[Friends of Korea] What if I hadn't served in Peace Corps Korea?

Greg Engle, right, at his landlord's 60th birthday party, or "hwangab," in Hongcheon in 1980, after drinking "way too much apple moonshine." / Courtesy of Greg Engle

By Greg Engle

I was a Peace Corps Tuberculosis Control Volunteer in 1980 and 1981, right up until the Peace Corps closed its program in Korea after 15 years.

Greg Engle's TB control office at the Hongcheon health center, 1980. / Courtesy of Greg Engle

Following 10 weeks of language, cultural and job training at the Sejong Hotel in Chuncheon, my wife Maureen and I were sent to Hongcheon, Gangwon Province. I was a tuberculosis control worker, and Maureen worked in the maternal child health ward of the county health center.

Our ability to speak Korean was only slightly better than Koreans' ability to understand us or believe that an American could speak or even attempt to speak Korean. One day, while registering a halmoni (grandmother) as a TB patient, I asked her a series of basic questions, with her daughter serving as interpreter, although both of us at least thought we were speaking Korean. The halmoni kept tugging on her daughter's skirt. Finally the daughter asked her mother what she wanted, and the old woman asked, "Where did you learn to speak English?"

After a year of living in rural Korea I came away with three strong impressions: First, Koreans are extremely hospitable to Americans. They taught me it was better accepting their sincere hospitality than resisting it. Americans value being independent and not imposing on other people, but cross-culturally, that's not an approach that generates trust and friendship.

Greg Engle's musical tribute to Peace Corps Korea

Second, Koreans are very hardworking. Our health center was across the street from a brickyard. Each day, out my office window, I could see the young and old making bricks by hand. Outside our rented room, a new house was under construction, and women as old as my grandmother were carrying heavy loads of bricks on large wooden frames up to the second story of the new house, day in and day out, tirelessly. The basis of Korea's economic miracle, I thought, was those old women making and carrying bricks. They inspired me whenever my energy and resolve were flagging.

The third factor that really impressed me was the determination of Korean parents to get their children the best education possible. The students were dutifully responsive to their parents' efforts, hopes and wishes, studying hard to achieve their educational goals. They were hungry to learn English, and naturally, an American seemed to them like a prime opportunity. Not a day went by when at least one student ― often many more ― asked me if I would "English conversation" them. I wish Americans and students around the world were so determined and insightful. When giving remarks on development around Africa, I have emphasized the absolute importance of education in the development process and pointed to Korea as a glowing example of its success.

Greg Engle, right, visits the Korean Folk Village in Icheon in 1981 with Baek Moo-hyun, second from left, a doctor at the health center where Engle worked who now runs a plastic surgery clinic in Seoul, and Engle's wife Maureen, second from right. / Courtesy of Greg Engle

I joined the U.S. Foreign Service after leaving the Peace Corps and Korea. As a diplomat, I often thought about Korea and how it changed me, positively influencing the way I represented the United States. Sometimes I wondered what my life and diplomatic service would have been like had I not lived and worked in a Korean community.

I would not have been as effective and informed as a diplomat. I would have lacked both a working-level knowledge and awareness of the development process, beyond the confines of a bustling and prosperous capital city. In the early 1980s, Seoul was not like the rural areas only miles away, and many people in Seoul were not personally aware of the differences. This was also true in many African countries.

If I hadn't continued to watch Korea's economic success after I left, I would have had less faith that a country could develop so quickly and extensively. In many developing countries, citizens and foreign observers ― including development workers ― sometimes became discouraged with the rate of progress and started to lose hope. With greater optimism, I could direct their attention to Korea's development and the obstacles it surmounted as it became a global economic powerhouse. Many local experts were well aware of Korea's impressive development and the role of education in its success.

Ethiopians told me Korea was their development model and were prioritizing education as a national goal. When I was country director in Ethiopia, Korea had its own "Peace Corps" (KOICA) there. I was proud that American Peace Corps Volunteers and KOICA Volunteers designed and implemented joint projects. We were still working and growing together, as we were when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Korea.

Without my Korea experience, I would not have had a clear impression of what "hard work" meant in the development process. In my experience, Korea harnessed that cultural attribute more effectively in the cause of development. I perceived less of a "dependency syndrome" and the steady refrain, "You have to do something for us." If I hadn't served in Korea, I might have fallen victim to this way of thinking that could stand in the way of these countries' viable, stable development.

Some of the ways Korea affected and shaped me were more subtle, but no less profound. Koreans' veneration for older people was explicit. How they cared for older relatives was admirable and made an impression on me. After completing my Peace Corps service, I lived across the street from a retirement home. Often I would see elderly parents walk out of the building with their adult children and wave as their children drove away. It was sad to see and was something I might not have noticed had I not lived among Koreans.

Greg Engle and his wife Maureen, right, meet with Dr. Baek Moo-hyun and his wife Kim Mi-sun, left, during the 2018 U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers Revisit to Korea program. / Courtesy of Greg Engle

For many Peace Corps Volunteers, these experiences never leave us. It was an immense privilege to live in Korea and one that changed me and, I hope, made me a better person and a more effective diplomat.

Retired Ambassador Greg Engle teaches part time at the University of Texas at Austin and is on the board of directors of Friends of Korea. He served a Peace Corps Volunteer in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, from 1980 to 1981. He is an award-winning singer-songwriter. Visit englemusic.com or friendsofkorea.net for more information.