2014-07-15 Guest speakers at Korea University

2014-07-15

Yeonmi Park was the main speaker at Prof. Marcus Cole's Comparative Law Class at Korea University earlier today. I was her warm-up act and assistant, doing my best to add to her presentation without interrupting the flow.

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It was special in many ways:

1) Seems like old times! Yeonmi and I first talked about working together last February 14 when we both spoke at an international school. It has been an active five months!

2) Lady in command! She is a much more polished speaker, so much more comfortable on stage. Now, she isn't just talking to an audience, she seems to be in command of the stage.

3) Q&A lasted for about an hour, she took on all questions. What separates her from many NK refugees is that not only can she give a great speech, but she can handle Q&A with aplomb.

4) Students paying attention, in class? They were international students who had many questions (even though they were in class). No one seemed to doze off. Then, near the end of the session, I asked if anyone wanted to take photos with her. They lined up! I tried to be diplomatic, I knew they wanted photos with her, so I resisted my usual temptation to be in every photo. Instead, I had everyone take two photos--one with Yeonmi alone, and one with both of us.

5) Volunteers? A few students said they would like to join my volunteer activities.

2020 comments:

* One of the first things many newcomers to TNKR used to suggest (before the pandemic): "Why don't you reach out to universities?" Yes, we have done that! We even did two presentations in the same day at Korea University. I have lost track of how many times we have made such presentations and that they don't lead to much. I tell them that is a great idea, then I assign them the task to find such opportunities. Turns out it isn't as easy as it looked!

* Few of the students contacted me to volunteer. That is not surprising and not condemnation, they were here for the summer. I just mention it as another example of not getting confused about enthusiasm at a meeting with real action. After a presentation with many enthusiastic people, I am thrilled when one person follows through and gets involved. Some tend to personalize it about me, as if I am the only person in the world dealing with that, but I have seen this with many organizations over the last two decades. You can have a bunch of happy people in a room, then when it is time to get work done, they scatter or are never heard from again. Or as one colleague said, "When it is time to pet the puppies, many people show up. But when it is time to clean after them? Or when people need to help with building the organization so there is a place for the puppies?"

* Yeonmi and I had been working together five months up to that point. It was shortly after this that she received the invitations that would catapult her to international attention.

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