Training isn’t just supposed to teach you how to sing with confidence on stage. When you finally debut, you will have had the experience of waking up early to go running in the freezing cold. The time spent training readies the artist for life away from their family. Ready for the debut, the artist knows what sacrifices must be made, and by this point hopefully knows it is worth the cost to do what they love. Trainees are made to be all around entertainers who last a lifetime, not one hit wonders.

[Part Two of Three. Check out Part One.]

For K-POP trainees life is about competition. After winning their place in a training program a would-be K-Pop idol must face many challenges. They must balance both school and training at company headquarters. They must excel in all the areas of entertainment: singing, dancing, and acting. To become a star they must push themselves harder then they ever have before—even learning a foreign language can be part of the superstar curriculum.

The goal: to stand out from all your competition and win the right to debut first.

American Idol contestants have it easier by contrast: all they have to do is show up and sing each week, and risk the wrath of Simon Cowell.

K-Pop trainees can be dropped at any moment, not just during the taping of a reality show. Depending on the company, trainees will perform in front of their president or video tape their performance. Then the president of the company will critique them, pointing out their weaknesses and strengths. This happens until the president of the company feels they are ready for their debut. That or determines like Simon, that they are no longer worthy.

An America Idol season is about eleven weeks, trainees in Korea spend an average of 2-5 years preparing for their debut. Jo Kwon, who is a member of the K-POP group 2AM, was the longest JYPE trainee to date: training for 7 years. Yet training has no fixed length: Wonder Girls member Ye Eun (on right) was only a trainee for 3 months for the same company.

The training aims to strengthen the singer’s vocal ability, and build stamina for performances. The only way you’ll find a K-POP artist lip syncing is if they lose their voice. Lip syncing is frowned upon in K-POP, so the stamina training helps with singing and dancing during a long set.

Artists are constantly busy and have little rest. The “Holy Trinity” needs to see if trainees can handle the intense lifestyle of a K-Pop idol. Being an artist is not about singing on stage and then resting in a million dollar home. K-POP companies have these training periods to challenge how serious and passionate a person is about becoming an artist.

It’s not all singing and dancing…

From the outside looking in, the world of Korean Pop seems like the road not taken by Western pop culture. It’s like looking into an alternate reality, where N’SYNC and the Spice Girls became the template for every musical act and pop star. Multiplied times 1000.

Where do they find all these kids?

In the U.S. most aspiring singers get signed to a record label through connections and demos. But what if you don’t have money to record a demo or aren’t related to anyone in the music industry? Some aspiring stars post videos on YouTube of their singing, hoping someone will come across it and hand them a contract. Others take the longest of shots and set their sights on the guaranteed contracts offered up by American Idol.

American Idol- as most of us know- is the reality show where aspiring singers audition for a chance to gain a record deal. Each season there are thousands upon thousands of people waiting in line to audition. Just for a chance to get in front of the Idol judges and have them say “Hollywood” to go to the next round.

So these are the options for wannabees: A) have a connection, B) create your own fanbase, or C) try and impress Simon Cowell. In Korea there is an option D) All of the Above. Sort of. The path of an aspiring K-Pop star almost inevitably leads to one of the record companies known as the “Holy Trinity” (SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment).

What challenges does an aspiring K-Pop star face?

The Wonder Girls are more than just "that Korean girl group who went on tour with the Jonas Brothers in the summer", they are really making a name for themselves and K-POP in the United States. The Wonder Girls made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and by the end of 2009 they hit #1 for Hot Single Sales over American artists such as Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey.

On January 22, 2010, Sunmi aka Mimi announced that she'll be leaving the Wonder Girls to continue her studies in school. This past June, the Wonder Girls [a five member K-POP girl group] were promoting in China and America and spending less time in Korea. Since the Wonder Girls were constantly working and on the move, it became difficult for the girls to focus on both the group and school at the same time. As a result, the two youngest members (both just 17) of the Wonder Girls Sunmi and Sohee dropped out of school for the tour. This then created headlines about how they were setting a bad example for the youth.

Mimi will still continue for all of the scheduled events until the end of February, then in March she will return back to Korea to focus on classes. It is uncertain if Mimi will return to the Wonder Girls after she finishes her studies, but there is already someone ready to take her spot. Lim is 17-years-old and is fluent in 4 languages [English, Mandarin, Cantonese and of course Korean]. She has been training with JYP for 3 years and will be replacing Sunmi in March. Since its unknown if Sunmi will return to the Wonder Girls after she finishes her studies, it’s also unclear if Lim is a permanent or temporary replacement.

