Many Koreans here dedicate themselves to studying English with the sole aspiration that their proficiency will some day translate into middle-class employment.
But 29-year-old Jang Eun-mi wants to leverage her foreign language ability to help people oppressed in North Korea.
“I really want to become a specialist in North Korean studies and will do my best in order to help people suffering from the North Korean dictatorial government,” Jang said during a media event at the residence of British Ambassador to Korea Scott Wightman. She was there to help kick off the second of a special English language program offered to North Koreans by the British Council in Seoul called “English for the Future.”
Jang completed the program, which is now registering new students in its second year running. It offers young Koreans from the North struggling to acclimate in the South opportunity by providing free-of-charge courses in English language and on British and American culture.
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North Korean students (front row) pose for a photo with British Ambassador to Korea Scott Wightman (third from left, back row), Minister of Unification Yu Woo-ik (fourth from left) and Hugo Swire (third from left), inister of state in charge of East Asia at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, at Wightman’s residence in Seoul, Tuesday. (British Embassy) |
Some 74 mostly young people completed the program last year and 65 new students are so far enrolled this year, the embassy said.
She said she left North Korea for the South for “freedom” and a better life. Today she is studying business administration at a local university.
She said she never had a chance to study English, which is widely understood here as essential for a decent-paying job, because students in the North are taught to hate America.
There are 24,000 other Koreans with stories like Jang’s, according the Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik, who was on hand at the ambassador’s residence. That is the number of North Koreans who have resettled in the South. Tens of thousands more have fled starvation and political repression across a porous border dividing North Korea and China.
“Two years ago I started to learn English in order to survive but nowadays I have been studying it to achieve my dream,” she said.
“We want people from North Korea who come to South Korea to have the ability that other Koreans here have, to study English, and have every support to assimilate and to get really good jobs,” said Hugo Swire, British minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. “I would like to see more people coming through this program.”
Another British diplomat said that the “English for the Future” program is one clear demonstration of the United Kingdom’s commitment to human rights.
“New settlers of North Korean origin often feel nervous and isolated and do not have the opportunity or resources that many other South Koreans have to study English, which is a necessary skill here to get good paying jobs,” Swire said.
By Philip Iglauer (
ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)
