2015-04-28 TNKR: Tears and laughs with British Association

The Teach North Korean Refugees project presented this morning to the British Association of Seoul (BASS). The event was absolutely lovely, the audience was engaged and respectful, and yet they weren't not afraid to laugh along with the speakers.

First, from two of the emails I received shortly after the event:

Attendee A: "It was quite a moving morning hearing such heart-rendering stories."

Attendee B: "Thank you for organizing and bringing together the North Korean presenters today. Each of their testimonies was moving and an eye-opener I think for all of us."

I kicked off the event by talking about the volunteer project we were trying to develop into an official organization.

Sharon was speaking publicly for the first time. She's a newcomer to South Korea, a newcomer to our project, and a newcomer to English. We politely encouraged her to speak in Korean, but she was determined to try it in English. She did, and had the audience in tears, even before she began crying. Then, she began crying.

It was a rare case of having more male than female speakers. Yeongnam recently joined us as a speaker. As he listened to Sharon speak, he also started crying. Then did so again when he was speaking. He clearly had been affected by what she had said.

Sungju Lee, the winner of TNKR's first English speech contest, was the third and final speaker.

Within the last six weeks, I have seen American businesses, lawyers, soldiers and now British soccer moms cry as they listened to the first-hand stories of North Korean refugees. None of them are overly dramatic, news reporters and NK study experts looking for "man bites dog" angles would be bored. But every day people can relate to these stories about people who have escaped from hell to freedom and are now enjoying every breath.

Several of the audience members told me the same thing: The morning reminded them how lucky they were to have been born into freedom with first-world problems. Yes, but reminded them that such talk is great, but I hope they will back it up with action to help others who were not so lucky.

And I really must thank the coaches in the project. One speaker at a basic level made it through her speech. Each of her four coaches took time to push her in advance. Another speaker was markedly improved from his first speech, so much more confident. And the third speaker, wow. When I grow up, I hope to be able to give speeches the way he does!

We had international media at the event, so you may be seeing some footage from the event within a few weeks.

Special thanks to coaches Clare JH Yun, Peter Daley, Inja Jeon, Yohan, Dsp Poet, Karissa Bryant, Fiona Fong, Paul Jennings, Amélie Lacroix. And of course the TNKR executive team, Casey Lartigue, Lee Eunkoo, Suzanne Stewart, and Cherie Yang.

On the BASS home page

https://www.facebook.com/British.Association.of.Seoul/posts/10152960387803772

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

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