A Korean Boy in America

A Korean Boy in America

 

 Recently I received a letter from a Korean boy, Kim Jung-ho, living in America. The eldest son of my late friend Kim Il-yup, he is now a junior at the University of IIT. I may perhaps have to make it clear before going farther that my friend Kim Il-yup is not the famous Buddhist nun whose name is also Kim Il-yup (1896~1971). Their names sound the same, but the characters used for them are different: the characters for my friend’s name mean “Sun Shines,” where those for the nun ”One Leaf.“

 My friend “Sun Shines.” who had worked together with me as a teacher of English at Whimoon High School in Seoul for seven years, was a minister at the Uptown Church in Chicago at the time when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage while preparing before a congregation for the Thanksgiving Day Service on Nov. 21, 1976.

 In the letter I received from Jung-ho was enclosed a zerox copy of his essay “My Youngest Brother’ that had lately appeared in the Korean edition issued by the Chicago branch of the Hankook Ilbo.

 Assuming that his essay reveals some aspects of a Korean boy’s life in America, and that we may learn something from it, I give below its English translation.

 “My youngest brother has just entered a high school. Though he has millet-like pimples all over his face and takes all the clothes of his brothers for his own wear, he is still amiable since he is the youngest.

 “Only a few years ago when we hadn’t been long in America and when he was at elementary school, he came back home black-eyed beaten by a Puerto Rican boy while boasting of practicing Taekwondo. And he oftentimes pretended to be sick all of a sudden when the time came for him to go to school in the morning. But now as a decent member in his own right of the baseball team of his school, which he has so eagerly wished to be, he practices baseball every morning and evening. Perhaps ignorant of the Oriental teaching ”the younger should give precedence to the elder,“ he is now rudely taller than we his elder brothers.

 “The little chap, who used to ask mother for ten won while in Korea, saying he got ten points holding his exam paper sideways in his hand while he actually got zero, won the first prize in a graduation contest of mathematics held at his elementary school. And he has entered a high school here that admits students by academic record. This we may call one of the cases where we can say, ‘It was not a mistake that we came to America.’

 “His ability to speak English often puts me to shame. He points out my mispronunciations every time I speak. My dignity as the eldest brother is badly hurt. And he gibbers in English when he is driven into a corner while we talk. Though I shout ‘Speak in Korean’ in that case, I still love him because he speaks English so well which is so difficult to master. He loves watching the Johnny Carson TV Show, a midnight program. Understanding all the jokes in the show, he splits his side laughing when the others stay mute like blankets. Perhaps he may get a doctoral degree in TV since he know the name of every TV program.

 “Not long ago he was severely scolded by mother because he spilled iodine on the brand-new drawing room carpet while making a so-called scientific experiment assigned as a home task. He often comes home injured from taking some sort of sports exercise, He once gave a hard time to a surgeon because his shoulders were broken even before the cast for a previous arm injury was removed.

 “Perhaps because of his being the youngest, however, he sometimes willingly helps mother clean house and take care of chores. And they say he is quite popular with both boys and girls at this school. I love my youngest brother for his good personality. But I shall love him more if he stops complaining that he pews in the church are hard to sit on, and earnestly attends church services like the rest of us.”

 Reading his essay, I imagined myself reading one of his father’s essays. The warm-heartedness, style, and rhythm of his essay were just like those I sensed while reading the essays of his father, a founding member of the now-defunct literary circle “Munjang-ka (Literary Men), of which I was also a member.

 The photo of Jung-ho on the right top the essay was very much like that of his father.

 I momentarily felt that my friend Il-yup was still living on earth through his excellent sons. Jung-ho is certainly different from a certain Korean boy at Yale who reportedly planned to throw a $40,000 party. He will surely make a good contribution to America which gave him place to live and is affording him a good education.

 The lord will lead Jung-ho, his brothers and sister, and other Korean community members there in the right direction as in the following hymn included in the preparation paper of Jung-ho’s father for preaching just before going to Heaven. "Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom/Lead Thou me on!/Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see the distant scene; one step enough for me.“

 

 

                                                                                                The Korea Times

                                                                                                May 5, 1978