14일 「TaLK Alumni/New Scholar Gathering」개최

 

주밴쿠버총영사관 (총영사 정병원)은 14일(화) 다운타운 밴쿠버 도서관에서 정부초청영어봉사장학생(TaLK)으로 활동 한 장학생들을 초청해 ‘TaLK Alumni/New Scholar Gathering’ 행사를 진행했다.
정부초청영어봉사장학생(TaLK)은 재외동포 및 캐네디언이 장학금과 거주 등 혜택을 받으면서 한국의 농산어촌 초등학교에서 영어를 가르치는 봉사하는 대학생 및 졸업생들을 말한다.
이 날 행사장에는 봉사 장학생과 친구, 지인 등 총 60여명이 함께했다. 이들은 장학생들이 TaLK를 준비했던 과정과 한국에서 초등학생들과 나누었던 추억 그리고 한국에서의 생활담을 들으며 TaLK에 대한 경험을 공유했다.
정병원 총영사는 인사말을 통해 한국과 캐나다의 과거부터 현재까지의 지속되는 양국간의 친밀한 관계를 설명하는 한편 장학생들이 계속해서 한국에 대해 관심을 갖고 서로 네트워크를 마련해 한국에 대한 관심을 앞으로도 계속해 가져줄 것을 당부했다.
총 2시간에 걸쳐 진행된 행사에서 장학생과 친구들은 한국의 매운 음식먹기 도전, 한국과 관련된 퀴즈와 게임 그리고 한류공연과 영상 감상 등을 보며 즐거운 시간을 보냈다.
나용욱 부총영사는 “이 행사는 TaLK 참여 신청자가 주로 기존 장학생의 소개를 받은 지인인 만큼 기존 장학생 외에도 그들의 지인이나 친구들을 함께 초청해 TaLK 홍보를 강화하고 캐나다내 친한 분위기 조성을 위해 준비했다”고 설명했다.

 

 

My TaLK Life

Hi, my name is Lisa Lee and I am a 15th generation TaLK scholar who was placed in the province, Jeollabuk-do. For those of you who are not too familiar, Jeollabuk-do is a province located about three hours South of Seoul. It’s almost in the middle of the country, which makes it really convenient for you to travel to other provinces in Korea. It’s also known for its great food like Bibimbap, and lots of tourist sites like the Hanok Village. In the village, you can try on traditional Korean clothing called “Hanbok” and walk around taking nice photos. There’s also the Jeonbuk soccer team, where Dong-gook Lee, who is one of the casts from the popular Korean reality show “The Return of Superman,” plays.

The school that I was placed in was in a town called Gimje, which was about a thirty minute commute from Jeonju city, where I was living. Now, my school was pretty small. There were only thirty-five students in the whole school, and that was including nine from kindergarten. It was really different from what I was used to growing up, but it was a nice change, as I got to know everyone in the school and it kind of felt like we were one big family.

As for teaching, I remember the students being so shocked during my first class because I was from Canada, although I clearly looked like one of them yet I “couldn’t” speak Korean. I remember for the first few weeks, there were always a few kids spying on me to see if they could catch me speaking Korean. Now, the first day of teaching wasn’t too bad, but by the end of the first week I felt really burnt out. I had experienced kids fighting, crying, acting too cool for my class, and overall, being very distracted. However, it really did get better throughout the year.

As I got to know the students and they got to know me, classroom management became easier, lesson planning took less time and teaching actually became fun. Since I wasn’t teaching from a curriculum, I got to be creative with my lessons and try out things, even if they failed. Because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if your students remember your lessons perfectly, as long as they had fun in your class and you built a spark of interest in them to continue learning English.

During my time I got to experience many events happening in the school, like the talent show, where I prepared the students to perform in front of their families. I also got to go on field trips, where I got to see some really cool places in Korea. There were even days like Pepero Day, which is similar to Valentine’s Day but you give Pepero instead, where I felt so loved by the students giving me their precious Peperos. I also taught winter camp, where we did things like painting ourselves as superheroes and playing Running Man.

During my last days of teaching, I felt really sad to leave as I had bonded so much with my students, more than I could have ever imagined during the initial first week of classes. I couldn’t believe how time flew by and how much I had grown as a teacher and as a person. To this day, TaLK is one of the best, if not the best experience I’ve had, and I am so glad that I took the opportunity when I had the chance.

I know that each and everyone’s TaLK journey can be different, and I am certainly not saying that the whole experience is going to be easy. But I can assure you that by the end of your journey, it will be one of the most life-changing experiences that will have a far greater impact in your life than a single line on your resume, although it is good for that too.

Lisa Lee
5th Generation TaLK Scholar

 

본 기고는 한국정부초청영어봉사장학생(TaLK)에 지난 2014년 9월부터 2015년 7월까지 참여했던 Lisa Lee (UBC 사회학과졸) 씨가 이 날 행사장에서 발표했던 프리젠테이션 영어원고를 바탕으로 정설한 내용을 게재합니다.