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Local Entrepreneurs
Mastering Language the Tong Tong Way Where Korean Becomes Easy Interview by Melline Galani
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
April 2021
COMMUNITY
As an international resident living in Gwangju, I know that learning Korean is not only difficult but also time consuming, not to mention that there is the lack of proper classes available! But ever since I discovered Tong Tong Language Class, not only have I acquired more knowledge of the language, but I have also managed to do this in the evenings after finishing work, at my own pace and without any stress. With a desire to help other fellow residents like me, I reached out to the owners of Tong Tong Language Class for an inside and in-depth look at their work. — Melline
Gwangju News (GN): Hello, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please introduce yourselves to our readers. — Hong Song-i: Hello, Melline. My name is Hong Song-i, and I am a native Korean instructor who has lived in Gwangju all of my life – except for a few years when I moved around with my father when I was younger and a single year when I went to the Philippines as an exchange student. — Ahn Pyeong-an: And my name is Ahn Pyeong-an. I teach Korean here at Tong Tong. I am not originally from Gwangju, but I have lived here continuously ever since I completed my military service and entered Chonnam University. Gwangju is my second hometown. GN: How did you become partners and how long have the two of you been working together? — Ahn Pyeong-an: It has been over four years already since I started working at Tong Tong in 2017, but I met Song-i for the first time much earlier than that, in 2008. We met for the first time in Manila in the Philippines, where we were both exchange students and college colleagues together, but now we are partners and joint executives. You may not believe it, but Ms. Hong is older than you think [smiling]. I think I am lucky to have met such a good partner, but it is true that I was hesitant when deciding to work together because I thought about my family first. (I wanted to make a careful decision because she was my wife’s sister.) — Hong Song-i: Pyeong-an said I am older, but there is only a one-year difference between us. When we were students studying abroad together, the Korean Wave was in full swing in the Philippines, and I was originally interested in teaching Korean, so I worked in a Korean club called Arirang. Chan-song (another Tong Tong staff member), Pyeong-an, and I worked in the same club,
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and we began dreaming of working together because we worked so well with one another. When we came back to Korea, Chan-song and I first started our Korean language teaching business, and we finally succeeded in persuading Pyeong-an, who worked at a company, to join us. After that, a Korean-American language instructor, Yoo Mi-ran (Miranda New), also joined us, and ever since then we have had a total of four Korean teachers working together. GN: What were you doing before you met in the Philippines? — Hong Song-i: Before participating in the exchange student program, I taught Korean to international students while studying English at Chonnam National University. Even though it was my native language, teaching Korean was more difficult than I thought, so I started learning it systematically, starting with a teacher training course. Before I solidified my career as a Korean language instructor, I worked at an English academy, but I always had a dream to start a Korean language academy with people I liked. After this, I taught Korean as a volunteer at the Gwangju International Center, and later I became a coordinator there. Luckily, I was able to work at the GIC for three years under Dr. Shin Gyonggu, whom I respected very much. I made precious memories and learned a lot through the GIC that I will never forget. That was when I met my first Korean language class students, who are still close to me even though they are now scattered around the world – we still correspond from time to time. Thanks to my experience at the GIC, I began dreaming of having a language academy that would leave warm memories in the hearts of those involved. In 2004, I began to communicate with several teachers, including Chan-song. At first, not only Korean but also Japanese and Chinese teachers joined. We named the
3/25/2021 3:28:48 PM
