Barbara TS#2

I just finished my second tutoring session with Dojun Kim and it was very interesting.  At Prof. Kim’s suggestion, I sent him the Washington Post article on the recent elections in Korea.  Dojun had some very interesting observations about the process.  He explained to me that there were at least 5 parties in South Korean and that Mr. Moon won by 41% but that he got the majority vote.  I learned Mr. Moon’s election is for 5 years and that presidents serve only one term.  This discussion led to a talk about U.S. elections, term limits and so forth.  I asked Dojun what South Koreans thought of North Korea and he said that he thought that foreigners were more worried about it than people in his country.  Dojun thinks that Kim Jong-un knows he has money and power and that he will lose it if he does anything with a nuclear attack. This thread led to a conversation about military power in S. Korea and I learned that all males between the ages of 19 – 30 were required to serve 2 years in the military.  As it turns out Dojun was in the Air Force which is what led to his current position as a Flight Dispatcher. 

  I thought that English could be important for an Air Traffic Controller but Dojun said that it was not.  Basically, this position needs words like “Climb to 2,000 feet” but not much more.  He explained the difference in the air traffic control job and the flight dispatcher.  Dojun works for a private company while the air traffic control job is governmental.  As a flight dispatcher, Dojun is building on similar experience that he had in the military. 

Dojun speaks well and understands English.  Another part of our conversation concerned the South Korean relationship with China and how it was complicated because China thinks they can control Japan and are seeking economic revenge.  These are not necessarily easy topics to express and they involve conversational knowledge and understanding of specific English terms.  My tutoring thus far has revolved around helping him pronounce and understand terms.  At times, I have to ask him to repeat his thought and then we discuss the word.  We also discussed his fluency and I think that if he were working in an English environment – meaning he was surrounded by English speakers – he would learn quickly and become very fluent.  But as he said, he can’t quit his job and go live abroad for several months.