Gehlee Dangca recalls challenges of training in South Korea

Former UNIS member and Pinoy Big Brother Collab 3.0 housemate Gehlee shared the challenges she faced while training in South Korea as part of the now-disbanded K-pop group, particularly the difficulty of staying connected with her family.

During a recent PBB livestream, Gehlee recalled how she would stay awake until 3 a.m. just to talk to her mother, even when she had to wake up as early as 6 a.m. for training.

“There were times when our call time would be like 6 in the morning but I would stay up until 3. It’s locking myself up in the closet and talking to her in the phone. There was a rule that it wasn’t allowed,” Gehlee recalled.

Adding to the difficulty, phone calls were limited to just 10 minutes because the trainees were expected to attend Korean language lessons.

“They wanted me to learn Korean so phone calls were limited to 10 minutes which I thought wasn’t fair. At first I had to ask permission to call my mom. It was really weird. I hated it,” she said.

However, the restrictions gradually eased as the trainees became more familiar with Korean culture.

“They got a lot looser when they saw that we got more used to the culture there. Things went just normal,” she explained.

Gehlee later admitted that overcoming the language barrier also made it easier for her to communicate her feelings.

“What really help was learning the language and getting used to it. Cause then I could explain myself on how I felt,” she said.