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Pioneering teacher plans second North Korean trip
Tim Kearns, who believes he is the first Westerner to have taught in a North Korean school, is raising money for a second trip to the isolationist country next year.
Tim, a teacher at St Joseph’s School in Papanui, Christchurch, has secured a $6000 grant from the Council for World Mission to help fund three months in North Korea next year.
He taught English in North Korea from April to June 2006, after an introduction from the New Zealand Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Friendship Society, of which Presbyterian minister Don Borrie is a member. Tim says the society, and Don in particular, are highly regarded in North Korea. NZDPK has a relationship with a farm and with one of the schools at which Tim taught.
Tim made contact with the society while researching possibilities in North Korea. He had lived in Japan for several years, visited North Korea as a tourist, and become interested in doing some volunteer work.
He says that, as far as he is aware, it was the first time that a foreign teacher had been allowed to teach in a North Korean school. He would ask teachers in the schools how other visitors had done things, and they would reply “you’re it”.
During his visit, Tim spent two days a week at three different schools in Pyongyang, the capital. One of these was a typical middle school, which covers students aged between 11 and 16, while the other two were focused on elite students. Tim says he was surprised at the strength of English in the students at these schools. “You could have pretty good conversations with 13 year olds.”
He found life in North Korea “simple and generally uncomplicated”. He lived and ate in a hotel, with washing and cleaning done for him. He would teach every morning, have a break in the early afternoon and then hold a seminar for teachers in the late afternoon. Coming up with resources was his main challenge, he says, with the teachers open to new ideas to a much greater degree than he had expected. By the end of the three months, he was holding small-group planning sessions rather than presenting information in the more usual North Korean lecture-style.
At the end of the day he would often go for a run; there was one street down which he was permitted to go unaccompanied. At other times, he would always have a translator or guide with him. Tim says “security issues” were the reason given for this, with an emphasis on his safety and the provision of correct hospitality.
Other expats in Pyongyang talked of hitting continual brick walls and finding relationships hard to develop, but this wasn’t his experience. He says he found people to be genuine and easy to get along with, and had plenty of opportunities to socialise with other teachers, who were very curious about New Zealand’s education and way of life.
“I came out of some teachers’ meetings just feeling exhausted. They really wanted to know things; particularly about our education system but also definitions of terms like ‘top 40 chart’ and ‘club sandwich’.
“I found them pretty open minded. I didn’t really find I had to change myself for them.”
Tim says a long term aim would be hosting a couple of North Korean teachers so they could learn about the New Zealand education system.
He hopes to raise additional funding before his next trip so that he can take some resources with him, as well as taking some materials donated by New Zealanders. Even things like chalk and blue-tack are useful, he says, along with A4 paper, chart paper, white board markers and scissors. Ideally he also hopes to have a laptop and data projector to take with him, as well as educational DVDs.
Don Borrie says the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand has been the major support agency for work in North Korea.
A relationship has been developed with the Korean Christian Federation, which has two churches in Pyongyang and also runs some theological education programmes. Tim says he visited one of these churches several times, while also attending services at a Catholic church.
Parishes interested in donating resources or material to North Korea can contact Tim via timkearns(at)hotmail.com
By Amanda Wells