WHY Korean Jessica Lee Gave up Her K-Pop Dream for the PHILIPPINES

and i'm not gonna like sugarcoat by saying that every filipino is like that but then mostly a lot of people would really come to us with a genuine helping hand and that's why that time in the philippines was the happiest time of my life people here are just so genuinely nice without them even knowing me in 2020 the pandemic hit i had to go back to korea and i was forcefully what's up philippines welcome back to your host nelly i'm so happy to see you all today it is a rainy day today so i decided to sit down and watch a few videos be a little bit cozy not go outside and watch why korean jessica lee gave up her k-pop dream and became a filipino youtuber if you are a long-term follower here you know that i'm a huge fan of jessica lee i even tried to coordinate a collab with her so hopefully that will happen soon yeah if you're new to this channel please subscribe i am trying my best really really my best to educate you on everything about the philippines hopefully put a smile on your face hopefully make you learn something new and without further ado i would say let's just jump into the video without those experiences and everything that the philippines has given me really the me of now would not exist at all i'll probably much of a way more stiff person i feel like i feel like really so the philippines is really now home for me oh wow okay that is a very very emotional intro you can tell by her voice that she's very sentimental about this very emotional so i feel her like what she just said i feel it i have experienced it but let's talk about that later a korean youtuber dedicates hello everybody i'm bonnie logronio the writer and director of the filipino story and i'm cassie domingo the voice of the filipino story all right so once again all right i have a story about that's really exciting i'm so excited to hear about this awesome but before i share it i just was wondering what do you think about korean culture i love their food i'm going to korea soon so can't wait ramens and everything i could just down it every single day i love it i think we had korean food for christmas insert photo here just kidding but also i think with their k drama really really really have enjoyed crash landing on you shout out i never watched it oh my god amazing they're so good well that's good to know that you're a fan of korean content or korean stories because the person i'm going to show you the story of today is a korean storyteller who loves filipino culture we could switch yeah so it's super awesome her name is jessica lee oh i'm sticking her in your story yeah yeah yeah right now and we're gonna watch awesome okay let's do this okay excited so my name is jessica lee and i'm a korean content creator based here in the philippines i moved to the philippines in 2009 and i was eight years old by then it's my parents decision and they made the decision because they wanted to let us learn english and that was a very common practice in korea they send off children to the philippines to learn english only thing i had in my mind was just excitement honestly like i was not scared i was just so excited by the idea that i'm going to ride a plane for the first time wow i'm going to go abroad for the first so cute and i'm gonna go to the philippines where mangoes is famous for her there was a video that i reacted to where she talked about her childhood in the philippines pop up right here that was very touching as well like she has such a deep love for the philippines i really love it and also yeah so the image of the philippines is just mangoes like mangoes and if you ask me when was the happiest moment of my life it's going to be that year of 2009 when i first came to the philippines and met my filipino english teachers every day in the morning and then you have to pump the water to get the water and you have to boil the water it was really a trad setting and i just wow so pretty what the teachers did to open my mind up is through food they started nice milo bandesal shumai to me all these like filipino snacks and food so i was just so happy that they gave me all these food and it was so good i still remember that pancit canton i had with the bandesal was so good i was like i still remember it vividly so it's such a kid's food like just a sandwich with like whatever mom made in that case noodles naturally i grew this connection with my teachers and just naturally we just got so close to each other so naturally my english just got better because i had the will to communicate with them because i love them so much that was joy and happiness for me like no worries no concerns it's pure happiness and my neighbors there i was just so happy just playing with them so that memory was just too strong for me that i think that first year in the philippines played a big role in shaping me into who i am today so yeah yeah childhood memories like those core memories are so so important for your development and i remember when i started to travel i was seeking a feeling of home and wherever i traveled to i couldn't find it i always felt like i'm a stranger in this country but the philippines when i came to the philippines for the very first time i was like people here are just so genuinely nice and i felt like i was part of their family without them even knowing me and like she said the biggest connection was the food like people want together people want to enjoy some quality time and that is something that is missing in today's time so definitely can relate to that it's really thankful for the philippines and to my teachers for giving me just the perfect image of the philippines the trust that we've formed together and the sense of connection that we felt so big that it just really lasted forever and i'm not gonna like sugarcoat by saying that every filipino is like that but then mostly a lot of people would really come to us with a genuine helping hand and that's why that time in the philippines was the happiest time of my life yeah you can tell by the pictures i flew back and forth korea and the philippines a lot i graduated my elementary school in the philippines after that i went back to korea to pursue my dream nice hip-hop training and i went back to philippines in 2017 in 2020 the pandemic hit i had to go back to korea and i was forcefully stuck in korea forcefully stuck and we just couldn't go back so i feel like because for two years the philippine border was closed that also boosted my will to really go back to the philippines but fundamentally i really wanted to go back because i started taking content creation full-time so i had to make content that really resonated with me and that was really something that had to do with filipino culture so i would already define my identity being like half filipino and half korean i would say yeah people would laugh at that but and so that's why i would make filipino and korean content and because i was based in korea there were a lot of limits into exploring the kind of content i wanted to make i wanted to make deeper stories basically i wanted to tackle so i decided to fully come back and that is the time my conscious decision made without my parents decision it's to really come back to the other place and to live by myself to pursue content creation so the philippines is really now a home for me nice okay so i found home in the philippines as well and stayed there for four and a half years and the moment i went away from the philippines and saw like went back to the other world that is out there i realized damn like it's so much better in the philippines i know people say oh i live in the us and i'm a filipino i wouldn't recommend living in the philippines because it's so chaotic and things are not working properly but i'm like i never really i didn't mind