TNKR's most popular Website page

That's right, the most popular page on TNKR's Website is.... the budget page!

Yes, boring budget information is what people click on the most, even faster than refugee testimonials. If every person who checked the budget page became a monthly donor of at least $5 a month, then TNKR would already be financially sustainable!

Here's our 2019 audited budget information, as translated by staffer Young-Ah Kim. You can also see the history of our budget from 2015-2019. Knowing how interested people are in budget issues, we started posting this information even before we became an official organization.
https://lovetnkr.org/tnkr-budget/

One thing is clear: TNKR is winning! Every day we hear about success stories from students and volunteers. This morning's inspiring messages are from two TNKR students who passed the first round in a competitive scholarship competition. They said they never would have had a chance without TNKR being with them. They will visit next week to discuss the next round.

We naturally focus on the refugees, but TNKR has had a profound impact on many volunteers. That's why, despite our focus on transparency, protecting refugee privacy, and focusing on education rather than socializing, we still have many volunteers come to us and those who are in South Korea will come long distances to tutor. The latest: An applicant from Jeju!

This morning's inspiring message from a volunteer comes from long-term volunteer tutor and monthly donor Kim Goldsmith. She tutored a refugee last night at the TNKR office. She wrote the following about it:

"I have been tutoring (E) in Track 1 since October 2019. She is so fun to teach, due to her love of children's stories. Each week she comes prepared to retell a fairy tale, folk tale, or Disney story she has found on the Internet, as a unique way of learning English. I can't help but smile when (E) pours hear heart and soul into recounting the tales, even on a day when my two hour commute to Seoul from work has almost gotten the best of me. (E)'s perseverance, positive attitude, and enthusiasm to study English, even after a long day or when she isn't feeling well is inspirational. Working with (E) has reconnected me to childhood stories I have long forgotten and showed me how timeless tails can connect two people from very different worlds."

Yes! TNKR is winning! Students are learning in ways they enjoy and that empowers them, volunteers are having great experiences tutoring and mentoring, we are now starting a project getting refugees prepared for employment and education opportunities, and we even have a popular budget page that has the potential to match our great project.

Regards,

Casey Lartigue Jr.
International Director
Teach North Korean Refugees
http://l.ead.me/casey (follow me on Social Media)

Kim's student picked a few more children's books to study. The books were donated to TNKR a few months ago.

They were studying, but took a break long enough for me to get a photo.

2019-12-19 Interview with Japanese reporter

"The interview is the honeymoon, publication is the divorce." --Shinae Chun I had a GREAT and FUN interview today with a reporter from Japan. Let's hope publication will also be great! www.lovetnkr.og

Chosun Monthly magazine [Korean language]

Chosun Monthly Magazine has made an announcement (in Korean) about the Seoul Honorary Citizenship award that I received on December 9, 2022. Our Korean staffers say that the magazine is a big deal in South Korea. Here's the overall roundup of media about the award. In the next two months, I have extended interviews coming up in two different magazines, one in the USA and one in South Korea. Both articles will be in respected publications so they should raise awareness of FSI's work that your support makes possible. * * * Support FSI via Stripe or PayPal . https://donate.stripe.com/3cs28F5IAcc85IAaEF or PayPal .

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...

On The Character Of Characters

What Casey hits on in the post below, regarding "character" and Rush's blatant misunderstanding of same, highlights the problems of people who are not terribly literate or educated (regardless of their claims) attempting to interpret 200 year old language. I discovered this in elementary school, looking at older documents that were full of "ye" and stange looking "f" letters. Turned out that the "y" in "ye" is actually shorthand for "th," while the funny "f" is actually the equivalent of the German S-zet - a double "s." What Adams or Madison or Hamilton (whenever Rush finally gets it right) describes in the Federalist #69 is not the "character" of the executive, but rather what today we would call "characteristics of the office of president." There is, by the way, excellent reading in there for those few still interested in comparing the current administration's actions with wh...

Chanyang Ju’s discussion with travelers visiting South Korea (2022-09-13)

North Korean refugee Chanyang Ju was the featured speaker at a Freedom Speakers International (FSI) event with tourists visiting South Korea. I first met Chanyang in 2012 just as I got involved with activism related to North Korean refugees. At that time, she was an ABC-level speaker. In 2014, she gave the most incredible testimonial about me . It is amazing to see her giving a speech in English without any notes and engaging the audience even as they interrupt her during her unscripted remarks. I started the event by introducing a bit about FSI and Chanyang. Chanyang was engaging and humorous. It was clear to the audience that she was speaking with them, not at them. They started asking questions shortly after she started and kept it for the entire event. It went beyond audience members asking questions. They were trying to finish her sentences . When she struggled with vocabulary they were guessing what the word might be . It was an audience that was clearly ...

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