our relationship transcends that. So, I’d write something fans around the world would like!
(He then writes a message that everyone’s familiar with and everyone’s waiting for.)
‘I love you.’
JaeJoong has been composing for his album till late at night (before the interview). He’s been sleeping on the way here and just woke up after noon time. Appearing at the site filled with the Korean language, he said in Japanese ‘Konichiwa’ and I replied without thinking in Japanese, ‘Konichiwa’. It’s been long since JaeJoong last spoke Japanese.
I’ve asked JaeJoong to bring a book he’s recently been reading and what he brought here was Richard Carlson’s ‘What About the Big Stuff’. (It’s a gift from fans. It’s difficult to explain what the contents are. It’s about life, but not to describe life as heavy/burdensome. With the book as the starting point, we started out photo shoot. The interview was done all in Japanese, as requested by JaeJoong.
ELLE (E): It’s been long time since you last accepted to be included in a Japanese magazine?
JaeJoong (J): Yes, it’s also been a long time since I last had an interview in Japanese. I haven’t been speaking Japanese for long as well.
E: You have quite a few Japanese friends so you should be using Japanese for your phone calls?
J: I don’t like to talk on the phones but I do use Japanese when I text my friends through line and Kakaotalk.
E: You’re coming to Japan in November and you’ve started your activities in Japan this year, JYJ in April, and your solo concert in June.
J: We were very nervous for the April Tokyo Dome concert, especially during the first day. We did not have enough preparation time within the tight schedule. We were also worried how many fans would attend since it was held during weekdays and fans had to take leaves to come from anywhere in Japan…(small voice) sorry. It has been a really long time so I was afraid that the fans would forget me. It was great that so many fans came.
E: What do you have for your new album and the concerts?
J: Although I have had a mini album, a full album of rock music is a first time thing and it is also my first time holding a solo concert for an album. What could it be like? Compared to concerts being prepared from the director’s point of view, I have more freedom in preparing my concerts this time. It was a pity that all of the songs in this album are in Korean. I’d love to sing in Japanese, especially in Japan…although I did sing five or six songs in Japanese at the Yokohama Arena. However, I could not help but accept the fact that my Japanese is deteriorating since I haven’t been speaking Japanese. I have some expectations of this trip to Japan, shopping, and visiting friends.
E: What would you talk about with your Japanese friends?
J: Nothing meaningful (laughs). Eat and drink together and talk about trivial things. There are several people that I want to see other than my close friends but we won’t be talking about anything related my job.
E: What are you enthusiastic about?
J: Composing and lyric writing. I have written most of the lyrics for this album. When you write lyrics, isn’t it very likely that you’d recall many pieces of memory? The theme is love. When you meet someone, you fall for him or her and then you are deeply in love. Then you leave each other after some time. I have written all I have experienced about love into the lyrics, be it happiness or pain, even though not all of the lyrics are based on my experiences (laughs). I think that as long as I am honest in writing the lyrics, I can be able to express my feelings. I put my mind together, thinking that I’d write for a song or two, like assigning homework for myself. For those songs that I compose both melodies and lyrics, it would be melodies first then lyrics, and the melodies would be composed with piano.
E: Are you preparing for development in both singing and acting careers?
J: Yes, in fact, I am more myself when I make music. Being an actor is like trying hard to ‘make’ feelings/emotions. That is what acting is and it is interesting to me.
E: If you were not a singer, what would you be?
J: ….that’s a very difficult question. I don’t know…Since what I like is cooking, design, painting and interior design, I’d probably go into these fields, and beauty.
E: What types of cuisine are you good at cooking?
J: I enjoy making tasty food with very few ingredients. I want others to make exclamations like, ‘Such delicious food can be made with so few ingredients!’ I don’t use ingredients according to recipes and I can cook good food with almost nothing. Doesn’t that show my talents in cooking (laughs)? I’d cook when I am at home alone. I’d also make simple dishes when friends visit. I hate waiting for food to be ready when I’m hungry. (laughs). That is why I try my best to make good food for my friends in a very short time. For instance, I’d cook noodles first and then add chili paste, sugar, vinegar and then use clams as garnish. Ah, it’s such pity that there aren’t that kind of clam in Japan. The dish would look like noodles without soup and with clams as garnish is my own recipe.
E: Do Yuchun and Junsu go to your place?
J: Not recently. We have been concentrating on living our own lives at the moment but we did go to each other’s place before.
E: How would you introduce your members to others?
J: I can’t show others my members as I see them because we have different images when we are with our members and when we are in front of others. If someone speaks ill of our members, I can’t help but saying, ‘What do you know about him? If you know nothing, why don’t you shut up?’ I am very different as well when I am with my members. I become really talkative, to the extent that you can consider as ‘noisy’. People around us wonder why we have so many things to talk about since we’ve been together for ten years or so since we first met.
E: Do the three of you have disputes when you work?
J: No. We have clearly expressed what we like and dislike and all of us know.
