In a Missionary, A Church Finds an English Teacher

You may have noticed the grand-looking Christ the King Lutheran Church, located on a busy Peachtree Parkway and Spalding Rd. intersection, complete with an enormous bell tower. It houses many activities, including a mission center for Koreans and a popular program for Koreans trying to learn English.

Rev. Min Chan Park heads up the mission, which was first commissioned on March 24, 2002. Rev. Park had done a similar project in New York, 16 years before.

Because of the focus on the multi-cultural ministry of the Messiah Korean-American United Lutheran Church, housed within Christ the King Lutheran Church, it was only natural to use teaching English as a bridge to connect Koreans to other cultures. The non-profit ESL class, which started 9 years ago, is still ongoing today. Missionary James Choi is the director, working on behalf of the ESL classes since fall 2010, with classes two times a year. It targets Koreans living in Norcross, Duluth and Suwanee who struggle with speaking, reading and writing in English.

The teachers for these classes are volunteers taken from the Christ the King Lutheran Church. In describing these volunteers, Choi says that he cannot say enough about their “faithfulness, generosity and self-sacrifice.” Volunteers have been lining up faithfully for as long as the class was in session nine years ago.

“They selflessly give of their time and when they teach, you can see Christ’s love in everything they do.” Especially for the Koreans attending, this experience is a great starting point for meeting American culture from a positive point of view, according to Choi.

Classes meet every Thursday and Friday 10 a.m.  to 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Choi meets with every applicant individually to test their English level and places them accordingly into beginner, intermediate or expert level classes. The class format favors more speaking than anything else. Koreans have a chance to hear English pronounced in its native tongue and to practice conversing in English.

Because of the influx of Korean population and businesses in Atlanta, some Koreans do practically all their shopping in Korean-owned stores and the opportunity to meet and converse at length with a native is often rare.

 The class has risen in popularity since being started. Now, Choi struggles to place more than 150 applicants at the right class level. He will close the classes to new applicants once 200 students have been placed. Classes begin February 24th and will run for about 10 weeks. 

Choi was called to be a missionary in Azerbaijan and served there short-term before relocating his family to the States. Through church, he met Rev. Park and had begun to become involved in the Lutheran church Korean mission projects. He is currently studying to become an ordained minister and desires to continue his multi-cultural ministry as bridge from the Korean community to the outside world.