Twenty-two year old Kim Da-jeong has been working as an arts educator since six months ago. She is still shy when she is called ‘a teacher’. “I am very shy now because it is my first interview.” She looks very innocent with her tongue put out because she is too shy. Kim has been teaching students Korean Traditional Music in Chungnam Province. She was, however, rather full of passion when she was in front of her students.

A challenge for a childhood dream!

Kim Da-jeong has majored in Singing with Gayaguema Korean traditional string instrument. She has never thought about studying other subjects than Korean traditional music since she was young. She had a dream. “Korean traditional music is our own music, but most of the Koreans these days consider it as something unfamiliar. So I wished that more people could enjoy it and know better about it. I thought they should be naturally exposed to it more when they are young.” Kim has learned a lot of things from her older classmates working as arts educators since she was at college. “I felt the existence of arts educators of Korean traditional music was more important that any others because they let their students experience our traditional music for the first time. That was why I didn’t hesitate to apply for being an arts educator as soon as I saw the recruiting advertisement.”

However, Kim had a few worries about her future in fact. “There is a little opportunity for the students majored in Korean traditional music to have jobs related to their major. Unemployment of the 20s has been one of the major social issues these days. The situation is harsher to the graduates of arts majors than the other majors. The options they have are either to be a professor or to join a music group. Otherwise, it is not easy to make both ends meet as long as they pursue pure arts in the real world. It was a good choice for me to be an arts educator, which made it possible to utilize what I have studied at college as well as to make ends meet.”

Excitement of singing songs together

Kim is currently teaching at three different elementary schools in Chungnam Province. She smiles while remembering her first day at school, when she could not sleep at night because of nervousness. “Some senior arts educators gave me a lot of serious advice before I started my first class. I couldn’t sleep at that night before my first class because of stress and nervousness. When I first met my students, however, their eyes were like twinkling stars and full of curiosity. Then I realized that my worries were in vain and my students are priceless and pure.”< /p>
 

Kim used to be unconsciously confused herself as ‘an older sister’ of her students rather than their teacher, and talked to them, ‘Listen, my little sisters (or brothers)’ by mistake. The students’ innocence reminds her of her mission as an arts educator. “Frankly speaking, I’m not accustomed to saying, ‘Listen, my students’. But the feeling of happiness from when I am with my students is beyond compare. I am thrilled when my students sing properly to my Janggua Korean two-sided drumrhythm. This is why I became an arts educator.”

Happy teacher and happier children

“I sometimes feel sorry for my students. It’s because it is not easy to make them realize the true joy of the traditional music. They have short of time to sing together because they also have to go to the other academies such as computer, English, math etc. Most of them have a prejudice that our tradition is something boring because they have been strongly influenced by mass media through TV. But I feel we became much closer each other now than in March. I know it will get better. I want to promise them that I will make the class more interesting and deal with more contents in the next semester.”

Kim did not forget to mention about her senior arts educators. “Now I know how difficult it is to be an arts educator. I really admire my seniors who spend their spare time for their own creation of art while teaching their students. I hope I can do it just like them soon.”

“I can’t forget the saying, ‘Students become happy when they meet a happy teacher.’ I kept this in my mind when I started this job. I will not forget my first resolution.” The new arts educator, Kim Da-jeong has a lot of things to accomplish and share with others. After the interview, she smiled at the camera and headed to her classroom with short and quick steps. From the back, she looked as if she were in love with someone and full of excitement.

Written by Park Sarah, Photographed by Jeong Minyoung