Yeong Sook Kim, known to her classmates as Mrs. Kim, is not your average student. At 85 years old, she has been learning English as a native Korean speaker at Temple’s Center for American Language and Culture (TCALC) for the past three years. She has lived in the United States for five decades, coming here originally in 1975 with her husband, who was a doctor eligible for U.S. citizenship under the 1965 Immigration Act.
Mrs. Kim, her husband, and four children, settled into a Korean immigrant community in New York City. On top of being a mother, she practiced acupressure and became the proprietress of a prominent department store around the block from the Empire State Building. She traveled to over 30 countries and is on the board of a charity called the Global Children Foundation (GCF), whose mission is to end child hunger. Though English is not her native language, she has been involved with the organization since its inception and uses her newly improved English to fundraise for the organization.
You’d think, having lived so many lives, Mrs. Kim would take an easy retirement. But just as time marches on, so does she in her desire to keep learning.
While visiting her first grandson, Paul Rapoport, a former professor at Temple University, Mrs. Kim saw a Temple sign from his apartment window. The notion to begin learning English, she wrote in a TCALC essay, was something she “always had in mind.” She finally decided to do it.
“I always thought that one could learn as a child, but now I see that I can continue to learn until I die.”
-Mrs. Yeong Sook Kim
Her real motivation came from her desire to converse better with her five other grandchildren who do not speak Korean fluently. Thus began her three-year-long journey, not always an easy one, of creating new neural pathways in her brain.
Her grandson recounted how he often had to encourage his grandmother to “stay in the fight” as she navigated difficulties such as completing online course material. But she never gave up.
When asked why, Dr. Rapoport explained, “I would say that for her whole life there has been an unquenchable fire in her, without which she would long ago have given up along the way. When she has decided that something is the right thing to do, or a good idea, there is no talking her out of it.”
Bottom left to right, Teacher Miriam Oppenheimer, Mrs. Kim, and Director of TCALC, Jacqueline A. McCafferty. Photo provided by Rakan. Hadadi.
On top of learning a new language, Mrs. Kim has made a tremendous impact on the students, staff, and teachers of TCALC.
Rakan Hadadi, a former classmate from Saudi Arabia, says she used to regularly treat the class to pizza, and never let anyone pay. “That is Mrs. Kim,” he said, “always giving, never expecting anything in return.” Learning a language they both shared at Temple allowed Mrs. Kim to write and recite aloud a handwritten letter to Rakan on his graduation from TCALC. In a tearful reading, Mrs. Kim’s words were full of “love, gratitude, and emotion,” he said.
Emotions went both ways. The love and encouragement that she received from both TCALC classmates and teachers provided Mrs. Kim with the energy and drive she needed to succeed, she wrote.
“The image I have of Mrs. Kim in my mind is her walking with her arms stretched out, because she always gave everyone a hug,” said TCALC’s Assistant Director for Curriculum and Instruction, Rob Sheppard.
Hadadi said Mrs. Kim taught him that growing older doesn’t mean losing your sense of wonder. He admires her “…quiet strength in the way she treats others, always with kindness, respect, and genuine interest.”
All TCALC staff, students, and teachers have kind words to say about her. Everyone will miss her once she ends her studies this summer. Her determination to learn will long be remembered together with her kindness.
In the words of Mrs. Kim, the most important things in life are “…good relationships, opportunities, and a mindset that people should learn until they die.”
By Joelle DelPrete, KLN ’25, Global Engagement multimedia intern