By Mai Nojima
Circulation Editor
Mira Costa offers a variety of community service opportunities for students to take part in, but juniors Megan Soh and Dylan Kim take it upon themselves to give back by teaching English to Cambodian children.
The two are part of a program called Teaching and Sharing Skills to Enrich Lives and teach English to underprivileged kids in Cambodia through video calls.
“I enjoy knowing that I am helping the future of these kids in Cambodia,” Kim said.
Joji Tasugi, founder of TASSEL, founded the program two years ago and devotes his time to helping kids in rural Cambodia. He has set up classrooms and trained local teachers as well as volunteers from the United States, Korea and Japan to teach Cambodian children.
“By the time I was 50 years old, I realized that what I really wanted to do in life was not become richer but to help others that are in need,” Tasugi said.
The volunteer teachers teach weekly for 40 minutes using VSee, a computer software program that allows video calls and screen sharing. They help elementary and middle school students learn English words and correct pronunciation.
“Teaching the kids over video can be challenging because of the poor connection and the inability of the kids to fully concentrate when they can only see us through a computer screen,” Soh said. “But even then, the kids are always eager to learn and enjoy having us teach them new things.”
There are a total of 90 different groups of children in seven different villages that TASSEL teaches, adding up to around 900 kids. These kids have no form of education besides the weekly sessions they have with the TASSEL volunteers.
“Teaching them English is just one way to help the kids get out of the extreme poverty that they are living in,” TASSEL overseer for the Manhattan Beach area, Ella Kim, said.
Dylan Kim and Soh joined TASSEL last October. Since then, they have been teaching together every Sunday night. Numerous other students from different high schools and universities also tutor Cambodian students through TASSEL.
“I joined TASSEL because I thought it would be an amazing chance to give the kids in Cambodia an opportunity to learn how to speak English,” Soh said. “Seeing their excitement to learn makes the whole TASSEL experience worthwhile.”
TASSEL is trying to organize a trip to Cambodia this August for volunteers who will have the opportunity to teach the kids in person for 10 days.
“It would be really nice to continue relationships that they made with the kids in Cambodia even after they come back and teach through the use of video calls,” Ella Kim said.
Leave a Reply