Kim Hyun-jin, CEO of Korean at Your Door, conducts the “KSI Telephone Korean Language Course” project with visually impaired Korean instructors

This year, KSIF is conducting the “KSI Telephone Korean Language Course” project, through which visually impaired Korean instructors teach Korean language to KSI learners over the phone. In this issue, we met with Kim Hyun-jin, CEO of Korean at Your Door, who carries out the telephone Korean language education project with KSIF, to talk about the project.

Hello, Ms. Kim Hyun-jin. Could you start by telling us about the company “Korean at Your Door,” and a bit about yourself?

Korean at your door is a company that started with the idea of solving social problems (social venture) and a standardized workplace for persons with disabilities. I am neither a Korean language expert, nor do I have a family member who is disabled. However, when I was young, I suffered from severe atopic dermatitis and I experienced discrimination from people around me. I naturally began to think about people with disabilities, and started a business to resolve the employment problems for people with disabilities.

I empathize with the goal of “creating jobs for the visually impaired.”

Most visually impaired people acquired their disability. It is a misunderstanding to think that they are less intellectually capable than others. So, I thought that in order improve public awareness of the visually impaired, they need to be self-sufficient — and for that, jobs are the most important thing. All of the visually impaired people I met with spoke very well. So I thought it would be a good idea to create a business model in which they could earn income by teaching Korean, and I founded Korean at Your Door in 2018.

You have been conducting the KSI Telephone Korean Language Course project with KSIF utilizing visually impaired Korean instructors since 2020. How did you get to work with KSIF?

I thought there could be ways to work with KSI, a representative brand for Korean language and culture education. So I just visited a KSI location in Vietnam. The president said this is an essential business, but to commercialize it, there were procedures to follow. When I returned to Korea, I looked around and participated in a KSIF project that supported Korean language education for Korean companies in Hai Phong, Vietnam. That is how I established a relationship with KSIF in 2020.

Is that when the visually impaired instructors at Korean at Your Door received support from KSIF?

Yes. KSIF helped our visually impaired instructors take the KSI Language Teacher Training course so they would enhance their expertise. Thanks to this, we were able to provide the telephone Korean education based on a better teaching method.

Currently, 250 KSI learners at 15 locations in 14 countries are taking one-on-one Korean conversation classes from visually impaired Korean instructors of Korean at Your Door, through the “2023 KSI Telephone Korean Language Education Course,” for four hours in eight sessions. I wonder if those classes are well supported.

Yes, KSI learners are taking classes with our instructors for 20 to 30 minutes for each session. Many students applied for this course, and those who are taking the classes were selected among them. So all of them are very enthusiastic. As the lessons are done over the phone, it seems that a sense of intimacy grows between the learners and our instructors, which leads to better learning outcomes. The teachers try to teach as much as possible, and the learners value the opportunity to talk to Korean instructors.

How much do you think the conversation skills of KSI learners improve, after they take the telephone Korean conversation courses?

I believe the main reason why the outcomes of the KSI Telephone Korean Language Education Course are so good is due to the attitude of the teachers and learners. In fact, for learners, phone classes are more difficult than face-to-face classes. They cannot see the faces of the teacher. Therefore, if you gain confidence through phone classes, your Korean skills will improve significantly. Our visually impaired instructors really value this work. They focus more on the learners, and they really do their best, showing more patience. The learners also value the experience of communicating in Korean. I believe that is why the instructors and learners get along with each other and their Korean skills improve so quickly. This is the era where artificial intelligence (AI) corrects pronunciation and teaches grammar. Our teachers try to be more understanding and empathic than AI or teachers without disabilities. So, I believe that their learning outcomes will get better in this way.

I would like to know how well-satisfied are the visually impaired Korean instructors and the KSI learners who are participating in the “KSI Telephone Korean Language Education Course”?

When I talked to our instructors during meetings, it seemed that they all feel much rewarded by this course. Some faculty members even want to major in Korean language education in graduate school after this experience. According to the survey, the level of satisfaction among learners is also very high. Many responded with, “I really like the teacher.” And many learners said that it was even better, because they not only learned the Korean language, but also the culture.

You have been partnering with KSIF for four years now. What are your thoughts on working with KSIF?

When I think back to the time when I first worked with KSIF through the corporate social responsibility project in 2020 by providing Korean education for employees of Korean SMEs based in Hai Phong, Vietnam, I realize how wonderful it was that KSIF trusted such a small new company, and I feel grateful about it. It seems that KSIF is interested in not only Korean learners but also in cooperating with enterprises founded to solve social problems (social ventures), such as us.

Please tell us about your plans for the future with Korean at Your Door?

The demand for Korean education keeps growing. To respond to this need, I plan to advance the company’s operating system. We will continue with our efforts to improve the expertise of visually impaired instructors and make them better teachers.