Christie Weng Yan Lee

“Past memories are more precious because we can’t go back”

I joined the TaLK program as a member of the 26th generation during the Spring intake of 2021. If we flashbacked to early 2020, I would never have considered participating in TaLK. During that time, I was still very much engrossed into the path I had designed for myself as a young adult in her 20’s. I am a strong headed person and believed strongly in planning my desired future as a university student and firmly following such plans I had made. Yet, plans can never outrun changes. A worldwide pandemic obstructed the turning gears of society and paved a path for isolation with solely digital connections. Likewise, such changes crumbled away my existing plans briskly. However, on a positive note, it was those crumbs that directed me to TaLK.

My TaLK experience is like the very much used term, a blessing in disguise. The sheer magic of Christmas delivered an email to my inbox on the 21st of December 2020. Soon, on February 4th I was boarded onto a plane, opening a new chapter of my life entitled, TaLK. Excitement and fear swallowed me up throughout the training period of TaLK. I had zero experience in teaching a foreign language so my mind was greedy for any bit of information I could retain to calm the inner nerves that were chipping away at my confidence as the wind swiftly blew February away and March arrived. It was revealed that I was placed on an island called Ganghwa-Do within Incheon. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried by the conditions from the word ‘island’ but I can now say proudly that I have come to love my everyday life here. Although Ganghwa is an island, it is not as rural as one would think. It has an abundance of cafes to satisfy my coffee cravings and sweet tooth. There is also a surprisingly large variety of restaurants available here. We even have a Baskin Robbins and Lotteria! There are lots of scenic places to explore in Ganghwa but if you are ever missing the city, Hongdae is just a 1hour and 30 minutes bus away. I truly have the best of both worlds here. Sometimes I even describe myself to have simply moved from one island to another.



Teaching life was never an easy task and certainly one not to be taken lightly. I only realised my heavy responsibilities when I arrived at my school being the only English teacher there. To further elevate my worries, I was fully in charge of curriculum and after school classes. I can only say, it was mentally burdening the first two weeks. I was juggling between finding the right medium to interact with the students and pushing myself to ensure that my teaching is beneficial to them. There were a lot of trial and errors, the biggest being songs! My students have absolutely no reactions to good morning songs. That was my biggest discovery during my first month of teaching and as expected, I stopped playing songs.

After countless failures during my teaching experiments, I changed my mindset of approaching my students. I became very interested in discovering their preferences and interacted with them a lot outside of English class time. One of my biggest discoveries was that they loved playing badminton. The students played badminton as part of their after-school class on Thursday, and it was a class where some of the students I had trouble with enjoy very much. Badminton was a sport filled with happy memories for me as I played competitively throughout middle and high school. I used this opportunity to connect with my students and I play badminton with them every Thursday afternoon. Immediately, this method was effective with my students, and they became more interested when attending English class. So, I can say that it was a complete success!



Apart from badminton, I found that using the first five minutes of class talking to the students really helped with creating a bond with them. Simple hellos and how are you get registered into their minds and as time goes by, they are naturally able to respond to you not only with ‘I’m fine, thank you’ but with varieties such as hungry, tired, so-so, sleepy, wonderful and their recent favourite…hangry. Seeing my students choosing to wave and say hello to me in English when they see me fills my heart as I witnessed their progression frombowing and saying “안녕하세요” into “hello, teacher!” Such changes make me proud.

Children are sensitive and I find that once they build a relationship with you, they become more confident in speaking to you as well as more willing to use English to try and express their feelings. At those moments, language barriers seemed non-existent between the students and the foreign English teacher. They will become a major reason why you grow fond of your surroundings attached to your job. May you treasure the time you have with TaLK dearly since memories are more precious because we can’t go back…