[vol.21] [Life story written by Park, Min-na] Yellow angel in Berlin
WORKING WOMAN 2008. 3. 21. 11:37|
Life story written by Park, Min-na Yellow angel in Berlin - Young Sook Choi, Chairwoman of Cultural Association of Korea and Germany
Min Na Park 33 years ago, Young Sook Choi was in the group of dispatched nurses in Germany. She just completed her training. She signed the three years' contract and started her journey to Germany dreaming of a beautiful picture which she saw from a postcard. In the early 60s, the national economy policy was very much export-oriented. The government exported not only product but labor, too. The Korean government concluded a convention with the German government. Korea dispatched 10,000 nurses and 8,000 miners to Germany. Completing the contract time, some came back and some remained to form a resistant force struggling against the repressive military regime of Korea. Tens of years have passed, and last October, Ms. Young Sook Choi came to Korea leading 'Thunder Sound', the youth cultural group which won the Millennium Festival Contest in Germany, in order to participate in the "Seoul Dream Festival". Now Germany is her second home. What have left were her past times in Germany? Before her departure to Germany, I had a short but meaningful meeting with her. Wet rice in milk and tears On October 15, 1966, the day she arrived in Berlin, was a windy, rainy, and a cold autumn day with many fallen leaves on the street. They were numbered(For a while, they were called by the numbers) and grouped. 17 nurses and assistants including her got on a two story bus and the bus ran into a strange street for a long time. "Where are we going to?" It was a very strange feeling. It was raining lightly and so strange street brought fear. We took the bus for almost an hour. The place where the bus stopped was a dark building which seemed like no one lived in. It was a hospital for T.B. patients. The Chief nurse was kind enough to cook rice for us. She knew that Asians ate rice. She boiled rice in milk and added sugar and cinnamon powder. None of us could eat. She seemed to worry a lot and said something however, we could not understand. The rice in milk and the feeling I got on the very first day always reminds me of the first day in Germany." They could not speak even a word at that time and they started their living in the foreign country. " We came to a civilized country all of sudden, and many of us could not step on the escalator. The automatic sensory light frightened us. Some of us said that there was a ghost to put on the light. (laughing) Some of us had no experience of flush toilets, and they stood on the toilet seat. In the morning, we often found soil from the toilet. We joked that somebody dirtied their hips by soil. Ha, Ha, Ha,... We were so rustic. The nurses who came later were more civilized." She told us the stories laughing but they were like a prediction of her harsh life. In Germany, the role of nurses included the looking after all the needs of patients and they had to obey doctors unconditionaly. Due to the language barrier, the general duties of nurses like injections, assisting doctors, etc. were not given to them. They had to do the other works such as cleaning beds, cleaning rooms, washing patients, etc. They were so sad and frustrated that a nurse kicked two buckets full of water and cried out. Popular yellow angels with patients The dispatched nurses were young and in the 20s in age therefore the German nurses, who were mostly 40s to 50s, were jealous of the Korean nurses. While Germans did not show their emotions easily, the Korean nurses were much kinder and diligent. They were called 'yellow angels' and very popular among the patients. When nurses are injecting, Korean nurses used to slap a hip to lighten the pain on injecting. It was very new and strange for Germans and they liked it very much. The TB hospital was built in a beautiful place with very nice air for the TB patients therefore, she could be comforted by the scenery. She loved music. She spent one third of the first salary to buy a record player. She went to the street even though she could not communicate and bought the 'Unfinished Symphony' of Schubert. She was so happy that she jumped up the street. Fortunately, she could see the beautiful scenery through the windows of the hospital together with the beautiful music in her memory. The cultural shocks in a foreign country made her lonely. "A good friend of mine, Mi Young, was with me on the plane but we were separated and I did not know where she was. I missed her so much. I could be comforted a bit by the fact that my friend is somewhere in the same city. I decided to look for her. In fact she was in the hospital near a lake. A month after I went to the hospital and happened to find her. We hugged and cried for a while." Recalling the lonely, hard, and sad past stories, her eyes were full of tears. There was no information about life in Germany, and no information made it possible that a good number of nurses and assistants went to