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Showing posts from February, 2017

2017-02-25 Cherie Yang: That Woman, That Moment

Congratulations to Cherie Yang for winning TNKR's 5th English speech contest! The theme of the contest: "THAT Moment: My escape from North Korea." Cherie definitely got prepared to seize the moment. * From January 26 to February 21, she had twelve 1:1 coaching sessions with TNKR volunteer speech coaches. * Those sessions totaled 1,260 minutes (21 hours) * The seven contestants had a total of 34 coaching sessions (based on the number of reports sent by TNKR speech coach mentors), meaning an average of 4.9 sessions per refugee. Cherie was the outlier with a total of 12 sessions. (Plus, I'm very sure that at least one of her coaches did not report an additional session). * Of her 12 sessions, 11 were at the TNKR office. That means that she was able to practice in a quiet office in privacy, as compared to a coffee shop that many volunteers seem to prefer. Refugees tell us that the coaches and tutors are much more focused when they tutor and coach at our office, which

2017-02-22 Waking up the dead (Pyongtaek conference)

  I was delighted to be one of the speakers at a conference hosted by the Pyungtaek Social Welfare Foundation. The theme: "Multiculture and Global Social Welfare Forum." The reality: Can you endure?  I asked one of the attendees what was memorable about the conference. Without hesitating, he responded: "You woke up the room. Before you spoke, people were chit-chatting, not paying paying attention. You commanded everyone to listen." Well, I was in and out of the room networking, chatting, taking photos, so I don't know what the other speakers were saying. I may not be the greatest speaker in the world, but I almost always accept invitations to speak at academic conferences in South Korea. I often feel like I have been invited to play basketball in a league with no one over 5 feet tall or over the age of 8. I remember the first time I spoke at an academic conference in South Korea, hosted by a German foundation. The audience was so quiet as the other speakers dron

2017-02-21 People are everywhere at TNKR!

  Sometimes people ask, "What would you do if you had $10 million?" My answer is: "Pretty much the same things now, except that I would do them first class." www.patreon.com/fsi21   So it is with TNKR (now FSI). If we had more money, then we would be doing the same things, except that we would do them first class. Hire staff, get a bigger office. and other things that would make us a more stable organization. February 21, 2017 was another reminder about our lack of space. As one of our staffers said, "Wow, there are people everywhere!" Unfortunately, they also don't believe in whispering, which was a problem with a small space, three classes simultaneously, phone calls, media, guests, staff. With so much chaos, the only reason I didn't leave is because I'm the co-director. * * * Yes, we do serious work, but we can also have fun, as TNKR Special Ambassador Eunhee Park demonstrates. Studying in the kitchen area, I thought they would have trouble