UNSRC Korean Cultural Society

Kim Jung-joo

A primary school in Bern, Switzerland becomes a Korean language school every Wednesday afternoon. The courses were initiated by Kim Jung-joo (69) who settled down in Bern after her marriage in 1964. There were only about 10 Koreans in Bern at the time. “I had to learn German just to survive,” she says.

In 1994 Kim’s interest in the Korean language revived. When she came back home from a trip to Korea that year, her three daughters greeted her in German. “I began to regret not having taught Korean to my daughters and only encouraging them to learn German so they weren’t looked down on in Switzerland,” she says.

So she visited some 30 Korean families living in Bern, to persuade the parents that their children will have a chance to work for Korea only if they can speak the language. Kim visited the Education Office in Bern after securing four mothers as teachers, and it agreed to provide support for a Korean language school every Wednesday at Manuelschulhaus.

The school started on Nov. 2, 1996, and Kim was named its first principal of the school. It offered classes for kindergarten and elementary students as well as adults, accepting Korean adoptees and children of cross-cultural couples. So far, over 120 people have studied in the Korean school. “Now all Korean parents in Bern send their children to the school,” Kim says. “I don’t even have to visit all the families to persuade them to send their kids.”

englishnews@chosun.com / Jun. 22, 2009 08:01 KST