Gwangju International Center

Interview by Solène Heurtaux 

Audry Hawkins, ESL teacher in Memphis, Tennessee, came visit the GIC this week. Grandmother of three grandchildren, Audry is now learning Spanish and how to play the guitar. Great adventurer, her love to travel and her job search led her to accept, at 50, a teaching job in a Korean hagwon in Gwangju, in June 2006.

At that time, she had no experience in teaching, and would have never imagined becoming a teacher. When she received a call from a Korean private academy at midnight that day, she had six weeks to prepare for her new life. She didn’t know anything about Korea and knew no one in Gwangju. Once in Korea, Audry couldn’t speak any Korean and asked her coworkers for a place in Gwangju where she could seek assistance. They advised her to visit the Gwangju International Center. This is how, for two years and a half, she started to come to the GIC every week.

During her time in Gwangju, she created two GIC programs. The “Junior GIC Talk” was a program dedicated to middle school students that reproduced the template of the GIC Talk, except that it was given by middle school students for middle school students. No parents were allowed. She also created the “Kids GIC”. With this program, students were randomly choosing a different country to discover together every week. Finally, she wrote articles for the Gwangju News, attended dozens of GIC Talks and took part in the Book Club.

After two years and a half, because she started to feel homesick and because her daughter called her back home, she went back to the United States. But Audry had discovered a passion for teaching. She was now determined to teach English as a Foreign Language. She got a teaching Master’s after coming back to the United States because she felt like “the USA needs a teacher like me”. Since she left Korea, she had the opportunity to teach students from all over the world.

So why did she come back to Gwangju? “Just to visit. Because I had a need to come back. Gwangju and the GIC is for me like a second home.”

After these eight years, Audry says that the only thing that changed about the GIC is its building. The spirit of the GIC is still the same, the people are still vibrant and wonderful, even if, among the ones she knew at that time, only a few are still in Gwangju.

Audry just visited us for a few days to say Hello. We thank her and look forward to her coming back again soon!

 - You can find the Korean version of this article here. -