As an English teacher in South Korea, I discovered a passion for serving others by utilizing my strengths to provide valuable skills to those with fewer educational opportunities. Drawing on my own natural strengths, I joined an organization called Teach North Korean Refugees (TNKR), a nonprofit whose aim, as the name suggests, is to teach North Korean refugees English at little to no cost. When North Korean citizens arrive in South Korea, there is a significant education gap with their South Korean counterparts, which puts them at a disadvantage in such a competitive society. This organization works to close that gap in the area of English education, utilizing volunteers to teach English in an immersive environment. TNKR has proven the success of their programs through students who have gone on to publish memoirs about their lives in North Korea, as well as give TED Talks in English after utilizing these provided services.

 

As opposed to my paid position teaching English in an academy, where a curriculum was provided for me to teach children who had already been exposed to English in multiple forms, I did not know how difficult it would be to develop a curriculum that matched the uneven English ability of my students at TNKR. I needed to think deeply about how to best teach my students English, a subject that came naturally to me. I decided to reflect on how my own English conversational abilities matured as I grew older, choosing to discuss different topic areas such as hobbies and weather, while adding progressively difficult grammar into our conversations. Over the course of nine months volunteering with the organization, I taught two students and watched their conversational ability grow to the point that we had conversations completely in English, giving greater confidence to my students as they try to get ahead in such a high-pressure environment. Their success also gave me a sense of pride in the work that I was doing, and seeing the results of our efforts validated my desire to serve. Drawing on my natural language strengths to better serve others is something that I have applied to my subsequent service experiences.

 

My experience with TNKR served as a catalyst for my passion to help others through service. After returning to Korea in 2019, I was contacted by another North Korean refugee organization to tutor another former refugee in English who would be traveling to the United States as part of an advocacy program for the North Korean people. Through this experience I met many more North Korean defectors and have offered to help with their English skills independent of any organization, emphasizing the idea of leveraging my strengths for service. Just as some students at TNKR have found their voice to advocate for the North Korean people on the world stage, I hope the help that lending my strengths through service empowers all of my students to find their own voice in whatever path they choose for themselves, a privilege that they did not have before they left North Korea.