[A Sip of Books] The Mentor Needed in an Age of Anxiety and Depression: 'My Denmark Teacher'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

The author, who worked as a teacher cultivating fields with students at an alternative school in Jirisan, one day felt, "I need a teacher too," and set off for faraway Northern Europe. To Denmark, known as the land of happiness. And enrolled in the Danish World Citizenship School. However, keeping up with the English classes was tough, and the European students' parties held every night felt awkward. Worried whether they had come to the right place despite their earnest heart, the advice from a Danish teacher became a great support. "Don't worry too much. I know how much tension Korean people live under. Here, try to relax a bit." After seeking change this way, the author experienced the amazing opening of a new path in life.

I am a slow student. A student who does not understand the teacher's words well and cannot answer well even when asked. A student who has their own thoughts and experiences and things they want to say inside their heart but struggles to express them. This is how I become the slow students I met when I was a teacher. Perhaps this is why I came to IPC. During the 16 years I lived as a student in Korea, I did not face such great difficulties. I could quite well understand what teachers said and had no hesitation in expressing my thoughts. I came to the country where students are said to be the happiest in the world, feeling as if I had never received proper education in my life, but the first piercing lesson was that I had become a slow student.

"Now alternative schools will have to become spaces for healing. Japan is already following that trend. Won't Korea soon become like that too?"

In a space for healing, wounds can burst open. Healing without revealing wounds is impossible. Every time the students' wounds burst open, my own wounds also flinched. The students' and my wounds met and blazed like the deep autumn leaves of Baemsagol in Jirisan, as if to burn Jirisan completely. I did not feel qualified to be a healer. When I said I was someone who needed healing, my friend replied.

"Every healer in this world, without a single exception, has been someone who needed to be healed themselves."

People said it would be difficult for a young girl raised gently in Europe to travel alone in a strange country, but Catherine traveled alone all the way to India and Pakistan. After the journey ended, she said 12 years had passed. Through her long travels, Catherine came to realize that every person in the world has their own story and their share of pain.

Once, while drawing a tree in the art room, after putting in all sorts of effort, there came a moment when I did not know how to draw it. At that time, I told Catherine that I felt lost. Then Catherine asked me a question.

"Do you dislike being lost?"

The resonance of that question has remained in my heart for a long time.

My Danish Teacher | Written by Jeong Hye-seon | Minumsa | 320 pages | 16,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.