Korean by birth; Pinay at heart

By Maridol Rañoa-Bismark

Grace Lee

She may be 100 percent Korean, but that doesn't stop Grace Lee from being a Filipino at heart. And the 25-year-old lifestyle correspondent of Q-11's The Sweet Life has proof. She speaks fluent Filipino, minus an accent to boot.

Credit this to her mom, who advised her eldest daughter to learn Filipino the minute they set foot in the country 10 years ago to pursue their business here. Grace's wise mother didn't stop in the four corners of her home. She has advised Korean friends in the Philippines to follow suit.

As usual, mother knows best. Grace's fluency in Filipino has seen her through from grade two (she studied at St. Paul's College, Pasig) to college, where she belonged to the Top 12 percent of Ateneo batch 2006.

Grace still remembers the first time she set foot on Philippine soil.

"I saw a lot of greens and reds because it was December. My parents told me I can get a good education in the Philippines," the vivacious Grace recalls.

Her youth made it easy for the then chubby second grader to absorb Filipino ways. As the first foreign student in St. Paul's Pasig, Grace felt blessed her classmates accepted her as one of them ever since Day One.

"I went home with a bagful of little gifts, like scented stationeries and notes from new-found friends in school," Grace relates. "I treasure those little notes so much, I still have them till now."

She also treasures other things Pinoy: The food, the Boracay beaches, the world-famous hospitality.

"It's such a waste not to go diving in the beaches here. Others pay a lot just to go diving," she notes. "Here, you can go to so many beaches for free."

That's the fun side. Grace's serious side sees her promoting her native Korea as if her life depends on it. She lobbied for a Korean special in The Sweet Life, and won handily.

The special to be shown on Oct. 15 to 19, 6:30 p.m. on The Sweet Life doubles as a birthday gift to Grace. These episodes will see Grace presenting her country as only a Korean can. Dressed in the Korean national dress, Grace interviewed her country's top officials and personalities, among them the Mayor of Seoul and pop singer Mina, the voice behind the hit song Answer the Phone.

That's not all. Grace also talked to actor Jin Jinhee of Jewel in the Palace and Kim Rae Won, lead star of Attic Cat and Lovers in Harvard.

"This is my once-in-a-lifetime chance. I aim to find my niche and hold on to it," says the new GMA Artist Center talent.

Her gung-ho outlook, however, does not apply to things like showing her flawless skin. Here, Grace, thanks again to her mom, puts her foot down.

"No way will you see me posing for FHM," she says. "Unless," she laughs, "doing so would mean appearing in T-shirt and jeans." Yes, she can don a swimsuit or even a bikini, but only in Boracay, and not on the pages of a men's magazine.

The director of a photo shoot found this out the hard way one day. Grace was in a photo shoot with StarStruck alumna Iwa Moto. The director, she relates, wanted her to fold up her shirt, and then her skirt.

Grace instantly smelled something fishy. Without a word, she picked up her things and walked out of the aborted photo shoot.

"I made my limitations clear before the shoot," explains Grace. So she sees nothing wrong in stopping what she thinks is a case of overstepping the limits she has set for herself.

"People will take advantage of a lot of girls. So they have to be strong. I know where I stand, where my values are," Grace explains.

The wolves out there had better watch out.

Photo courtesy of Inquirer.net