Aug 11. 2014. 한국사람

I am pleased to get to know 한국사람, Koreans, especially at a strange place. Actually, I do not make special effort to meet Korean people overseas on purpose. Since I am in the new environment, meeting local people to follow their life is more important to me. I always try to stay awake; if I enjoy too much about staying with my comfort zone – using my first language and do everything what I got used to in foreign countries – I will never improve. I vaguely assumed that there should be a group of Koreans – immigrants, missionaries, or volunteers – in Dodoma, Tanzania, but I have not seen them since I came to Tanzania.

Nevertheless, it is always good to meet Koreans because I do not have to think what I should talk, and I can just say without any concern about pronunciation, grammar, and choice of good words. Staff in WVT Central Zone coerce(?) me to speak Swahili, and I always feel bad that I do not understand anything what they say. In the morning, Lidya said to me, “Mambo!” And I had to make a reply something, but I was not sure what to say, so I said, “Asante!” Then, she looked disappointed and shook her head.

“My friend! At least you have to know how to greet people in Swahili! You have already been here two weeks. What did you do?”

Should I feel offended? Stressed? Depressed? I am so embarrassed that I have not still remembered all staff names and I have not even try to know what basic greetings and simple expressions in Swahili.

“Mama, I don’t know… what is the answer for that?”

“Poa! You should say Poa! If people say Mambo to you.”

Okay, I will remember this forever. “Mambo” and “Poa.” I call her mama and say to her that I cannot do anything without her. (Hahaha…) Any staff says Swahili to me when I am in a defenseless mode, so I have to be a state of tension so that I will not disappoint them. I am always unsure about my language ability to acquire, and my period of time to stay in Tanzania is one month and a half from now. I really wonder how people in the world have created thousands of different languages in each country, even in each tribe and community in one country. So all Korean and English words in the dictionary can exactly translated into Swahili and all other languages? There are 16 ethnic groups in Sierra Leone, and each group has its own language. Plus, Krio language is the primary language for communication between different ethnic groups, and English is the official language. So a total of 18 languages exist in Sierra Leone. In Tanzania, there are more than 100 different languages, and Swahili and English are the official languages. I know one of Tanzania’s official languages, English! Yay! But everyone speaks Swahili, and I am the only one who stays calm and feel headache in the church, in the devotion, and in the staff’s conversation. Oh, my language!

Two packages from South Korea; small one was mine!

Admin assistant, Celine, told me in the morning that I had a package from South Korea at the post office, so I needed to bring my ID and pick that up. The post office was not far from the WVT Central Zone office, but she kindly arranged the transportation. Emmanuel, who drove me Dar es Salaam to Dodoma two weeks ago, took me to the post office, and I needed to hurry because it would close at noon. Emmanuel and I entered some room in the post office, and there were an officer who came from the government and a woman who wore sunglasses and seemed to come from Asia. There was a big package written in Korean, 우체국택배, on the desk, so I tried to understand what situation was; did this woman bring this big package for me? It should not that big, and my package would only include medical insurance and some medicine. Something was happening in that room, and this lady kept staring at me through her black sunglasses, which made me feel weird and more confused why I was standing in front of them.

“한국 사람이세요?”

“네!”

She started talking to me. She has just become first Korean since I came to Tanzania. The big package was actually hers, and she was bargaining with officer over the price of Tanzania government tax. Amazingly, she was speaking Swahili pretty well with officer and employee. ‘Wow… How did you learn Swahili?’ While she was talking with officer, I also talked to her in Korean. She came here through KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) last November and would stay here for 2 years. She said she was teaching mathematics at secondary school. KOICA was doing almost similar service as Peace Corps in the U.S. does. She must have learned Swahili language through KOICA prior to her work and used Swahili most of her time while teaching math at school as well. Ah ha! There was a small one and a staff put it on the desk. I was surprised that I have to pay government tax as well as post office fee to receive this package from overseas even though a sender paid for shipment.

It was a very brief encounter, but I was happy to know that many Koreans are willing to come to African countries to serve their society by making the most of their own special abilities; education, medical/public health service, public administration, energy industry, agriculture and forestry marine project, and so on. At the same time, I thought what my position is, and where I am. Youth unemployment is a serious social issue for many economies, and South Korea is no exception. I assume many college students in South Korea are looking for going to the international organizations, so many of them are seeking international internship to build their capacity. Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, and Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, would be a great catalyst for Korean youths’ future dream towards the world. Seeing soaring Korean leaders world-wide is in the course of time!