E: So what is JaeJoong good and bad at?
J: (thinking…) For instance, I’ve heard people saying that ‘JaeJoong is definitely indifferent to others’ and after we met, they would then say, ‘I’m surprised to know how JaeJoong can chat’. I’m quite proud of this. (People think that) I spend a lot on my what I eat? Actually, I eat ramen, katsudon, food that is not over 1000 yen in Japan (laughs)! I am the kind of person who can be friends with people around in a very short time. My weakness is….I don’t know how to reject others. I won’t turn down friends’ invitations even if I have to get up early the next day morning. When we go drinking and I feel that I have to go, I can’t say that I want to go home if friends look like having a really good time. (laughs).
E: So what do you do when you are drunk?
J: My Japanese becomes really fluent! What we human beings can do are amazing. I’d realize..eh…I know this vocabulary?
E: Even though you drink, you have a fit body. Do you work out?
J: I’m the kind of person who doesn’t get fat easily. I go on a diet before photo shoots. I go running three times a week but I consider running as a way for me to sweat a lot instead of as self management (on weight and figure). Basically, what I do for sports are golf, mountain climbing, biking, and basketball and I do sports when I’m free of schedules.
E: Is there anytime that JaeJoong is free?
J: Do you think I’m so busy that I don’t even have time to get in contact with friends? I don’t think I’m busy to that extent.
E: What is your way to reduce your stress?
J: Shopping, shopping for interior decorations. I enjoy decorating my house. I think I’m a bit …(it’s hard for me to say it out loud) paranoid. I can’t bear seeing things not neatly put into place, even just a little out of order. I don’t like my house to be untidy and disorderly. You’d like to go out if you have bought good-looking clothes, wouldn’t you? It’s the same. If your home is clean and tidy, you’d want to go home everyday and you’d feel freshened up. When you get really tired, it’s annoying that you have to do cleaning when you get home.
E: Where would you go for a personal trip?
J: Honestly, Japan. Although there are many countries that I would love to go, I really want to go to Japan now. There are many good friends and I had memories there when we were rookies. I’d like to stroll on the streets that are filled with those memories.
E: Is there anyone that has influenced your life or your career?
J: Personal or job-wise, there are people whom I have only met once that stimulate or inspire me, bringing small or big influences.
E: What is your favorite phrase?
J: There are two: Thank you (Arigato) and Sorry (Sumimasen). The Japanese culture of ‘sumimasen’ is great. ‘Sumimasen’ is a good phrase to be used when you feel sorry, when you do something impolite or even when you feel grateful. There is nothing like this in Korean.
E: How do you recover from feeling depressed?
J: Just let the feelings go and you’d recover as time passes. Just patiently wait for the moment to come.
E: What would you be after ten years’ time?
J: I’d be single after ten years.
E: So certain?
J: Yes, I will still be working around for all sorts of reasons like what I do now.
E: Don’t you have any thoughts of getting married or having kids?
J: …I’ve just been thinking about these recently. I’d like to get married and have kids! But…just as expected, this may be my destiny, can’t get married early. I am being loved by so many people. Isn’t betrayal If I get married? It’s all right for all of you. Go get married and have kids. It’s important to have heroes or super stars that belong only to oneself. I believe I should take on such responsibility. You can all get married but I can’t. Isn’t this a good idea? Although discussion of life and death is quite heavy, I think I should not die before you. There may be people who can’t live without JaeJoong and that’s why I should take on such responsibility.
E: Oh, but it should be alright if you get married ten years later.
J: Um? I’d still have this awareness ten years later. The responsibility also entails taking care of my appearance. There are people who like the image of JaeJoong so if I age more than my fans or wrinkles appear…I asked on my Japan concert this year, ‘Have I changed?’ They said, ‘Nothing changed!’ Then I asked, ‘You’re all getting older!’ (laughs). It is alright for you to get older. I will grow old slowly.
E: What is your type of girl?
J: It doesn’t matter if she is not bright and smart. (Korean) As long as she is not someone with violent personality. It is 粗暴(sobou=rude) in Japanese right? Am I S or M? Perhaps I change according to my partner (laughs).
E: Has your heart been moved recently?
J: ….Yes. My staff has been working really hard for me. Recently, pictures were taken of my private life and the incident caused a lot of troubles to the staff. I thought that I shouldn’t even go to convenience stores because of this incident. I should just stop running daily errands and should diminish my sense of presence. After apologizing to my staff, they told me, ‘It isn’t JaeJoong’s fault.’ I cried even though we were at work.
E: Lastly, can you leave a message for the Japanese fans? (Manager says, ‘How about writing ‘sumimasen’?’ and everyone laughs.)
J: Very funny (laughs)…It’s meaningless to say things like I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Our relationship transcends that. So, I’d write something fans around the world would like!
(He then writes a message that everyone’s familiar with and everyone’s waiting for.)
‘I love you.’
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