Unlike many of her classmates, Choi, Hena did not live abroad yet. Writing a research paper in history in English thus
served a double purpose, to obtain experience in doing research, acquire skills, and prove to herself that she can
handle an academic reading assignment, write academic level papers.
Having visited Prague and liking economics, she wanted to write on the economic transition of Czechoslovakia / the
Czech Republic from communism to a free market economy. I suggested her to compare the Czech case with that of a
less industrialized formerly communist economy in Eastern Europe, and we agreed on Bulgaria.
Choi, Hena had over a year to work on her paper. Of course, she reads neither Czech nor Bulgarian, and neither do I;
thus she was limited to English language sources. It proved somewhat difficult to find matching information, a problem
Hena ultimately solved with the help of the Czech and Bulgarian embassies in Seoul.
Hena is very enthusiastic; at school she found herself at a disadvantage because her English proficiency was below
class average. She is outgoing, never permitted this handicap to prevent her communicate; she took criticism and worked
hard to improve, showsw a never-give-up attitude. Her research paper is solid, compares to a third year college presentation
and would provide a basis for an academic discussion.
The html version has still minor problems - Czech language characters. In the future, she may want to improve her style
(written English).
December 23rd 2006
Alexander Ganse
