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Heather Oh /Yonhap
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Heather Oh is one of 380 Korean-Americans and overseas students who volunteered to come to Korea to join the Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK) program. Organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Institute for International Education, the program will dispatch English teachers to rural regions. The 380 participants have been posted to elementary schools in farming, fishing and mountain villages nationwide to teach after-class English programs from Monday.
Oh, from Los Angeles, has a special reason for participating. A tragic incident took her father, who was not a skilled English speaker, a year ago. On Sept. 1, 2007, her father was fatally shot by a robber at a store he delivered beauty products to. When arrested, the robber said he shot because Oh¡¯s father stepped back after being told, ¡°Don¡¯t Move!¡±
Oh said, ¡°I think my father could have survived if he had been able to explain in English that he had no intention to flee." Despite the painful motivating factor, the tragedy made her determined to help Korean immigrants.
Moving to the U.S. in 1997, when she was first grader in a middle school, Oh eventually graduated from the University of California, Irvine. ¡°I want to become a professional interpreter to help Koreans with language difficulties,¡± she said.
¡°The reason I decided to participate in the program is to gain experience for my dream.¡±
Participants like Oh have four weeks of training before being sent to elementary schools for a six-12-month term. Oh began her placement at an elementary school in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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