☭ marselip0910 叶俊华™

Sources: 1 / 2 / 3
Note: This article does not reflect the opinions of allkpop, only of the author.

by CM on January 4, 2011

“I will not be applying to colleges next year. When I feel that I want to go, I will apply then.” – IU
IU, the newly crowned “three-high note” star of Korean entertainment, recently made the decision to forgo a college education for her celebrity life as a singer, actress, and variety show star.
Predictably, the issue has caused a divide in opinion between both international fans and Korean fans, with some believing that an education to fall back on is a necessity, while others praised her for pursuing her dreams.

Personally though, I don’t feel as if the choice is between safety/practicality (school) and risk/dreams (career), but rather, it’s a decision that should be made by every individual for the benefit of their own situation using logic and rationality. As for IU, I have seen no evidence that there’s anything wrong with her decision-making process, as she has consistently shown thoughtfulness and reason behind her choice. Ironically, thoughtfulness and reason are two factors that I believe her critics have failed to use.
-
The biggest reason that I don’t understand the case against her decision is that there’s little downside to what she has planned out. As of right now, her career is on a momentous upswing, and though I believe that beyond her adorable aesthetics she does indeed have the musical chops for a long and illustrious career, there are no guarantees for a celebrity.

The sad reality is that most celebrities are just one wrong quote, one big scandal, or one unfortunate accident away from having their popularity evaporate. Knowing that, I struggle to find a reason that she wouldn’t attempt to give her career everything she has right now – to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak.
With the portal of opportunity in the music industry being fickle and temporary, there’s no reason why an individual shouldn’t want to throw everything they’ve got into being the best when portal yawns open for you.

“I’m the type that wants to do my best at whatever I try. If I were to go to college, I’d like to be able to study properly, but my music schedule would overlap. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to my best as a student, so I explained that I wanted to focus on music and go to college when I’m ready.”

So instead of stemming a blossoming career, or splitting her attention between work and school, she wants to put all her effort behind being the best at her ideal career while the opportunity still presents itself. I find it extremely difficult to find negative reasoning behind this decision-making process, especially in terms of criticizing somebody for wanting to give all their effort into a task.
An analogous situation I like to use is a teenage kid getting an offer out of high school to sign with a professional sports team or music label. How many can honestly say that you would turn down millions of dollars along with the potential for a long career doing something you love? I highly doubt many would turn it down in order to attend college. That money provides financial security for you and possibly your family, allows you to follow your dream, and at the end of the day, if everything doesn’t work out, school is always waiting there as an option after the fact.
-
For many, there was one misunderstanding that occurred frequently after IU’s inital announcement was made. Apparently, a lot of people thought she was saying that she was never going to attend college and never needed it, but realize that nowhere in the original statement does she rule out college altogther.

“I will not be applying to colleges next year. When I feel that I want to go, I will apply then.”

It seems abundantly clear that she is only saying that she will be foregoing college temporarily, but I noticed many international commenters glossing over that part and were only concentrating on the fact that she would not be attending college. Apparently certain Korean reporters were either fooled and/or being disingenuous to her original intentions as well, as she claimed, “Unfortunately, reporters cut out a lot of things from what I said and made it sound as if I was completely giving up on college. Although I wasn’t hurt by it, I was really upset.”

The evidence provided in the quotes are sufficient enough, as a majority of the discussion over this issue seems to be a case of not reading the entire articles, but the takeaway is that she’s not ruling out college completely, so there should not be an issue here.
But why is her college attendance such an issue to begin with?

The necessity of college education in global society has become so ingrained in our culture that it’s practically become a requirement for success – but that’s not necessarily true for everybody.
People can talk all they want about the idealistic world where higher education is all about the experience or whatever other cliched reasoning, but the main reason we’re all encouraged to attend college is to further our future careers. The point then is to fine-tune your existing or latent skills so that you can find success after you exit higher education.

