In 2007, Kyungsook Kim was struggling to make a new life as a single parent with two daughters. She decided to start a PhD in education and found a position as a research assistant in the Department of East Asian Studies.
That was the break that changed her life.
"I started to work with one professor, and after a year she suggested, How about starting a Korean program here?'" says Kim.
The last time the department had tried that, the program failed to enrol enough students. But Kim agreed to give it a shot, launching one small section of a Korean language course in 2007.
