Why are you teaching me Korean?!

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Memo


To: My Kids

 From: Your Semi-Tiger Mom

 Date: November 6, 2019

 Re: "Why are you teaching me Korean?!"

_________________________________________________________________________________
To date, neither of you have actually asked me this question.  I'm just assuming someday you'll ask and I better have a good answer.  I've been a parent long enough to know it's best to have a well thought out answer for every question that comes up. <Cue gut-belly laughing with a side of snort> 

In all honesty, I wish I would have started teaching you Korean from day 1.  Day 1, as in 'the pee-strip-formed-2-solid-pink-lines' day 1.  

 "안녕 little tadpole! I'll be right back while I look up 'Tadpole' in Korean...."  

  15 minutes later after I looked up 'tadpole' in Korean, clicked on an ad for tiny onsies with tadpoles, remembered I should probably call dad-to-be before anything else, then back to onsies because now I saw one with tiny frogs all over(!!!), then called dad-to-be, left a message to "CALL ME BACK NOW!!!!" and finally back to my little tadpole.

 "안녕 작은 올챙이! 사랑해! (sniff, sniff)"

 Think of it - you both could have come straight from the womb crying in Korean!  But really, in life it's never too late to start learning something new so even though we started in your elementary school years, It's FINE. 

So why Korean and why now? Here are some plausible answers:

 *Your school district kind of drops the ball in the language department and there are no foreign language classes offered until high school. It's easier to learn a new language the younger you are (not impossible, just easier) so now is better than later.  

 *Everyone should learn another language. That's really bossy but hear me out. Learning a new language not only gives you a lifelong skill and another way of thinking that opens up the world to another entire group of people- but it also gives you compassion and humility. Compassion for others living in our country or others trying to learn the native language of a country and prosper in their new home.  Humility because it grounds you.  Takes you down a notch or two so you can stay grounded.  When you look at someone on the subway in Seoul and say "안녕하세요!" ('Hello' in Korean) and they look past you to your Korean companion to translate this simple greeting - it's both humbling and grounding.

 *Why Korean?  It's either that or French and my French isn't nearly as good as my Korean (which currently isn't really saying a lot for my fluency in either).  Your dad knows Portuguese and Spanish, sure.  But let's face it, he's already been tasked to teach you both stuff I don't know like how to catch a ball, catch a fish, and start fires.  He's already got a lot on his dad plate.  So since I'll be the one helping you, it's gotta be something I already know(ish).  

So now we've been at this Korean learning business for over a year and you're nowhere near fluent.  But do you know more now than you did a year ago? Absolutely!  Have I started figuring out how to insert more Korean learning into our daily lives little by little? Oh yeah!  And have opportunities been opening up to learn from more native speakers since we began? Yup!  Have I been inspired by this process and more motivated myself to become better at Korean? Heck, yeah!  That's all fantastic, right?! 

 You'll just need to learn to like kimchi soon and then we'll start making some real progress.

  사랑해요!

 Mom



















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