UPDATE: Oops. The English teaching thing is for LiNK members only. My bad.
Of course, you can always join LiNK and volunteer for one of their projects. In any case, they now have all the volunteers they need for the time being. I am deleting the original post.
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Actually, a lot of the defectors live “around Seoul”, that is to say in Gyonggi-do.
If you are on the outskirts and want to help out… e-mail away.
That sounds like a super-interesting job. I’d take it in a heartbeat if I needed one…
Doesn’t anyone think putting fresh NK defectors in f*cking SEOUL is a bit overwhelming for them? Is Seoul even where they ship them to after they’re through running? I mean, as opposed to somewhere out in the country a little less hectic (and capitalist) and whatnot… just for some adjustment.
I’d do it if I knew that the class was going to be 100% North Korean with no chance of a door opening up and seeing the children of the South Korean organizers being covertly smuggled into the back of the class.
Galbijim,
You will have to ask the organizers. I have no idea.
As a regular at LiNK meetings I will tell any interested… this is not an organized affair (yet). We often have North Koreans at our meetings and their number one complaint about being in the South is a lack of friendships.
They are lonely.
Partnering up with a foreigner who can maybe help them with skills they might need in the future (they also complain about not understanding all the English used in the South) might just help in some of their transition.
And, ya just might make a friend while you’re at it.
Actually, having “foreigner[s] … help them with skills they might need in the future” is not a bad idea. Despite all the northern propaganda about the purity of the Korean race—and its only slightly less insidious manifestations in the south—defectors might perhaps be able to relate to foreigners, since they are both newcomers to South Korea?
I dunno, just an idle thought.
I meant to add a clause:
Despite all the northern propaganda about the purity of the Korean race and its only slightly less insidious manifestations in the south—and the implied idea that only Koreans can truly understand their fellow Koreans—defectors might perhaps be able to relate to foreigners, since they are both newcomers to South Korea?
“and the implied idea that only Koreans can truly understand their fellow Koreans”
That’s funny. I’m sure there are Koreans who would also make the same irrational assumption about Westerners who just happen to be ethnically Korean (as if cultural knowledge and language skills were passed down genetically). No, sorry, I’m not your “brother”. You never fully understand how “un-Korean” you are until you actually spend some time in the country. At this point, North Korean defectors might have an easier time talking politics and such with a westernized Korean or a Westerner of Korean descent (i.e. the ones who recognize the abhorrent criminality of the N. Korean regime and also feel out of place in S. Korea despite “looking” like everybody else).
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[...] (Via. The Marmot) It’s better than learning North Korean history in school again. Filed under: LiNK @ 1:14 am [...]
[...] Lot of great stuff over at the LiNK site, including a video. Keep scrolling. If you live in Seoul, Andy Jackson is asking for volunteers to teach English to North Korean refugees (I use the term intentionally). It’s easy to miss the potential importance of this, but English is key to connecting North Koreans to the greater world and allowing them to describe their experiences in their own words. [...]