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Five lessons from education warrior

When I left the stage after giving the keynote address to the 43rd World Youth Rally in Seoul on July 22, I was cheered like a conquering hero. There was so much love and admiration for me that, more than a week later, some of them may still be cheering.

2018-08-01 16:57

Is this schooling trip necessary for all?

If I told you that I had discovered a fun way for you to put yourself into debt, that you would be unemployed for months or years after going through my four-year program, and if you got hired that you would be working at menial jobs for a while?

2018-06-26 15:53

'Three kinds of people'

If you do much reading, attend public speeches or listen to podcasts, then you have come across many speakers categorizing “three kinds of people.” There seem to be as many groups of threes as there are people.

2018-05-28 16:41

Reporters and refugees

Whenever I receive a request for a media interview, I recall what the late Chun Shin-ae said about journalism: “The interview is the honeymoon, publication is the divorce.”

2018-04-24 15:59

North Korea's puppet show

North Korea's slow-motion hijacking of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics wasn't the usual North Korean hijacking of airplanes or abductions of people. Dictatorship 2.0 was a puppet show of cheerleaders, musicians, dancers, and athletes as part of North Korea's so-called “charm offensive.”

2018-02-26 17:57

English only for North Korean refugees

At last, I have concluded we must ban bilingual tutors who insist on using Korean when tutoring North Korean refugees in English in my nonprofit organization. This is not a rash decision and I'm still open to counter-arguments, but they will have to be damned good to counter the feedback I have heard from many refugees.

2018-01-29 18:19

Lack of donations

In late 2016, an influential South Korean colleague predicted that my fledgling nonprofit organization will have trouble raising funding because Koreans probably fear that I, an American, would run away with the money.

2017-12-25 14:29

Dumb questions about NK refugees

People who say there is no such thing as a bad question apparently haven't attended forums featuring North Korean refugees. The questioners may mean well, but some people ignorant about North Korea ask ridiculous questions that are only topped by those of experts.

2017-11-20 17:32

[Roundtable] $1 mil. bounty on Kim's head

No matter how much some people hate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, North Korean escapee Lee Ae-ran hates him even more. At the entrance of her North Korean-styled restaurant in downtown Seoul, you can add a donation to her fundraising jar raising $1 million to put a bounty on the head of the current North Korean dictator. As I explained last week after my speech at the Houses of Parliament (UK), I’m not suggesting that all or even most North Korean escapees agree with Lee. I am confident, however, that President Trump would find a receptive audience among many North Korean escapees durin...

2017-11-06 16:42

Even the translator cried

It happened. Halfway during a beautiful forum last Friday with four North Korean refugees speaking before more than 300 U.S. military members, the moment that I dread happened. A North Korean refugee began to cry. No matter how much we prepare North Korean refugees for public speaking by having them work with speech coaches, teachers and mentors, emotion defeats preparation. The event started off upbeat. The first of four refugee speakers, TNKR Special Ambassador Ken Eom, was addressing the U.S. military for the third time. After his first speech in 2015, Ken said it was “the most unexpected...

2017-10-23 17:54

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Code of Ethics