Winter 2010 Newsletter

2/22/2010

Dear Friends,

Greetings from South Korea, the place that has been my home away from home for almost 2 years. The time has gone faster than I expected, and my 2 year anniversary will be in April. Now that I have been here this long, everything seems to be mostly routine. Let me use my imagination a little bit and see if I can share some adventures to make it worth your time.

The most recent newsletter I can find is the one I sent after my trip to Vietnam. If I am mistaken, I apologize for some of the repeated information that I have included here. As you may recall, I had fallen in love with Vietnam and was wishing there were a way for me to revisit Vietnam. After I returned to Korea, I had no motivation to study Korean and following a short-term relationship I went into what seemed to be mild depression or at least a melancholy mood more melancholic than usual.:)

While my desire to return to Vietnam continues, I have also found more comfort in living in Korea. Eventually, I recovered from my “broken heart” which resulted from leaving Vietnam and the melancholic spirit eventually disappeared. Last summer I visited home and had a bittersweet feeling about leaving Kansas City and St. Louis. I was surprised to find myself at first experiencing reverse culture shock in St. Louis as I saw some people without a lot to do on a hot summer day. I enjoyed catching up with my friends and family in Colorado, Kansas City and St. Louis. The day before I returned to Korea, I vowed that if I didn’t find some deeper relationships with people that I would not return to Korea once my contract ended.

In one sense, relationships didn’t change as drastically as I had hoped and in another sense I eventually did find more lasting relationships, one of which has just recently begun to develop. While some of the relationships that were born have since died or seem to have withered in some sense, it was refreshing for those moments. One of the more difficult decisions I have had to make since I came back to Korea was leaving one of the churches I was involved in. I knew this was too much before I went home for a visit during the summer and was hoping it would somehow work itself out without my having to do anything intentionally.

Of course that kind of wish is something that could only happen in a storybook at best. When I returned, the feeling of turmoil seemed ever-present as I tried to maintain presence in both churches which are not very far apart in terms of distance. At one point I had made a decision and went to tell someone about it and he convinced me to consider other options. So I deferred the decision for another week. But when I returned to both churches the next week I felt like I was cheating one or both of the churches. After talking with a few Korean friends at the church I was more drawn to, I decided to make a decision and go with the church that I found to be more inviting. Actually they pushed me to make a decision after apparently being tired of my swaying back and forth.

Following that decision, I had some uneasy feelings as I wondered whether I made the right decision and whether the feelings I had at the previous church would follow me to the other church that I was now committing to. While I had some uneasy feelings at first and some members of the former church seemed a little more distant than before, eventually the uneasiness rested and I had a greater sense of peace.

While there was some discomfort with the people I go to church with on both parts, theirs because they are shy about speaking English and mine because my Korean is not great, they really tried to communicate with me. And more relationships developed as a result, particularly with the mothers of the children I have been teaching.

Through this experience I learned that there are times when I have to make decisions that might be uncomfortable to me or someone else in spite of the culture. Sometimes I think that we foreigners try to walk on eggshells, so to speak, regarding culture. Since even natives of Korea have difficulty always understanding Korean culture I cannot expect to do everything perfectly.

Of course the lessons continue. Right now the most difficult thing for me to do is to sit through a Korean sermon. I was surprised one Sunday when I heard a Korean missionary preach in Korean and as long as he told stories I was able to trek with him. But once he moved into theology I was lost. This has brought some remorse to mind because I know I have preached a lot of difficult sermons that have been over the heads of many people who were native English speakers themselves.

Recently, I bought a Korean Living Bible which is much easier to understand than the common Korean translation. The language in the Bible I recently bought is much easier to understand. I have been involved in a lot of arguments in America about which translation is the most accurate and I have never been interested in buying the simplest translation of an English Bible because I didn’t think the translation was good enough. It’s funny how different it is when I can’t understand something if it isn’t in the simplest of the simplest Korean Bibles.

So here are two aspects of my life that are apparently pretty significant. My biggest adventure during the vacation has been teaching English Camp and seeing a different part of Korea just a few hours away that is known for a particular type of food (spicy chicken and ricecake). It takes about 2 1/2 hours by bus and is a nice change from the routine of my life in the city where I live. It is interesting going there and sometimes being approached by restaurant staff who seem eager to practice their English.

During the last few months, I’ve also had my first experience of buying a train ticket. This was easier than I expected. I also learned that it is a good idea to have a reliable source tell you which landing to go to to get on the right train. My friend told me the wrong landing number and I ended up missing the train. Though I had to pay more money, this gave me practice using Korean because I had to explain to the lady at the sales counter why I missed the bus. It also meant that I had a seat instead of standing like I would’ve had to do if I would’ve caught the earlier train.

I have many opportunities to meet people and I hope to be more intentional about developing relationships with these people. Sometimes it is easy to meet a lot of different people but it is difficult to develop relationships with them because of the difficulties of developing relationships.

I have referred indirectly to the contract but I haven’t stated my latest decision regarding my plans to stay longer. I was hoping to network some before making my decision but because the university needed to know sooner than I expected whether I planned to return for at least another year I just decided to renew my contract. While the contract is for two years, it is possible for me to leave at the end of the semester before the two years are up. However, I intend to stay at least for 2 more years. Meanwhile I’m hoping to start networking with NGOs and considering further training that would enable me to somehow continue my dream of helping poor people. I’m continually trying to improve my Korean which is a difficult task but not impossible and my ability to communicate seems to be improving. When I first came here, I couldn’t say hello in Korean and now I am able to have simple conversations in Korean. So hopefully in another two years my Korean will be that much better.

Sometimes I have the joy of having someone share their own personal struggles with me that they aren’t comfortable talking to their senior pastor about. Unfortunately, it is a little difficult to be of much help because of my language limitations. But I am able to do more now than before. Recently, when one of my friends told me over lunch about one of these kinds of struggles, we reminisced about when I first came to Korea, how I couldn’t utter one word in Korean, how we communicated the first time we had lunch together (with an electronic dictionary that I take with me just about everywhere I go) and how now we can have some conversation without the dictionary (I said some).

This level of communication has enabled me to have conversations with taxi drivers, like the time I got stuck at a subway station with a US Army soldier about thirty minutes or an hour from the city I live in. After he dropped off the US Army soldier he and I conversed some in Korean and I learned how low of a wage taxi drivers earn and why they drive so fast and run as many red lights as they do.

Recently a colleague convinced me to register for a Korean test coming up in April. I decided to try for the intermediate level though now I realize this might be just a little bit over my head. If I don’t do well, I think it will be a good resource for studying Korean and I think it will help me improve my Korean even more. Of course I am hopeful that I will do well and that this will open more opportunities for service in Korea.

I hope this gives you some idea of what I have been up to. I hope you won’t hesitate to contact me and I appreciate your thoughts, considerate e-mail and the many prayers you offer to our God in Christ by the Holy Spirit on my behalf as well as those I am living with and working with in Korea.

God’s Shalom,

Brent Dirks
Korea Nazarene University
456 Ssangyong-Dong
Cheonan-City, Chung Nam
330-718 South Korea
Office: 82-41-570-1426
Cell Phone: 82-10-7570-1434
Skype: (970) 352-1904
bedirks@gmail.com