I have not and am not planning to teach my kids a lot of Korean. I am not ruling it out. If they have interest, I am happy to teach them in the future or enroll them in Korean school. You know, the dreaded Saturday classes?
BUT, I am having some internal struggles on how to reply when my parents or my MIL ask about this subject. They want my children to know Korean. