2019-12-01 "I want 400 teachers"

There's an old saying, "The early bird gets the worm." But what happens when a whole flock shows up early?

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On Sunday, TNKR held its 98th Language Matching session. We had 7 North Korean refugees join as students--four of them arrived before 9 AM, which is the earliest time we allow them to arrive. We tell them not to arrive before 9 AM. In our early days, we didn't have our own office, so students couldn't could not arrive early. After we got our own office, students were then able to arrive earlier, with one breaking our system by arriving at 1 am. That's when we began telling students not to arrive before 9 AM.

Their arrival times on Sunday?

8:00 AM

8:15 AM

8:30 AM

9:00 AM

***

When one of the students was introducing herself, she said she wanted 400 tutors. Wait, it turned out she meant she wanted 14 (every tutor in the room). In the end, she got 7 tutors.

The refugees chose 4.7 tutors on average.

Two refugees chose 7 tutors each.

One refugee chose 6 tutors.

Two refugees chose 4 tutors each.

Two refugees chose 2 tutors each.

***

Gender breakdown of refugees:

6 females, 1 male

***

We had 14 tutors participate in this session. Every tutor got selected at least twice, and four agreed to be selected three times (the maximum that we allow).

To get 14 tutors at the session:

* I led the recruitment, which is usually tough this time of year coming off the Thanksgiving holiday and with the winter travel season coming up.

* TNKR Academic Coordinator Janice Kim led the application process, handling the documents and questions from tutors.

* TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee led much of the Matching session when students and tutors introduced themselves, then Janice and I jumped during the actual selection process to keep things organized.

***

After the refugees made their choices, we had the students and tutors break the ice by greeting each other. We then said goodbye to the students, then I conducted the "Ethics and Advocacy" workshop designed by Fred Byeon who has numerous credentials in victim advocacy and workplace issues. It seems that tutors take things more seriously and aren't seeing TNKR as a hangout joint or social club. One tutor even said: "I love how you are so strict."

After that, we discussed the refugees in a bit more detail with TNKR co-founder Eunkoo Lee taking the lead again, and I added some comments based on what I heard from refugees during the initial interview.

***

A few hours ago, Janice and Eunkoo connected the refugees and tutors. We now have a "Practice Day" for both sides to experiment with appointments. Janice posted many links, including the TNKR Track 1 Guide put together by Volunteer Outreach Adviser Daniel Cashmar.

***

The only downside is this particular group did no fundraising in advance. Last month's tutors raised 1.5 million won, enough to pay TNKR's rent and utilities for a month and taking pressure off us so we can focus on TNKR rather than fundraising ourselves. If they get close to us, they will see that our clothes are always on fire about this because we need to build a sustainable organization, and our volunteers who come to us have a major role in this.

They seem to be starting, however! A few have become monthly donors, and one volunteer raised 200,000 won within hours of starting her fundraiser.

***

We are trying to establish a culture with two people (refugee and tutor) coming together on neutral terms (study or business center, not with the refugee humbly going to the tutor) with minimum distractions (no gifts, socializing, hanging out) and no debates about irrelevant issues (who pays for study sessions).

***

We will take a short break from Track 1 so we can focus on developing Track 3. We now have had about 440 refugees study with 993 volunteer tutors and speech coaches in Tracks 1 and 2.

Thanks to support from donors behind the scenes, we have continued to grow, and now that we are somewhat financially stable, we have been able to considering ways to expand programming.

Support TNKR: www.lovetnkr.org/donate

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