Mailbox of peace

Section 4. Handwr itten Letters 110 111 Mai lbox of Peace Korea Foundation & US Peace Corps KF COVID-19 Survival Box Gratitude Letter Col lection Each gift inside the box was special, but the best of all was the video recording telling the story of Peace Corps in Korea from 1966 to 1981. Both my spouse Robert and I cried while watching it.<omit> The humility, the care, and the skill with which the video was made are all appreciated. The video and the gift box made me feel very close to Korea. To provide that the efforts many Koreans made to teach me 한국말 were not in vain. I want to try to write something here. I loved learning the language and regret that it has slipped away over the past 47 years since I left Korea in 1973. Now let me be more serious and share with you a bit of my Korea story. After two years teaching English at Andong Middle School(1971 and 1972), I decided to stay for a third year. By then I could speak the language fairly well, had learned the cultural patterns, and was in a position to actually make use of that learning. I wanted to continue teaching but instead of staying at Andong Middle School, I proposed to the regional PC director, Tim O’Brien, that I conduct workshops for Korean middle and high school English teachers in four small towns, visiting each one once a week, each town an hour or two from Andong. (The towns were Uiseong, Cheongsong, Gunwi, Yecheon. ) On the fifth day of the week I ran a workshop for teachers in the other Andong middle school and high schools. I dearly loved that third year in Korea – following the rhythm of rural life as I bumped along country roads, meeting people who had studied English for years but had never met a native speaker, being treated like royalty as a foreign guest! At the end of the year, we organized a big theatrical production in Andong called “English Night” and all five groups came together to perform skits entirely in English. It was hilarious and great fun. Let me share another story. In January 1998 I was able to return to Korea for the first time in 25 years. Naturally I was surprised – shocked – by the changes that had taken place. When I accompanied my co-teacher and his wife to the graves of his parents, whom I had met many times, I conjured up some words in Koreans as I did my 인사 . And I realized –almost with guilt –that I had known a Korean that my co- teacher’s children and grandchildren (now with cell phones, etc.) would never know. Somehow this didn’t feel right. Another highlight of my 1998 visit was the day I went to the U.S.I.S. offices in Seoul to meet Mr. Kwon, who had worked in the Peace Corps office in Taegu. It was a great reunion, but therefore we left the office for lunch, Mr. Kwon wanted to introduce me to all of his colleagues. I went from person to person, greeting them in English and Korean, but when I came to one individual he looked up at me and said, “Are you Mr. Joo?” When I said “yes,” he said, “You were my English teacher at Andong Middle School, and you changed my life. Because of the stories you told us about Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, I became fascinated with English and went on to do my doctorate in American literature at Yonsei University. And a few years ago my wife and I traveled to the United States and took a steamship trip down the Mississippi River to visit the Mark twain sites, and I said to my wife, ‘I wonder what ever happened to Mr. Joo?” Can you imagine? There I was, standing in fornt of him, in a city of millions of people, completely by chance! Of course I didn’t remember him personally –I had had 720 students a day (in ten classes) at Andong Middle School, and they all wore black uniforms and had shaved heads. But meeting him again was very touching. Like other Volunteers, I could regale you with many stories. Suffice it to say that Korea marked a turning point in my life. All I have done and been since then can be traced back to my time in your wonderful country. Thank you again and all the best to you and your colleagues, 주임수 JAMES B. NICKOLOFF, Ph.D