Germany. Their lives for the first few years were full of suffering and occupied by missing homeland. Due to the language barrier, the nurses were treated as assistants and the assistants were treated as unskilled simple labor hence, they received very low wages. The unjust treatment continued even after they all adjusted to living in Germany. After the three years of contract, some of them came back to Korea but those, who were responsible for the family financial needs, ie. education fees for brothers and sisters or living cost for the family, etc., made another contract. Since they were famous for kindness, they were welcomed for postponing their contract period. The only harm was that they had to accept discriminated treatment compared with German nurses. "By time passing, we adjusted to our life in Germany and came to be proud of ourselves since we were very much welcomed by patients. So, working permission was renewed easily. Some of us started study in university and some of us married. I also had a boy friend, who was a German.(Laughing) I was invited to a party and a German man showed his interest in me. He was tall, warm, and handsome with brown hair and brown eyes that made his face not like a German. He invited me for a date. He was very calm and very much caring for others. I was very fortunate. Ha. Ha. Ha." Enforced repatriation due to the oil crisis The Oil Crisis in 1974 brought her, who had adjusted herself to living in Germany for more than ten years of time, a bitter trial. The economic situation of Germany got worse, and more conservative state governments did not extend working permission period of Korean nurses and forced them to return back to Korea. Furthermore, Korea was not able to provide workplace for the returned nurses. "It was all of sudden. When they needed us, they tried to hold us with sweet words. But they just threw us away like waste paper. We were naturally organized and determined to struggle for our rights. In the process of the struggle, not only the nurses but the Korean students and residents implemented a strong resistance. From May of 1977 we started a signature campaign on the streets. We got good feedback from Germans. About 11,000 people signed for us. The German nurses, who surely expected more work loads without us, were very much supportive, too." At last, their demands were accepted and the enforced repatriation stopped. The nurses, who worked for more than five years, received working permission with no limit of extension and those who worked for more than eight years received denizenship. This experience provided her the turning point of her life. She just lived her life with her best without giving any harm to others. She thought, that was enough for a good life. However, she opened her eyes towards a broader world. "The problems can be solved only when we are aware of the problems and commit ourself to the problem.' It was a lesson for the women, who were in struggle, and herself. They came to form the "Korean Women Residents in Germany United". They had the common experience of living in other country. They could unite themselves very strongly based on the common experience. They began to question. "Why are we here? How did we become to come here?, etc., and to think about their home country. At that time, in Korea the women workers in Dongil Textile were struggling and there was the YH case. They felt a strong solidarity with the women workers in Korea and they publicizing the stories from Korea to an international society. The Ms. Young Sook Choi is receiving a thanks plague visiting the office of KWWAU.(November 2, 1999) perception of "We too are workers." made it possible to build up solidarity with Korean Women Workers' Association and other labor organizations through supporting their struggles and conducting joint struggle. She married to the warm and pretty German man. Now she has a son. She brings her son to the meetings with her group. Her husband has a very democratic mentality and is very supportive of her activities. She read lots of books through the group meetings. "Understanding of the history before and after liberation", "Shout of a stone", and some poems of poet Ji Ha Kim gave her a new perspective towards the history of Korea. A new life brought by May Kwangju massacre How difficult the change of a human-being is? She also had a hard time to change herself. Her brain could understand the situation but, it took more time to move to a practical implementation of struggle. The May Kwangju massacre made her be reborn as a new woman. She came to a decision that it is a sin to move backward any more. "In 1981, I had the second baby and had to quit my part time job in a hospital. More flexible time allowed me to spare more time for activities. Mr. Jin Taek Son came to Germany at that time and he taught us Korean traditional rhythm instruments. It led me to commit myself to the cultural movement. Together with friends who learned the traditional rhythm instruments, we formed a cultural group with the name of 'Field