Students reach out to Dongjak district youths

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Students reach out to Dongjak district youths

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Volunteer teachers pose with Dongjak district chief Kim Woo-jung, front row center, and Chung-Ang University professor Hwan Young-park, at far left, during the orientation for Go Go Global Language Class. Clockwise from top left: Alexander Oost, Wu Fei, Paul Higa, Kim Dong-bin, Justy Li, Nicola Liu, Sun Hao, Teresa Li, Kim Woo-jung, Wang Qian.

A room filled with middle and high school students in the Dongjak district of Seoul became an orientation ground last Monday to launch a unique language program.
“Raise your hands if you think you’ve never had help from anybody. OK, now raise your hands if you did receive any sort of help,” said a volunteer from the Dongjak Volunteer Bank during the launching of “Go Go ― Global Language Class,” a volunteer program in which students from Chung-Ang University’s international program teach their native languages to underprivileged children.
Half of the around 80 students in the room slowly raised their hands as the host went on to say, “From the time we were born, we were destined to receive help from others as well as to give help.”
As the result of an agreement between Chung-Ang University’s International Center and Dongjak district officials on Feb. 22 this year, the “Go Go ― Global Language Class” was born.
The aim of the program is to help students from the Dongjak area to learn either English or Chinese from 10 international students at the school’s International Center and six Chung-Ang University undergraduates majoring in English. There will be 11 classes altogether (six English classes and five Chinese classes), which will be held from March 26 to June 11 at Chung-Ang University.
At the orientation, Kim Woo-jung, the district chief of Dongjak, made an opening speech thanking the university for making this kind of program possible.
“As we are now all living in a global age, the students in Dongjak, especially students who do not have many chances to learn a foreign language, need programs like this. I am so glad to see these native speakers volunteer,” he said.
Justy Li, who will be one of the teachers for the English language program, said, “I want to become a teacher so I thought this would be a good learning experience for me.”
Li also said that she wanted to study Korean and elementary education while in Korea.
During the orientation, the students seemed a bit tense as they would need to be tested to rate their foreign language ability and divide them into different level classes.
“I applied because one of the teachers at my school introduced me to this program. I’m excited to interact with native speakers,” said Hong Suk-yeon, a seventh grade student who was sitting in the front row during the orientation.


By Cho Jae-eun Staff Writer [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
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