so for me it was just the feeling that i had that i associated with the philippines that's what i was craving and that's when i kept coming back and decided to make it my home base so my dream i guess as a content creator is to really make the content creation world in the philippines more diverse because there are a lot of different content out here in the philippines but i just feel like there are still more beautiful stories i agree about philippines it's not enough basically there are more and more things about the philippines that has to be explored and has to be showcased better there's actually a lot that's my goal really to kind of boost that creative trigger to prove that the philippines is worthy of making content about and it's really beautiful yeah i hope yeah i agree if you guys followed me on my old channel i published hundreds of videos about different topics and seeing so many different parts of the country so many trying different foods and seeing the talent and the love the kindness that people are sharing and like we were going through the good and the bad and i really enjoyed both of more and more creators and storytellers really find that beauty and try to incorporate that in their content that's about the philippines because the world really needs to know the beauty of these people and this culture seeing how these filipinos work so hard it's so inspiring ever since i really saw it from so many filipinos they're really supporting their family and i can see that since day one how much they take family as number one priority i was that's very true to see how many osws leave the country to support for their family and they have that like spirit until the end it's not temporary that's actually a big thing especially coming from a more individualistic society that's almost impossible to do but that dedication and that love they have for the family for that sense of community that spirit is just too strong and that just really resonated with me a lot growing up until now i think that spirit has to be really also what i am so impressed about and i wish to absorb oh let's give her a hug so cute that was very well said that's actually one part i really love too how everyone's my kuya and ate yeah i love these boys over even this is the wisdom from them that we have to learn now it's amazing it's amazing honestly and i think it's great that you're making also videos like this i think that's really inspiring and also the entire story watching it it's like it's a flashback of my own life story as well the party the family gatherings the karaoke the food yeah nature i think all of these i'm very thankful and this animation it definitely tells everything very well you know that's what it really felt like i'm seeing through life story animation so yeah it's it's really inspiring and it makes me so proud of my filipino side i mean ever since oh wow i'm always proud i'm really yeah as i said again the happiest moment of my life was when i was in the philippines and without those experiences and everything that the philippines has given me really the me of now would not exist at all i'll be probably much of a way more stiff person i feel like i feel like same so i'm really thankful to these core values that i may be not be aware of like the specific names but without me knowing unconsciously i'm pretty sure it also kind of affected who i am yeah and now that i'm a hundred percent i agree i have to say that i changed when i came to the philippines as a person as like a human being having different characteristics i used to be such a hustle boss babe when i came to the philippines i realized nothing of it matters because everything that matters is your family your connections your happiness being at peace and just enjoying food enjoying life so for me i can resonate with her content so much like what she said and it makes me very happy aware of them i can appreciate them and filipino culture and filipinos even more so yeah i'm grateful and i'll forever be grateful and proud of my filipino life and my filipino story cute i love how you started with a smile yeah i love that i was like yeah okay thank you jessica what do you think of her reaction i think it's really interesting how someone with a completely different culture can watch these animated videos and have it resonate with them i mean to relate to the filipino story you come here for a few days and you already get a glimpse of it like all of the clips that we're showing would become very familiar to you you come in and they just welcome you and they just let you yeah literally everything there is about being filipino i remember this thing that you noticed and that you pointed out when you first landed in the philippines oh yeah i picked you up from the airport you came and then when we entered this mall that security guard you come in and you walk in and you're just smiling from ear to ear and i was like why are you smiling you came and he was like yeah good afternoon sir that is such a filipino trait the way they say good afternoon good morning in the philippines it's just like they're welcoming you already with a song yeah true that's very true that's probably why we're good singers because we sing all our words we sing everything even good afternoon and when you called that out i was like dang that's really filipino and that's the truth yeah no jessica comes in not even a filipino and watches our stories and it's so familiar to her because we are so eager to share our culture and our traditions with literally anyone who would listen yeah who comes even if you wouldn't want to listen i mean security guard and up to the point where she saw the episodes and it was like she was watching a flashback of her experiences here in the philippines as if we were telling her story i feel like as one of the people who created this animated series like that's like wow that's awesome wow great job wow yeah no but okay so there's a big thing in the world right now about representation and everything right and i feel like people want to see themselves in like disney characters and all of these different things very true story is i think an amazing way to represent the philippines where people who are strangers to their culture or people who somehow felt distant from their culture and don't even like their culture yeah and see hey there is beauty and maybe i haven't seen it before but no there is something special there so i think that's really great yeah yeah definitely subscribe to the filipino story studio that is so well done you can find her on youtube on instagram on tiktok and if you want to see more videos about her content like and yeah same all right so what did you think about this video i personally love how jessica was able to put it so well together in words and it and like she spoke from her heart she was very genuine about how she feels about the philippines and you can sense it you can see it in her content and also the filipino story does such an amazing job in educating and capturing the spirit of the filipino people i personally have experienced it so many times i keep saying it and i have to say it again filipinos are the best people in the world the kindest the most joyful the most caring that i've ever experienced my heart is always with the philippines i am filipina by heart i have like i said so many experiences that i can look back at and have created memories that connected me so so deeply to the philippines so yeah if you want to see more of that kind of content please subscribe to this channel if you want to see me traveling in the philippines and abroad please check out my channel nelly's life which will pop up right here where i share travel and food and good vibes so hopefully you'll enjoy it too and i'll see you guys next time here on what's up philippines bye