My Korean Speech

I really want to post as much as I can in Korean but it really vexes me that i cannot find a computer to type Korean into. I will try to at some point post my speech here in korean, but this might take a little while 'cause I first will need to write it out by hand, then get one of my Korean friends to type it in on their computer because I don't have Korean font capability.

Like I said, I actually changed my topic the morning of my speech because it was to be about the similarities between my cultural heritage, Irish Immigrant culture from the 1950's, and Immigrant Korean culture in the 2000's. However I had some argument/disagreement with my parents about my attending Korean School that morning and felt embarrased about my culture at that moment so decided not to give my speech. In the end Kyo Gam Teacher convinced me to just go up and say hello because people wanna see who i am so in the end I went up and the words just came out...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~MY SPEECH~~~~~~~~

The speech was as I said 'off the top of my head' so I don't have it written down of course, but it was basically a little introduction to myself with the preface that to know about what I love you first need to know about who I am and my values. I discussed my education and work history in Hamilton and Auckland and the reason that lead to me change my life direction to start a master of applied linguistics at waikato in 2007. This reason was because I found that I needed to give meaning to my life and use my skills and I hate sitting behind a desk all day!! A career in education uses my talents, enables me to meet some wonderful people and most importantly gives meaning to my life.

So what does that have to do with loving Waikato Korean School you ask? Well...Waikato Korean School is founded by a group of parents who want their children to know their home country and culture and is rooted in a deep respect for education and its innate value. I agree with this. I then gave the quote by Nelson Mandela 1994 "Education is the greatest weapon we have to change the world". I said that I believe in this and I think that the people in front of me do to.

Secondly, I said that B S Skinner, an American Psychologist said in 1990 "Education is what is left when everything you have learned has been forgotten". I explained that Education is not maths, or science or economics - it is much more than these things. It is our responsiblity to give our children the values and Korean culture that shows them who they are and why they are here. If we want to have a good future in this world, then education is the main hope we have. I said that Korean School teaches the Korean children in hamilton to love themselves and their culture and this is so important, so I love Korean School for this.

Finally, I said that Education....long pause..................is....love. In my opinion that is. I said that I do not believe that you can really hope to teach someone, really hope to give them true education without giving a part of yourself through your love. All good teachers know this. And I feel alot of love around everytime I come to Korean School and the atmosphere of love is what their children need in order to receive a good education. I said this is the second reason I love Korean School.

~~~~~~~~~~~THE END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every single student at Waikato Korean Schhol was encouraged to go up and say something, even if it was only to say Anyong~haseyo! Some small children of 5 or 6 could only go up and hold their teachers hand but i thought that was great and they were pretty cute^^