I came upon the idea of a local Korean language program in 2011 when my 2nd grade, half-Caucasian daughter began asking for Korean school. Although Korean language instruction is important to me, I ended up sitting on this, since there are no Korean schools within a 15 mile radius of San Mateo. Eventually, she declared that she would teach herself the alphabet and how to read – on her own. I decided it was time to act. That summer, during a visit with my father, a veteran Korean school principal, we began twice-a-day Korean “boot camp” lessons. I was amazed how quickly my kids could pick it up. After the visit ended, we continued these lessons weekly via web conference call with my father. This same summer, I met some like-minded Korean moms with grade school children. In the fall, we organized our four families into a co-op style Korean class. We met weekly with our combined seven children for Korean language lessons, cultural study, community and good home-made Korean eating. We created curriculum and gave instruction ourselves. I believe there are many families like mine in the area who would love a Korean language program but have no local resources for it.
With encouragement from these families and my father, I have created a small after-school Korean language program to serve our local community. We served 25 students in our first session during the spring of 2012. I have found this community of families to be very eager and excited to engage their children in Korean language and culture. With the partnership of several talented and passionate instructors, we hope to continue offering programming that enriches our children’s educational and social perspectives.
Stay tuned and thanks for checking us out. Please spread the word!
Warmly,
Binna Kim, Founder
김빛나