GROVE NAMED IN WOMAN’S HONOUR
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CONNECTING STUDENTS WITH JOBS
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SITE EYED FOR SENIORS HOUSING
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WEDNESDAY
MARCH 21 2012
www.burnabynewsleader.com
The Spirit of the Children powwow ignited Edmonds Community School on Saturday with song, dance and vivid colour. See Page A30
BCA spent $269K on election Wanda Chow burnabynewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Kim Okran’s self-published autobiography about her struggles as a new immigrant to Canada has touched other recent immigrants like Comfort Ero, who came from Nigeria, David Naidu, from Fiji, and Masoud Azar, from Kurdistan.
One woman’s universal story Mario Bartel photo@burnabynewsleader.com
By all appearances, Kim Okran is a successful businesswoman entering her middle years with con¿dence and style. From her of¿ce in Burnaby’s “Little Korea” area on North Road, she runs 20 English-language schools in Korea, Japan, Mexico, Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto. She does marketing for wine companies. Okran’s come a long way from the anxious young woman who boarded a plane in Seoul, South Korea when she
was 29 and out of work. With $5,000 to her name, she hoped an education in Canada would lead to a better life. It did. Eventually. But not without a lot of stress, hardship, sacri¿ce and doubt along the way. Okran’s story as an immigrant to Canada is extraordinary for its very ordinariness. It’s the story of so many immigrants who come seeking the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families. That is why she decided to write a book about her journey. And why it is touching so many immigrants who
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have read it. Okran grew up in the very south of Korea, the youngest of seven children. Her father struggled with alcoholism, her mother sold ¿sh to support the family. She says she was a frail child, often ill. Whenever she played outside, she often looked up at the contrails of jets passing overhead, dreaming one day of climbing aboard one herself. “My dreams were adventures in my heart,” she says. Okran taught kindergarten in Seoul for three years before illness
put her out of work. She spent a year traveling around Korea, pondering her options. On the last day of her self-imposed journey of discovery, she decided she wanted to become an interpreter. But she needed to improve her English, and to do that she’d have to climb aboard one of those planes to get to Canada, where a friend assured her there were plenty of opportunities to speak English. But when she landed in Edmonton, all she found was a cold, quiet city—pretty much the polar opposite of bustling Seoul. Please see ‘LIFE IS NOT MISERABLE’ A3
EDDIE YAN & Team 604-722-7309 Your Burnaby Specialists
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The Burnaby Citizens’ Association (BCA) raised and spent more than ¿ve times what its nearest rival, Team Burnaby, did in last November’s civic election. In fact, the BCA’s election budget was well beyond that of all its competition combined, according to campaign ¿nancing disclosures. The disclosures, which were required to be ¿led by Monday, show the BCA had $269,217 to work with, and they spent all but $63 of it, in winning its second straight sweep of all civic seats for mayor, council and school board. Of that, $118,785 came from the BCA itself, which holds fundraising events such as golf tournaments in the years between elections. Another $132,400, or 49 per cent of the total, was donated by 23 local trade unions, including Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) B.C. ($63,500), CUPE Local 23, to which City of Please see EVANS, A3