Teach North Korean Refugees Project

On November 1, we will be holding the 20th "Teach North Korean Refugees Project" session. The project launched in March 2013 when Casey Lartigue Jr. and Lee Eunkoo matched 5 North Korean refugees who were teachers in North Korea with 5 English speaking volunteers. The refugees wanted to improve their English in order to improve their chances to become teachers in South Korea. We met at a Toz in Gangnam, matching them.

We have directly matched at least 117 NK refugees and 8 South Koreans who assist NK refugees with 164 English speaking volunteers. We have since hosted numerous sessions with a number of themes matching NK refugees with volunteer English speakers:

* Staff at NGOs helping NK refugees (to help refugees working at NGOs and also helping NGOs build up their capacity) * special summer or winter study sessions (for students who have more free time during the break, look for another session in late December and early to mid January 2015) * Bring or recommend a friend (so many refugees recommend there friends, so we have held two sessions focused on them). * Refugee ladies on TV cable show * Open sessions * Newcomers or beginning speakers (we had two ladies who just gotten out of Hanawon 3 weeks before that join our session) * Rematching sessions (for refugees who lost their teachers for one reason or another)

We have two main tracks:

1) For self-improvement. Some want to study for standardized tests, business English, writing, pronunciation, travel. Most of our time is spent on them because they are 90 percent of the refugees who enter our project. Most of them have no desire to become advocates, many are low-profile and just want to improve themselves to make themselves more competitive in this world.

2) to become advocates. We have had a few refugees who also had potential to become advocates for NK human rights.

We allow the refugees to take the road that is most comfortable for them, to state their interest in studying so they can be matched with appropriate teachers. It is win-win for both. Some of our volunteers have never met refugees before this, and some go on to volunteer at NGOs, to become advocates, to get involved in other ways. One former tutor is now making a documentary, another has arranged a major speaking opportunity for one of our refugee students.

It is a great program, we are always seeking volunteers. One of the special features about the program is that we allow the refugees to choose as many teachers as possible. This gives them the flexibility to study at their convenience, to find which matches are the most appropriate. Some students are happy with one teacher at a time, although some have chosen two or three at time. And then there is the incredible case of Yeonmi Park, who has studied with 18 teachers through the program. During the last winter break, she was studying at least 35 hours a week with her teachers to improve her English. When I recognized her potential, I invited her to join me on a podcast I was planning. She has since become an international star! I will be lucky if she is still returning my messages within a few months.^^

Last week at the Oslo Freedom Forum,there were two North Korean refugee speakers at the Oslo Freedom Forum last week: Hyeonseo Lee and Yeonmi Park!

In 2012, I was co-chair of the committee trying to get Hyeonseo Lee onto TED (telling her personal and escape story). And of course I have been teaming up with Yeonmi Park (her personal story with a bit more analysis because that's what she does). What an honor to have had a role in helping to raise their profiles onto the international stage. Hyeonseo was never a student in our project, but the experience with her did teach me some lessons that I have applied in collaborating with Yeonmi. She spoke on TED in February 2013, we started TNKR a month after that (although that was combined with my experience helping at the Mulmangcho School where I had begun working with volunteers who were eager to teach North Korean refugees). http://caseyandyeonmi.com/2014/10/20/yeonmi-park-hyeonseo-lee-nk-ladies-of-liberty-at-2014-oslo-freedom-forum/

To make a donation:

Domestic: -Bank account: (Woori Bank) 1006-201-405817 -Name on account: TNKR

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-International bank account: (Woori Bank Seocho Umyeon Branch) 1006-201-405817 -Name on account: Eunkoo Lee(TNKR) -Swift code: HVBKKRSEXXX -Bank address: Taebongro 70, Seochogu, Seoul, South Korea -Bank phone number: 02-3463-9596 * * * paypal (just mark that you want it to go to TNKR) http://caseyandyeonmi.com/donate-casey-yeonmi-show/

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Helping North Koreans 'strike the blow' (Korea Times)

