SMTOWN AUDITIONS GUIDE

OTHER STUFF

Q: I am not Korean. Can I audition?
A: Yes. SM accepts any applicant regardless of race, age, and gender.

Q: I am not Korean. Will that affect my chances?
A: That's hard. They are a Korean company marketing towards a Korean audience, and much like an American company marketing towards an American audiences would use mainly whites and blacks, a Korean company would use mainly Koreans and Chinese. It will be more difficult, but not impossible. They are working towards the future, so the options for non-Koreans in K-Pop are opening up more frequently in Korea. Try out now and be the groundbreaking star of tomorrow. :)

Q: I am not Korean and/or Asian, but I look Asian. Does this help my chances?
A: No, not really. They're most interested in your talent. If you have no talent, don't audition.

Q: I have acne and/or rough skin. Is that okay?
A: Yes. Once again, talent out-weighs looks in the end. Both pre-debut photos and seeing them live show that Super Junior's Kyuhyun, SHINee's Key, and EXO's Lay all have either bad acne or some deep acne pitting.

Q: I don't speak Korean. Will SM still accept me?
A: Super Junior's Han Geng, f(x)'s Amber and Victoria, and EXO's Kris, Lay, and Tao all didn't speak Korean when SM chose them.

Q: Does it matter if my vocal range is higher or lower than most?
A: No.

Q: Do they care about weight?
A: Yes and no.
Explanation: Yes, because they are a business and their aim is to make the most money. The easiest way to sell a product quickly is to present in an appealing manner - your physical appearance. No, because talent comes first. Park JiMin was not skinny when she won K-Pop Star, though she did slim down after her debut.
However, bottom line is that if you have talent, don't worry about how much you weigh.

Q: Do they care about height?
A: Probably not. If you're worried, just know that the shortest members in SM are Hyohyeon and BoA for females (both clocking in at 160 cm or 5'3") and Xiumin for males (clocking in at 173 cm or 5'8.1"). I know Sunny is even shorter at 5'1", but she's Lee Soo-man's niece so I'm excluding her from the "average".
Also, don't worry if you feel taller than most people. Tall is good!

Q: Does it matter how old I am?
A: SM accepts all applications regardless of race, age, and gender.
However, SM is very telling about who they choose for idols. Their Youth Star Auditions were limited to those between the ages of 10 and 21 (international age). Because keep in mind, their expecting to train you for about 2 years before being able to debut you. Also, those who are not fluent in Korean will require about 1-3 extra years of training just to become roughly fluent in Korean.
The entertainment business tends to prefer younger females (10-16) because of the perception of youth and older males (14-21) because of voice chances due to puberty.

Q: I'm worried. My last name / first name doesn't sound Korean (or Asian).
A: That doesn't matter. If executives are worried about that, they can merely give you a stage name.

Q: I can speak _(languages)_ fluently. I can speak _(languages)_, but not fluently. Is this even worth mentioning?
A: Depends on how fluent you are. If you anything less than conversationally fluent in a language, it isn't worth mentioning until further into the audition process like the private audition.
So how do you gauge your fluency? I gauge myself on a self-made scale of Fluent, Competent, Knowledgable, Progressing, Survival, Poor, and Shitty.

Fluent: I can understand and comprehend the language fully. (EX: Your first language).
Competent: I can understand and comprehend the language in most situations. (EX: Your Second language.)
Knowledgable: I can understand and comprehend the language in common situation and conversations. (EX: The level most established non-Korean idols are at (though some are heading towards the Competent level, like Amber, ZhouMi, Henry, Luhan, Lay, Fei, and Jia).
Progressing: I an usually understand and comprehend the language in common situation and conversations. (EX: The level some new non-Korean idols are at, like Tao and Kris.)
Survival: I can sometimes understand and comprehend the language in common situations and conversations.
Poor: I can understand basic phrases, greetings, words and simple sentence structures. I don't understand or comprehend most situations.
Shitty: I can understand basic greetings and words. I don't understand or comprehend the language.

Unless you have a phenomenal teacher or an intensive class or are really good at acquiring languages, most people leave 4 years of a high school language at the Poor level. Also, most people leave college somewhere in the range of Survival to Knowledgable.

Q: What considers a talent? What qualifies as a talent in language?
A: A talent would be something that makes you stand out among other people. However, it should be something that you keep up with. I may be able to do ballet and tap, but the last time I took lessons was in elementary school. I would not put that down as a talent. Talents would include martial arts, gymnastics, ballet, etc.
A more subjective talent like art, music, etc. should be backed by an award. Now you can say "I'm good at art" but what makes you think that? As proven by Weekly Idol, EXO's Kris thinks he's a great artist, but his work shows that it's nothing spectacular. However, CHI-CHI's Shine would someone considered to be talented at art.
Now for language. I would only put down language as a talent if you can quickly acquire a language in a short amount of time and have proof (such as a level of proficiency in that language). Being bilingual from a young age doesn't count as a talent in language unless you acquired a third, fourth, fifth, etc. language at a later age to a comprehensive level. (For example, I have a friend who was brought up speaking English and French. However, in her early and late teens she learned Spanish and Korean to above a conversationally fluent level and is currently almost conversationally fluent in Japanese. This would easily count as a talent in language.)