Miss Hong Ye-na is a TV personality who is working as a home shopping MC at W Shopping channel on weekdays, and she also works as a speech instructor on weekends. The CBT reporters heard the stories of her eventful life and got some advice for college students who are struggling to find their dream. -Ed


From a girl who cried at a wedding hall to a kid reporter

  She was such a pretty girl when she was young. She was so pretty that she won several child beauty pageants. However, she was too shy to be around her relatives. One day, her third aunt asked her to be a flower girl at her wedding. Everything was all set, but she cried her heart out on the wedding day. Eventually, she couldn’t help but watch another girl wear her dress and perform her flower girl role instead.
  “I was 6 or 7 years old at that time. My mother sent me to speech and writing academies when I was a first grader in elementary school. After I took the courses, I got some chances to deliver speeches in front of people. When I stood on the podium and started to speak, my voice got louder through the microphone. No one could notice whether I was nervous or not. When my speech was over, the audience gave a big applause. These experiences were so great, so I came to have more confidence, too.”

A student in yellow hair

  She worked as a kid reporter at the OBS broadcasting station when she was in middle school. Ever since then, she had had an interest in broadcasting, so she wanted to enter Anyang High School of Art, which provides classes about broadcasting and entertainment. However, her family’s financial situation got worse due to the IMF crisis(Korean financial crisis) and the school’s tuition fee was too expensive, so she went to a regular school instead. During her first grade in high school, she got a casting offer from an agency. Then, she received training to make a debut in a trio idol group. This was the reason why she dyed her hair yellow. However, she gave up on her dream of becoming a singer. The debut of the group ‘Big Mama’ was the reason because they made her doubt her ability as a singer.
  “I felt embarrassed when I watched their debut. I think a singer must be good at singing and an actor or actress must be good at acting, but I realized that I was not that good at all only after I saw them. Thus, I gave up on being a singer and entered a college to become an actor.”

A tree with beautiful blossoms does not always yield the best fruit

  After graduating from university, she entered an acting agency; it was not easy to become an actor. The agency didn’t try to make her into an actress as she had prepared to become a singer before. The company wanted her to be a musician instead. Even though she got the spotlight from the media as a musical actress, it did not fit her values of life. She reflected on herself at age 29, and she came to know about being a show host. It seemed just perfect for her personality.
  “After becoming a show host, the reality was different from what I had thought. I even thought, ‘Is this the right job for me?’ Show hosts, especially who work for home shopping companies, should know about shopping well because, by doing so, they can understand customers’ minds based on their own experiences and convince them to buy products more easily. However, I had never had those experiences, so it was hard to find my identity.”
  She lived a thrifty life to keep her dream. She had to do part-time jobs to pay for the financial aid and monthly rent. To her, shopping was not for extravagance but for necessity. From this experience, she found her own identity as a show host.
  “At first when people asked me what kind of show host I wanted to be, I could not answer. However, now I want to be an honest show host who opens thrifty people’s purses with pleasure and who puts myself in customers’ shoes so that I can tell them which kind of products are more reasonable.”

Pieces of advice for college students

  She always tells college students who are wandering and searching for their dream that it is the most important thing to have time to reflect on oneself. Her suggestion is to try everything that you are interested in as fast as you can.
  “I think it is better to do everything you can and figure out what you are good at rather than sitting in a room and just worrying about yourself. It is normal to be afraid of trying new things. However, a person who has never met a challenge knows neither the actual fear nor fun of it. I think people who are in their 20s need to be courageous, like driving a car at the highest speed, so that in their 30s they will drive slower and safer, and eventually, in their 40s, they will drive like a turtle because they will feel timid in life.”

It has been 3 years since she became a show host. Her dream is quite simple: to live in a decent house and to live a leisurely life. These are powerful motives. She says, “Even though I sometimes make mistakes and no one recognizes me, someday, people will recognize me and say, ‘I really like the clothes you sold on TV’. I will try my best to make this come true.” Despite many hardships, Hong Ye-na just accepts them and overcomes them cheerfully. This positivity must have made her who she is today. -Ed

By Lee Ju-yeon
jy37@cbnu.ac.kr
By Min Tae-kwan
tk36@cbnu.ac.kr