Skip to main content

2019-10-17 When can I start?

TNKR's co-founders had three hours of interviews yesterday with North Korean refugees joining TNKR.

We welcome North Korean refugees into the organization with an initial interview. The main point of it is to explain TNKR's approach and make sure they understand it, to confirm that they understand this is a self-study project, and that students looking to make foreign friends need to go somewhere else.





One challenge is when we have returnees. One of the refugees returning to us studied in TNKR back in 2014. TNKR was much less developed, we were still trying to figure out the best way to engage North Korean refugees.

We have made some decisions!

Such as, English-only. No socializing. Studying, not hanging out. No separate contact outside of studying in class. Much more monitoring.

It took a bit of time for the student yesterday to understand that we really meant that things had changed. After she understood, she was enthusiastic. Her classes had fallen apart quickly in 2014, and she wasn't sure why. Doing a bit of investigation, it turned out that she had talked to her tutors about her personal story, had tried to be friends with them, and had allowed the bilingual speakers to use Korean. As it is easy to predict, once it becomes a buddy relationship, then there is less focused studying. We will check to see how things go this time with her.

All three students who came by yesterday asked one similar question: When can I start?






___________________________________________________________________

Evaluation process

In addition to three hours of interviews with refugees, we also had a long meeting with a young South Korean studying education who wants to join TNKR. We are now trying to develop an evaluation process that can have another upgrade to its education process.


Popular posts from this blog

Mentoring while Black (Korea Times 2/16/2023)

  Mentoring while Black by Casey Lartigue Jr. February 16, 2023 www.patreon.com/caseylartigue

Radio, Harvard

I'll be a guest on XM 169 The Power this morning from 10:15 a.m. EST. I'll be talking about teaching English abroad. I'll be interviewed by Brian Higgins of MYB Talk . I sang last night for about five hours with friends but I'm sure my voice will be fine. Tuesday, I'll be interviewed by a Harvard University representative who wants my input on a new doctoral program for education leaders . It is a collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School. Some folks at the Booker Rising site are (again) reminding me that I'm not as smart as I think I am. CJL

Still writing (Korea Times, 2023-12-19)

Still writing by Casey Lartigue Jr. The Korea Times December 19, 2023 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/12/626_365284.html

Park Jin welcoming remarks to FSI (and Casey Lartigue)

  National Assembly member Park Jin makes the welcoming remarks at FSI's conference featuring North Korean diplomats. Park Jin | Greeting message to FSI and Casey Lartigue mention - YouTube

North Korean defector seeks justice (Korea Times)

  It was international news when 12 North Korean waitresses and a male manager who worked at a restaurant operated by the North Korean regime in China arrived in South Korea in 2016.  The waitresses have mostly maintained a low profile. There have been numerous accusations and assertions, with some saying the waitresses didn't want to escape, some accused the Park Geun-hye administration of playing politics by releasing details of the case, etc., etc., etc. My blog at the Korea Times today features an exclusive interview with one of the former North Korean waitresses who filed a criminal case against the former manager. You can read about it here on the Korea Times website. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/02/728_345165.html   Keep in mind that there are many more facts to the case and that it is much deeper than this brief excerpt of her comments. She also shared legal documents that I shared with the Korea Times well in advance to give them time to review t...