Early Life
Rain spent most of his childhood living with his parents and younger sister, Jung Hanna, near Yonsei University. Despite being an introverted and shy child, he discovered he had a passion for dance when he performed in a talent show for High School. Rain initially had a difficult time balancing dance and academics and received low grades during the beginning of junior high because of his frequent dance practices. He decided to follow his passion and attended High School of Arts in where he received his first formal instruction in acting and was able to continue dancing as well. Rain again found he could not focus on both dance and his studies in acting; he was truant on several occasions.
Rain lost his mother as she struggled with diabetes and died in 2000. Within that same year, Rain was recruited as a trainee for JYP Entertainment, led by recording artist and producer Park Jin-Young. In a CNN interview and also in a Discovery Channel documentary called Discovering Hip Korea, however, he recalled being repeatedly rejected because of his looks: "In fact, I was told after one audition that my singing and dancing was great but I did not make it because I did not have double eyelids." However, he finally got in as producer Park Jin-Young saw his drive and persistence during an audition in which Rain danced for hours non-stop, unlike the usual ten minutes for an audition. During the early years of training, Rain was a backup dancer.
Read more about this topic: Rain (entertainer)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I taught school in the early days of my manhood and I think I know something about mothers. There is a thread of aspiration that runs strong in them. It is the fiber that has formed the most unselfish creatures who inhabit this earth. They want three things only; for their children to be fed, to be healthy, and to make the most of themselves.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us in intellectual affairs would be about as reasonable as to object to live one’s life with due thought for the morrow because no man can be sure he will alive an hour hence.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)