H ave you ever engaged in action not because you were sure it would change the world, but to satisfy your own heart? That, I emailed to an American friend, is why I have joined the effort to help North Koreans who are trying to escape from their homeland. I can’t change the direction of policy in North Korea or China but I can row the boat I am sitting in rather than lamenting that I can’t steer the yachts somewhere else. So I have tried to do what I can: Attending protests in front of the Chinese embassy in Seoul (and I plan to do so when I visit America in April); donating money to the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights ( www.nkhumanrights.or.kr ); educating myself, writing articles and emailing friends; and, as a member of the board of trustees, I recently submitted a resolution to the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association (FDMHA) in Washington, D.C., to try to call attention to the plight of North Koreans. Our organization’s missi...

Chang Ha-Joon's foolish consistency (Korea Times, January 1, 2013)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Is the sky blue? Is the ocean water? If you suspect those are trick questions, you are right. The sky isn’t always blue ― it is reddish at sunset, dark at midnight, gray on an overcast day. The ocean isn’t water ― there’s also fish, plant life, submarines, dissolved minerals, surfboards, sunken ships, even people swimming in it sometimes. As Hoover Institution scholar Thomas Sowell wrote in his 1996 book ``The Vision of the Anointed,” people who use “all-or-nothing” reasoning can deny a statement because it is not 100 percent true in every circumstance. Such word games might be fun for college students or debaters, but there are some distinguished people who are respected for making such childish arguments about serious issues. In his book ``23 Things They Don’t Tell you About Capitalism,” Cambridge University economist Chang Ha-Joon argues that 1) “[T]here is really no such thing as a free market” and 2) “The free market doesn’t exis...

2020-04-26 "May I choose more teachers?" TNKR Matching session #102

2020-04-26, TNKR Matching session #102 The Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) humbly began in March 2013 with 5 tutors and 5 NK refugees being matched together. We held that first session at a TOZ business center in Gangnam. Seven years later, TNKR has now matched 455 North Korean refugees with 1,027 tutors, coaches, and mentors. Today we held our 102nd Language Matching session at our slightly expanded office near the Sangsu Subway Station. Instead of just being something that Casey and Eunkoo did short-term, TNKR is now an official organization in both South Korea and the USA, we have been featured in media and by other organizations (just yesterday, we were featured by KOTESOL), and we have fans and donors from around the world.

"Yoegi Anjuseyo!"

* I have a short reflection in today's Korea Times about an encounter with an unfriendly looking Korean man on the subway. It was a reminder not to be too quick in judging people in Korea. 09-13-2011 16:47 'Yeogi Anjeuseyo!' By Casey Lartigue Jr. The recent incident in which an American English teacher bullied an elderly Korean man and other passengers on the bus reminded me of a more pleasing incident from years ago. I was on the subway, taking the train outside of Seoul for a work assignment. I have the habit of standing on the subway to strategically position myself near the doors in case my stop magically appears. On that particular day, there was a Korean man STARING at me. Not just looking at me, but intensely staring at me. He had an incredible frown on his face. Not just for one stop, but for several stops the guy just kept staring at me. If I had known more Korean then I would have been able to curse him ...

2020-11-26 My basketball story

This photo was uploaded today by my aunt Annette. This was back in the day, when 1) I had a head full of hair and 2) played basketball a lot. That first year of playing organized basketball, I focused on playing defense. It seemed that everyone wanted to shoot the ball, so I passed the ball and played defense. I probably led the league in steals, rebounds and blocked shots. I enjoyed taking on the best player from the other team, I felt like I would get better, quickly. The second year, I was a different player. I will never forget the first game that second year--we lost 29 to 26, I scored 18 points. I probably led the universe in scoring that second year, although we didn't win much. One thing I learned from that experience is that one great player 9 (at least in his own mind) can't beat a team. An eye injury ended my pro career before it began, to this day I still have floaters in my eyes because of the injury. I started wearing glasses, but the problem never went away. On t...

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