Have you heard about evening classes? Evening classes are classes are classes that start at night for people who cannot study in the daytime. You might have heard people mention the term, but you are probably still unfamiliar with evening classes. Let’s meet a person who volunteers to teach an evening class.
Yang Soo Jin, majoring education in Sookmyung Women’s University, is already a decent teacher in an evening class. First, when she heard about evening class from a friend of her senior, she was interested in it and desired to volunteer.
She read an advertisement on the online school bulletin board for volunteer teachers for an evening class. She said that there was not a moment’s hesitation. Instead, she felt strong emotion about the announcement.
According to Yang Soo Jin, each evening class has its own character. The evening class she volunteers for intended to be a life style, so their curriculum is very similar with university. They go to MT’s, picnics and graduation trips; also they have a field day. Thanks to supporting of church, they can do lots of events.
However, when she looked into the conditions in other evening classes, many evening classes had economic problems.
Before she started to volunteer, she predicted that there would be young people in the class who were too poor to get a normal education. She was mistaken, as she learned on her first day that there were many older students who couldn’t study when they were young. Because her students are all grown up, she thinks they have a greater passion for studying than ordinary students.
Also because the students are adults, they can understand her much better. She said it make her feel more comfortable and she is able to teach them without difficulties. But sometimes their unexpected acts give her joy. For example, one day, one of her student came to her and started complaining about her classmates. When they do those kinds of things, she realizes they are still just students.
She confessed that it is actually hard to combine her own studies with her volunteer work. At first, she started volunteering during winter vacation. During vacation, she didn’t notice any difficulties. However, after the semester started, she can felt the pressure building. But she can hardly give up this volunteer work. The student who didn’t even know a, b, c gave her a card on which she wrote ‘Merry Christmas’ by herself. She said that was a moment that she’ll never forget. Also she emphasized that the volunteering doesn’t mean sacrificing.
“Even though it apparently looks like voluntary help for others, in the end we can realize that these sacrifices are worth it,” she said.