With questions still unanswered, some K-POP fans are blaming Park Jin Young aka JYP for Sunmi’s departure. JYP is the Wonder Girls producer and song writer. JYP first debuted as an artist with the group City Blue, and like his proteges has gotten to work with artists here in the U.S. such as Big Boi, Will Smith and Cassie. Some K-POP fans are claiming JYP pushed the Wonder Girls over to America only because he wanted to gain more fame for himself. Fans also fear that he promoted the Wonder Girls in the U.S. too quickly and left Sunmi no choice but to quit school. And now, as a result, she's quitting the Wonder Girls, going back to school in Korea, and breaking fan's hearts.

Valentine's Day, Justin Beiber, and the perils of the language barrier, after the jump...

One of the hoped for benefits of having U.S and K-POP artists work together is that the Korean artist will be well known in America and the American artist will be more well known in Korea. Last year, there were a lot of U.S and Korean artist collaborations. Not only did Se7en work with Lil’ Kim on his single, BoA get featured on a remix for Akon, and Wheesung get a chance to work with Ne-Yo, but the Wonder Girls got the chance to go on tour with the Jonas Brothers. That's the kind of exposure any pop act would die, or at least sell their futures into an iron clad contract with a souless music label, for.

Now 4minute and Jun Hyung of BEAST/B2ST will be featured on a remix of Amerie’s  Heard ‘Em All for the album In Love & War. In Love & War is Amerie's fourth studio album.

It is yet to be announced if 4minute and Junhyung will be singing/rapping in English or Korean, but Amerie is staying connected with her Korean side regardless. For those who don’t know, Amerie is half Korean and half African American. Amerie is set to release her album In Love & War in Korea on February 23, 2010 which will include the remix of Heard 'Em All featuring 4minute and Junhyung.

2009 was a big year for K-POP, lots have happened both negative and positive. I want to try to stay with the positive so here are my 10 highlights of K-POP in 2009.

1) To start off the year, Girls’ Generation AKA SNSD made a comeback with their hit song “Gee”. The song set the record for the longest #1 on KBS’s Music Bank for 9 weeks.

2) In early March, Epik High departed from their major recording label and founded there own independent label “MapTheSoul”. This is a risky move because in the US when an artist leaves their record company, they are unlikely to be as “famous” and “successful” as they were. However, Epik High is still just as successful and even got a chance to tour in the U.S.

3) Se7en, BoA and the Wonder Girls, along with Utada Hikaru (a Japanese Artist) were featured in People Magazine. Asian artists are starting to be recognize more and more in America.

2PM is a 7 member K-POP boy band, who debuted September 4, 2008. It’s now a year later and 2PM should be celebrating their one year anniversary. But instead of singing Happy Birthday, 2PM is dealing with a MySpace controversy. Jaebeom-- who is the leader of 2PM-- has offended many netizens with some of the MySpace comments he posted 4 years ago.

Jaebeom’s comments has been circulating all over the internet and one of the them reads, “korea is gay.... i hate koreans...”

Many American K-POP fans are saying that Jaebeom’s comments are typical for a teenager. It’s common for someone in Oakland to say “That’s gay,” without actually meaning to offend anyone. However, it’s very hard for netizens because slang is a difficult thing to understand if you don’t speak English.

B.I. is a 14 year old Korean Rapper, who has been dubbed as the 2nd G-Dragon. G-Dragon started training at the age of 13 and now, his first solo album is currently #15 on the United World Chart.

About a month ago, B.I. appeared in MC Mong’s music video, as well as performances and K-POP fans were amazed by B.I.’s rapping ability and stage presence. B.I. has already met G-Dragon himself, and other big well known K-POP artists. B.I. is definitely making his making his way in the K-POP music industry.

K-POP fans are constantly comparing B.I. to G-Dragon and are excited to see what he will accomplish in five to ten years. MC Mong, who hand picked B.I. to be featured in his song “Indian Boy”, stated "When I look at B.I., he reminds me of a young G-Dragon." (via allkpop)

While Rain is making another Hollywood debut in Ninja Assassin, the Wonder Girls are making a name for themselves in the music industry.

Over the summer, Korean Pop Group the Wonder Girls went on tour with the Jonas Brothers and even made an appearance at the Teen Choice Awards early this month.

G-Dragon is a member of Big Bang, a Korean Music Group, and is set to release his first solo album on his 21st birthday: August 18th. G-Dragon has been releasing previews from his album on Me2Day, a Korean version of Twitter. A recent song "Heartbreaker" was released and many people are saying it resembles Flo Rida's "Right Round" and that G-Dragon copied it.