KF뉴스레터-The KF Global Challengers Program

KF Korean-Language Education Internship

I’m on the outskirts of San José, the nation’s capital, where the weather is a steady 25 degrees, with warm and clear skies. After the university’s spring semester commenced on March 7, there was a week of welcoming activities before classes and the launch of other programs. I teach two Korean language courses this semester. Each class meets for three hours, twice a week, giving me 12 total teaching hours. While one class has only 25 students, my beginner’s course is so full that students have been turned away. When I’m not teaching, I prepare lessons in my office or counsel students. In the evenings, I take Spanish classes twice a week. In March, I attended traditional performances hosted by the local Korean embassy as well as symposiums and lectures on Korea and Southeast Asia. In April, I assisted in preparations to host a Korea-related event during the university’s festival week.
After living here for a month, I sensed that Costa Ricans were very refined and composed. I also experienced no particular inconveniences to ensure my safety. I stayed with a local family recommended by the school, but those who plan ahead can find reasonable share houses near the school. After obtaining a temporary visa from the Korean embassy through complicated paperwork, you need to apply again for a volunteer visa, which is also inconvenient, so I advise visitors to bring all the necessary paperwork and apply on-site so as to avoid repeated processes. Furthermore, administrative restrictions prevent new arrivals from creating bank accounts right away, so it’s important to plan your finances accordingly.

National University of Costa Rica
Park Seon-jeong

KF Library Internship

The USC Korean Heritage Library was founded in 1986 to provide an archive for Korean Studies research. Korea-related texts constitute over 50 percent of the university’s East Asian Library, giving the Korean Heritage Library an unrivaled presence on the premises, so it’s no surprise this is one of the leading Korean Studies libraries in the United States.
One of my main duties was to attend the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC), an event for sharing resources and promoting cooperation among Californian libraries. Under this year’s theme of quantitative research methodology, I attended several lectures that taught me about the various statistics and surveys I can access through libraries as well as the projects conducted by libraries in the past. I was also put in charge of organizing and categorizing documents for the National Guild. They were mostly documents concerning the Korean independence movement in the United States. It was exhilarating for me to deal directly with documents from over 100 years ago. Previously, the activist Ahn Changho (also known as Dosan) had been a mere figure in a history textbook, but after seeing the original records documenting his life and meeting his third-born son Ralph Ahn, history has vividly come alive for me.
Throughout my internship, I learned the importance of being ambitious and proactive. That’s because aggressive library marketing and active demands to increase archives produce a unique collection that propels the library’s progress. Furthermore, to meet donators with rare documents, you need to proactively attend various events while expanding your social and professional networks.