plant'. In 1985, we had a performance of "A light of a factory" in which we could introduce the situation of the Korean women workers and show our unity. In the performance we sang a song, "The pretty twinkling light... cannot return like this. Be-missed hometown, cold and tiring night, here is another hometown..." The song tells our story. We left our mother land leaving our words, "Mom, we will be back with lots of money." But we never came back but remain here with tears of missing the mother land. We cried so much that we could not practice even. Whenever we started our practice, we encouraged ourselves not to cry. But we used to end up with lots of tears. I still drop tears whenever I watch the video tape." The group had a performance tour and every place where they performed there was a full of audience. Young Sook Choi could strongly feel unity and solidarity through the performance and came to have a great love towards women. The Korean Women Residents in Germany United still gives her warmth and comfort like a mother's house. Since then, she runs to the place whenever she is wanted. She became a militant. In 1986, she was involved in the memorial project for the late militant Kyoung Sook Kim and it mobilized her to pay lots of supports to KWWAU. When the women workers in Frea Fashion Co in Ihri conducted a struggle, she paid a visit to the headquarter of Frea Fashion Co. in Germany and organized a large scale of resistance struggle. In 1987, she worked for the international solidarity and public relation in the "National Democratic Movement Association, and she build up solidarity with male colleagues. In August, 1990, she worked on "Joint soil Ceremony" which was a ceremony of mixing soil from South Korea and North Korea Scene from "99 Seoul Drum Festival" Chon Dung Sori(meaning thunder sound) organized by 'Pan National Rally'. She paid a visit to North Korea for the program. From then, she worked for the Pan National Federation until 1995. Meanwhile she became a vice-president of the Cutural Association of Korea and Germany and started working for the youth activities. Young Sook Choi felt a crisis as the first generation of Korean residents in Germany. Therefore she lets her kids learn Korean traditional culture. Her kids are attending a traditional drum class in King Saejong school, in which the kids learn Korean language. Now Germany is her second home country. However, she has never forgotten her home country. Germany is really far away from Korea therefore she missed her mother more. She came to Korea last year because her mother got sick. As if like her mother could not pass away worrying about her daughter, her mother died a while after she came to Korea to see her mother. Her lost her husband earlier and she did her best to look after her and her brother. Aspiring to literary honors In 1944, she was born in Seongju, North Kyoungsang province. Her father died in the war when she was eight years old. Her mother had to take care of her and her brother. She sold various items. Young Young Sook was brilliant and very good in study. She was loved by many friends and teachers. She was a lonely and very introvert type of calm girl. She was very good at literature but she decided to enter a nursing school. It was in order to reduce expenses for board and lodging, because the nursing school ran a dormitory. As soon as she graduated from the nursing school, she got a job in the Soo Do Women's Training College for Teachers Hospital. She did well in the interview so that she was sent to a better place. When she had to decide to quit her job in order to leave for Germany, she had a hard time to decide. "I was not mature enough to give up the plan of working in Germany. I knew nothing. Therefore it was possible to leave for Germany. If I knew about the situation in Germany, I would not have gone. My mom lived a harsh life and I was so eager to help her. I also dreamed of a beautiful city in Germany. Mom cried every day expecting my hard life in another country. Neither of us expected that I would stay in Germany for such a long time." They often heard, "Why don't you go back to your country?". It has already been 34 years. She is not any more an innocent girl dreaming of making lots of money or believing in the propaganda which says, "Wiring much money to your home country, you will become a patriot." She has gone through various experiences. One day, Seok Young Hwang, a writer, gave her a nickname, "Director of the Institute for Various Problems". It fits her very well. She goes wherever she is called or wanted. Now after a short visit to Korea, she will be back to her family in Germany. It is not easy for her to come to Korea. Therefore she feels friendly by passing the people on street and a fallen leaf on the street gives her some affection. She misses so many things in her mother land and missing them will give her more strength to work for making "The World where people can live as human beings." For that she will live a busy life in Berlin again.
Korea Working Women's Network 2000 |