[Perspective]
Chatting her way onto the airwaves

Annabelle Ambrose

Here’s a story that may sound familiar. You wake up on New Year’s Day, and your head hurts. The weather outside sucks, tomorrow you have to go back to a job you hate, and you have no idea what you’re doing with your life.

Next thing you know, you’re sitting in a hagwon in Korea, explaining the ins and outs of the word “banana.”

This particular plot belongs to “Chatting Beauty” Annabelle Ambrose, although some version of it can be found behind many English teacher tales.

“It was either leave the U.K. or go on a killing spree,” said Ambrose.

Not knowing anything about Korea when she applied for a teaching job here in 2003, she was shocked at how fast her application was accepted.

“I thought, ‘Wow, they want me?’ That was before I realized that they take anyone who’s breathing and has a university degree.”

After convincing her dad that she was not about to be swept up in the white slave trade, Ambrose set off for her job in Jeonju.

Her saga took a slightly different turn when she arrived, and busied herself learning the local language. She avoided the school-based approach, instead just “hanging out with Koreans and getting drunk with them. It’s the best way to learn.”

The ability to speak Korean eventually landed her a spot on “Minyeodeuleui Suda (Chatting Beauties)” after she moved up to Seoul.

She’s translated her fame from that show into a career in broadcasting; she now does the “Drivetime” show on TBS eFM 101.3, the new English-language radio station.

Ambrose is a great example of the opportunities that Korea is literally littered with if you’re willing to scratch the surface. Whether or not you know how you ended up here, there’s lots to keep you busy.

“No one plans to stay here, they just fall into living here,” she said. “I love my English teacher friends to death, but some really live in the English teacher bubble. They only hang out with other teachers in Itaewon and Hongdae, and don’t really get into things.”

But there is a limit to how much you can do, Ambrose said.

“I don’t really see a future for me in Korean-language entertainment,” she said, adding that her Korean isn’t good enough yet, and the market is a bit saturated with Chatting Beauties branching off into other endeavors. But those aren’t the only obstacles.

“Korean entertainers kind of resent us. They think, ‘Why don’t you go back to your own country and be an entertainer there?’ One ‘Misuda’ guest actually asked us that.”

By Richard Scott-Ashe, Deputy Editor [richard@joongang.co.kr]