For regular people like you and me, higher education is a necessity because there’s nobody knocking our door down to offer us money and fame for a skill we have. However, for celebrities like IU, who are already making a living and who do have people knocking down their door, why is it so ridiculous for them to skip higher education to focus on a booming career? It seems only logical that when one is already quickly approaching the end-goal of university (a.k.a, a successful career), they would choose to keep the career flourishing instead of dividing time between classes and work.
There’s the thought that education is necessary because of the fickle nature of stardom, but to the contrary, I think that’s exactly why she needs to take advantage of what she’s been given and try to expand on that now. It’s different for somebody who is yet to achieve any success, but IU’s window of opportunity is now. Plus, as I mentioned previously, education will always be there waiting, but superstardom is a once-in-a-lifetime shot.
Continuing on that theme, is higher education for celebrities even a legitimate schooling process?
A while back, we covered a story about celebrities in college and what their experience is like.

“With constant reports of celebrities entering college through the system’s special treatment screening, which allows celebrities to enter college for the mere fact of being a celebrity, the issue has caused not only current students, but parents of students and regular citizens to express their outrage over the biased treatment.”
“The final part to this controversy is the celebrities’ attitude at school. Although they were admitted, celebrities end up being what is now nicknamed as ‘the ghost students,’ never appearing for classes and enjoying the title of being a hard-working college student/celebrity.
Due to such issues at hand, news of celebrities entering college has not been received well by the public, and are often targeted for criticism, making many question why such special treatment even exists for celebrities at all.“

Granted, this isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff. With the busy schedules of most celebrities, it’s impossible to expect them to dedicate the time and effort needed to compete in the realm of higher education. However, if that’s the case, and the college experience of celebrities isn’t truly for the education and enrichment, then what’s the point of forcing celebrities like IU to participate in it to begin with?

If the college education ends up as nothing more than a PR event, then is there any real point to it at all?
It seems to me that while there are certainly celebrities who put their career behind their schooling, the majority of celebrities in the limelight spend a better part of their time perfecting their professional craft instead; they’re attending college mainly because it’s the “right” thing to do, rather than what they want to do. As such, it’s not appropriate to have a critical opinion of IU’s decision-making simply because she refused to do what everyone else expected of her.
-
All in all, a shot at fame and fortune, even for those who are immensely skilled and talented, might come around only once in a lifetime, but education is always there as an option. So before you rush to judge IU or any other celebrity who may happen to make the same choice to forgo college in the future, at least consider the reasoning and the alternatives for the individual, and think about whether your disagreement stems from actual rational analysis of their personal situation or just a disdain for the celebrity not following the social and cultural expectations of others.
-










IU decides to 放棄forego college for her career

阿漾 at kpopn.com
2011年成為高三學生的IU在採訪中表示：“明年不會參加大學入學考試。如果以後有想要上大學的想法，到時再挑戰。”

當被問到原因時，IU回答說：“明年將比現在更忙碌，所以沒有想要準備入學考試。計劃現在只專注於活動不考慮上大學。我也沒能認真學習，還不具備進入大學的實力。”

IU最近以人氣歌曲“好日子”回歸，再加上SBS的綜藝節目“英雄豪傑”和KBS即將播出的電視劇“Dream High”，日程非常緊密，即使在這樣的情況下，她也盡可能地到學校上課。經常看到沒有經紀人陪同IU獨自搭乘計程車，甚至穿著校服參加放送。

IU還說道：“我只是想享受高中生活，和老師朋友們留下美麗的回憶，而不是把它與大學聯繫起來。”

12月19日贏得“人氣歌謠”首位後，IU與老師和同學分享食物和飲料成為了話題。

IU成為練習生之前，學習成績非常優秀，“初中二年級之前一直認真學習”，但是現在她表示“對唱歌更有自信”。












by Casper on January 2, 2011

Singer IU was recently invited to shoot the starting basket for the Samsung Thunders in their Korean Basketball League (KBL) game against the LG Sakers on the afternoon of January 2nd.

Before the game started, IU tried her hand at shooting a basket as a pre-game event, and got a helping hand from Thunders player, Lee Seung Jun. She then came on during the half-time show to perform her hit songs, ‘Marshmallow‘ and ‘Good Day‘, to the 8,000 member crowd.

IU must have been a lucky charm, as the Samsung Thunders won the game 88:76.

Check out the photos and video below!