Jo Yeong-su is a Korean teacher at Changmun Girls Middle School, and at the same time, he has been a co-representative of a Reading Educational and Cultural Organization named ‘Chaekttase’ for three years. He is in  charge of  the Chaekttase projects and makes an effort to form a healthy reading culture for teenagers. CBT reporters met him to listen to his story. -Ed




- Would you please tell us about Chaekttase?
  Chaekttase is a civic organization aiming to build a youth library to form a healthy reading culture. We mainly create reading lists that reflect our members’ opinions so that we can recommend valuable books to many students. Every Friday evening, around 10 to 20 people gather and have a meeting at a cafe named Donadona in Sinchon. We use the word ‘teacher’ to describe the members of our group, though there are not only occupational teachers but also common citizens, students, and even youths in our group.

- How do you select the recommended books?
  All members in Chaekttase are working as managers, which means that we all have the same position. We choose books that catch our minds and buy them with our own money or borrow them. Then, we bring the books to our meetings. We put the books in a catalog. After that, at least three managers read the same book and review it, and books that are chosen unanimously are put on the list. We meet at least 10 times a month, and then we arrange the list into categories. Finally, people can see the final reading list on the website of Chaekttase. We also distribute the list to many school libraries so that students can check the list and read the recommended books. Compared to the other books that are not verified as good books, the books we choose would be better for students because they are   not books that are just for entertainment.

- We heard that the recommended books by Chaekttase can have a huge impact on the sales. Have you ever received any pressures from publishers when Chaekttase chooses books to recommend?
  Since Chaekttase is a nonprofit organization, we do not receive any remunerations from publishers. Also, we don’t allow any external pressure either. We try to have a cautious attitude and thoroughly keep such offers away.

- Chaekttase Chaekttase is a nonprofit organization. How do you raise the operating costs?
  Basically, Chaekttase is funded by a membership fee that members charge from supporters and organizations. Moreover, the public interest cafe named Donadona, which was established to start a copyright campaign in 2013, has been officially supporting Chaekttase, and they donate a portion of their income to Chaekttase.

- You must be very busy working both as a teacher and as a co-representative for Chaekttase at the same time. Are there any difficulties?
  Recently, the paradigm of education has changed. As a result, teachers are required to do lots of things. First-year students of middle school take part in a free-semester system where they do not take any exams. For this reason, it is often difficult to teach them because students don’t pay attention to class or participate in class. I have many worries about how to teach them well, and I try to give students various and new experiences. Sometimes, it is too much for me to manage both, but I enjoy doing it.

- How can students become interested in books?
  I believe that reading is a habit. At the very beginning, it is better to read easy books. If you are a middle school student, then try to read books that an upper-level elementary school student reads, or you can read comic books, but it should be a good comic book that makes you think about your personal interests. Reading books with others is also a good way because reading together can spark motivation and each person can ask difficult questions or share their thoughts. These methods might be helpful for students to foster an interest in books.

- What does Chaekttase plan to do in the future?
  Our aim is to extend our objective from literally reading to expressing our lives. In addition, we want to teach students how to make our society better through such activities as donating and volunteering. To make this come true, we implemented a copyright campaign where students wrote their own books, and then they copyrigted their own work. Finally, they donated their work to the public. Furthermore, we think making reading lists is also a kind of donation because it utilizes teachers’ talents.

- What does Chaekttase want to say to the undergraduates?
  In middle and high schools, students try to achieve one goal of entering a major university, but when they enter a university, they have to decide what to do and how to handle  their futures. To build a platform, students have to experience and participate in various activities. Books still give us a lot of useful knowledge and information. Nowadays, it is known that university students do not read much, but we hope students read a lot for their own education and knowledge. I hope that they will look back on their lives through books. Finally, we hope that students will be able to think about what they will become in the future and how to contribute to our society.

By Hong Ye-ha
 yh37@cbnu.ac.kr
By Kim Hyo-seon
 hs37@cbnu.ac.kr