Two Oxbridge graduates mentor North Korean defectors

Kang Shin-woo, left, an Oxford University graduate, and Park Soo-hong, right, who gained a Ph.D. at Cambridge University, pose with Lee Jung-hyuk, a North Korean defector who attends Sogang University, at their study room in Seoul. / Courtesy of Oxbridge English Class

By Park Jin-hai

• Published Oct 12, 2015 4:11 PM KST
• Updated Oct 12, 2015 4:11 PM KST

By Park Jin-hai

Two graduates, one from Oxford, the other from Cambridge, have joined hands to mentor North Korean defectors in Seoul.

Park Soo-hong, 30, Ph.D in mechanical engineering at Cambridge and CEO of IT startup Bagel Production, and Kang Shin-woo, 28, an Oxford graduate who heads the design company Artisan, have been running a small sized English class called Oxbridge since April for university students who defected from North Korea.

“Graduates from both Oxford and Cambridge started having joint social meetings three years ago in Korea, putting away the age-old rivalry that separated us in the U.K. Over time, we came to look for something different than the ordinary dinner-at-a-hotel thing,” said Kang, who studied politics, economics and philosophy.

“We wanted do something meaningful and return what good we have learned back to society here in Korea. Then we came to the idea of teaching English to students who had defected from North Korea,” Park said.

The two teach English to five to six students twice a week. Kang teaches them listening and speaking; while Park teaches grammar.

Kang said while he was teaching English to them, he learned anew the difficulties those students face in fitting into society and how inadequate government programs are. As a political science student, he had chances to meet North Koreans, but not as close as meeting them every week, he said.

“Now I understand them personally, for instance, that they have a hard time just coming to class on time because they had never been in a proper educational system before, and that even if they are accepted at selective universities here, a lack of English skills further separates them from South Korean students,” he said.

Kang said although many NGOs and big institutes offer free programs for North Korean defectors, they largely are less effective because they are program-based and not relationship-based.

“I think the idea of big classes doesn’t work. We pursue a small class, matching Oxbridge graduates with them in mentor-mentee relationships where they can build true friendships.”

Park said that from his teaching experience he started to learn that the two Koreas are not so distant. “I learned that all people are the same. The small differences are just because they were under a different rule. Now I feel closer to them,” he said.

Their joint big project is to send one student to a masters’ course in the U.K. “He is our one big project. It seems like a tall order because he wants to study journalism in the U.K., but thinking of him making it, we would be really proud of ourselves,” Park said.

The two plan to make it a social movement here where people readily give their time and talent to help the needy North Korean defectors.

“I think there are many people all too happy to share their talents within a boundary that doesn’t require much. It is small help from the giver’s side, but can be a big help on the receiving end,” said Park.

He added that the British Embassy is helping them a lot here. “The British Embassy, which also offers free English classes, has great interest in the North Korean issue. When we were at a recent British Embassy sponsored bar night for all British university alumni in Korea, the embassy raised funds for us, while others volunteered to join us,” said Kang.

“We want to make it a social movement where people help others within the circle of British university graduates at first and then transfer this to all of society,” added Park.