Eunmi Park: "We escaped together."

Eunmi Park is back at the FSI office to record another video!

She had to work on her own for a while today because I was getting prepared to give a speech.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSWPJPxPKg0

Update:

Yesterday started off as a typical day at Freedom Speakers International. Work, work, work.

Then, in the afternoon, it became WORK, WORK, WORK!!!

In the early afternoon, we notified some teachers from a university English teaching program that they had been selected by North Korean refugees. Many people don't check their emails so we are still waiting to confirm with some volunteers.

At 3 pm, I had a Zoom call with Greenlight to Freedom co-author Songmi Han to get prepared for our speech starting three hours later.

At 4 pm, Eunmi Park arrived. She worked on her next YouTube video until almost 6 pm.

I was putting the finishing touches on a 60-minute speech that I was going to be giving at 6 pm.

Our staff then set up the camera, but at first the sound on my microphone was low (I hope it got fixed, I talked anyway).

At 6 pm, I started the speech, Eunmi went out.

While she was out, Songmi and I gave speeches to a university class with 235 students attending (and they had their cameras on).

After that, FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee was reminding me about the many things that I had not completed.

Then Eunmi returned... at 9:30 pm to finish recording her next YouTube video.

But wait! She had a class with her new mentor scheduled for 10 pm. It was the first class, she thought it would last maybe 15 to 30 minutes... then an hour later, they finally wrapped up. She is now getting a lot of pop-up volunteers offering to teach her English, but today she saw what a serious and professional tutor is like! They had originally discussed meeting once or twice a week--now, she wants to study with him three times a week.

Then, after 11 pm, she got back to her YouTube video. She practiced alone, then I assisted with the recording (mainly, pronunciation).

Finally, at 12:40 a.m., we wrapped up the recording.

If this post looks chaotic, good! I was trying to show what the last 10 hours have been like at the FSI office. This doesn't even include all of the other work we have during the day.

I checked my email and Facebook, wondering, how in the world can I explain this.

Oh...and Eunmi will be back... it is now Thursday morning, she will be back Thursday afternoon/evening.

I sometimes see comments on her YouTube videos about a couple of pronunciation issues. Well, we will accept that as congratulations!

When we first start a script (translated from what she has written in Korean), then edited, then re-edited, then checked for accuracy, we are celebrating that there are only a few pronunciation issues. There are many things that go into recording a video, especially for someone doing so in her third language.

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