“When somebody asks me about Japan, it’s hard to stop talking,” admits Jim Dickey, with a wide grin spreading across his genial face. Tall and trim, the Columbus man continues writing “Welcome to Mississippi” in Japanese on a big dry erase board in a Mississippi University for Women classroom. He explains the complex sentence structure and pronunciation — verb always at the end, three intertwining lettering systems, pure vowels. It is not an easy language to become fluent in, but the Vietnam veteran and his wife, Dr. Brenda Dickey, have done it. As missionaries living in Japan for almost 30 years, it was essential.
It wasn’t so very many years ago that Jim Dickey was teaching English in Japan. Beginning March 25, he will teach Japanese to Mississippians. Dickey will share some fundamentals of the exotic language through MUW’s Life Enrichment Program. LEP non-credit courses for adults are taught by volunteers weekly for six weeks and cover a wide range of topics. With the advent of Yokohama Tire Corp. in Clay County, the Golden Triangle is destined to soon have more than a few visitors from the Land of the Rising Sun. Dickey’s goal is to help its residents be gracious hosts.
“We’ll cover some basics, like introductions and some of the most commonly used phrases you might hear, and the proper ways to respond without being offensive — because you can say the wrong thing without meaning to,” said the linguist, who hopes to give others confidence in interactions with global guests. Along with language exposure, Dickey and his wife will share insight into the culture of Japan, a country the Augusta, Ga., natives still often think of as “home.”
LEP Coordinator Debbie Swartz said, “We’re thrilled to be offering this class, especially with Yokohama Tire coming. Even though the class won’t begin until late March, we’ve already got several people signed up for it.”
The path to Japan
The Dickeys first came to Mississippi in 1976, to pastor a church in the small town of Gloster, in the state’s southwest corner. In 1981, they moved to Japan, near Tokyo, as missionaries with the Assemblies of God World Missions. Jim Dickey had first fallen in love with the archipelego to the east of the Eurasia mainland as a service member of the U.S. Navy on R&R. He felt called to it.
The couple’s prime task before the move was to learn Japanese through intensive training offered by World Missions. Even after they settled abroad, they daily attended advanced language classes for two years.
“Language is everything. It was the number one priority; without it, you’re illiterate,” Dickey emphasized. His master’s degree in cross-cultural communications and a background as an educator helped as he and his wife learned the intricacies of one of the most challenging languages in the world — facts like characters can have many different meanings and pronunciations, that “a” is pronounced “ah” and that “e” is “eh.” It was only the tip of the learning process.
Dickey said, “It’s a monotonal language; it’s usually spoken low and quietly.”
“Except at market,” laughed Brenda Dickey, who is an assistant professor of education at MUW and assessment coordinator for The W’s Department of Education. Dr. Dickey also served as educational consultant for the Assemblies of God World Missions organization and served as a member of the Asian Educational Resource Consortium, which provides educational resources to all mission organization families living and working in Asia.
Cultural differences
Japanese culture is, of course, very different from the western world. It became the Dickeys’ culture, and their daughter Karen’s as well. She was raised there. The couple maintain many elements of it today, seven years after becoming stateside-based missionaries back in America.
“We can’t go in our house with shoes on,” smiled Jim Dickey. “We feel strange walking around inside a house with them on.”
They created a “Japanese room” in their home, with mats on the floor. It’s where guests — like visiting Japanese with the Toyota plant in Blue Springs — are served green tea and entertained.
The concept of community space contrasts, too. The couples’ last house abroad was about 750 square feet. “And we were comfortable,” said Dickey.
“We absolutely miss Japanese food,” he continued. “It’s very easy to eat healthy in Japan.”
Yes, he and his wife do converse with each other in Japanese from time to time. And they return to the far eastern country as often as possible. They will take a team in 2015 to assist with ongoing relief efforts following the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
A kind people
More than anything, it’s the people that make the Dickeys at times homesick for Japan. They are, as a whole, polite and kind, industrious, with a strong work ethic. Some the family’s best friends are Japanese. They stay in touch almost weekly.
“It’s hard to describe, since we weren’t born and raised there, but it literally became home. … There is kind of an old-fashioned dignity and respect, much like the old-fashioned South,” said Dickey.
He looks forward to sharing some of that insight with participants in the language course. And the couple is eager to show some traditional Mississippi hospitality to more Japanese nationals soon.
“We were so happy to read in the paper that Yokohama is coming,” said Jim. The Magnolia State, they said, is the best state the plant could be setting up shop in — a place that also knows a thing or two about courtesy and kindness.
Editors’ note: “Introduction to Japanese Language” is one of 43 MUW LEP courses offered this spring. Learn more at muw.edu/lep or call 662-241-6101. First term courses run Jan. 27-March 7. Second term courses are March 24-May 2.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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