Busan is good

Volunteer teachers help foreign women Koreanize, Busan globalize

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Two volunteer Korean language teachers are building special relationships with migrant women in Busan.

Kim Ki-ja, a 52-year-old middle school Korean language teacher, and Lee Sung-nim, a 40-year-old translator and interpreter for Korean and Chinese, have been teaching Korean to foreign women since last year when a women's cultural center approached them to teach migrant female workers and the foreign brides of Korean men.

The Busan Metropolitan City Women's Cultural Center (http://wcc.busan.go.kr/) began offering the free classes to help migrant women better understand Korean language, culture and society. "They experience difficulties in Korea due to cultural and linguistic differences," said Kim Jong Lan, the center's counseling director.

Having taught beginning and intermediate Korean for eight months, the two female volunteers say they are learning a lot from the migrant women as well.

Both say they have learned cultural differences and gained other perspectives on Korean society from their mostly Vietnamese, Chinese and Russian students.

Lee says she can sympathize with those who complain about mistreatment at home and communication problems that lead to misunderstandings. Students also talk about problems their children face at school since they look different from the other kids, according to Lee.

Though most of their students lack time to study and practice Korean at home, the teachers say all 56 students are enthusiastic about learning and helping each other progress.

One Russian student, Alexandra, could not speak any Korean at first but now speaks quite fluently and is preparing for the Korean language exam to become a naturalized citizen.

Emma and other Filipinas in the class could not write a word in Hangeul, but they now send text messages to their teacher Kim in complete Korean sentences.

The teachers say they volunteer to help the women and to help Korea take small steps toward becoming a truly accepting globalized society.

The source of news : Korea.net   January 13, 2007