Kunsan Airmen teach English to South Korean cadets

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Araceli Alarcon
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, SOUTH KOREA (AFPN) --  Kunsan Air Base Airmen volunteered to teach English to South Korean army cadets Jan. 31 at the South Korean Army NCO Academy.

South Korean army officials added English as part of the cadet' s curriculum and asked 8th Fighter Wing officials if they would volunteer; Team 5/6, a group of staff and technical sergeants here, jumped at the opportunity to help.

Volunteers go to the academy grounds twice a week in the evenings and teach South Korean army cadets conversational English, vocabulary, sentence structure and military jargon.

The classes started off small but quickly grew, said Tech. Sgt. Kyle Reesman, the 8th Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle operations superintendent.

"At the beginning the classes were only five to eight people," he said. "In only six months, it has grown to three classes of 50 to 60 people in the senior and mid level NCO group, 15 to 20 in the junior level class and one class for the academy leadership."

Because the classes can be quite large, Airmen who volunteer must face a board where they are asked several questions to see how comfortable they are with speaking in front of a crowd. In addition to teaching English, Airmen help South Korean army cadets familiarize themselves with the American culture and another way for Airmen to learn more about the Korean culture.

"I'm learning their culture and they're learning our culture," Sergeant Reesman said. "One thing I learned is when they reach a certain age it's mandatory for them to serve in the (South Korean) army and, unlike us, we are a volunteer force."

Not only were they learning the Korean, culture but also this program was a good way for both services to interact with each other and learn the differences between one another, said Staff Sgt. David Bensey, assigned to the 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

South Korean army cadets were very excited to have fellow NCOs teaching them English and they see this program as a great opportunity to help strengthen relationships between themselves and their American counterparts.

"It's fun learning from them," said Cadet Sok, a squadron leader at the academy. "I really enjoy the class because we are learning English together."

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