Organization of Ibero-American States

 

  While I was majoring in Latin America studies in Graduate School of International and Area Studies in Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, I was interested in education part. So the organization that I applied was perfect for me, because OEI is organization which is focusing on the improvement of education infrastructure of Latin America which means declining illiteracy rate, child exploitation, absence of public education etc. There are 23 observer countries and 17 regional offices in the world. I worked in Paraguay which is one of the regional offices. The reason that I could work in there, the general director of Paraguay office is charged in cooperation with Korea education institutions. So for that work, I could work in there. Actually Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and obviously the base of the education is so low that’s why I would like to work in there helping the people who need the education system. So I’d like to be a cooperator between Korea and Latin America, especially in Paraguay.

 

 

 

 

  Actually, they have a lot of relationship between two countries and Latin America wants to import the education system of Korea, so first I interpret documents, letters etc from Korean to Spanish and Spanish to Korean. And when I was in there Korea and Paraguay has 50 years diplomatic anniversary so there are some events for celebrate that relationship therefore I helped the Korea embassy for preparing those works; ‘essay contest’ and ‘marathon’. Essay contest is for the students of 9grades in elementary school, they wrote about the relation about Korea and Paraguay for example, the type of essay could be novel, poem, article, report etc. I felt emotional reading the works of the students, even though it is the country which is very far away but they got interest and tried to connect two countries. Finally National Institution of Lifelong Education and OEI have very close relationship and I worked as a cooperator and it was very valuable experience and I was happy to apply the system of Korea in Paraguay. And also for knowing about the more project of OEI I went business trip to Argentina office and I could learn more about the education infra work in the organization. Moreover for the project this is called “Lights for learning”. I went with coworkers to Amambay. This project is to apply the solar system for making the electricity to school and the village in there I could meet the Indians who are living in the jungle. There was opening ceremony of that project. I totally agreed with OEI project and I would like to support them so I participate in that trip.

 

 

 

  The coworkers who worked with me are so kind and helped me a lot so I could accustom in Paraguay and there was not no difficulty to work in the office. When they have birthday party and welcoming party they always invited me and let me enjoy the food and culture of Paraguay, it was unforgettable memory in my mind.

 It was big experience and chance that I could get the opportunity to work as a intern in OEI(Organizacion de estados Iberoamericanos). 6 months is not so long time but it was turning point that I could think seriously about my dream and goal of my life. Through this experience I grew up mentally and it helped me to be more mature. During the internship I learnt a lot and it is not changeable with anything. I don’t think I could learn about so many things that I could learn through internship in the books.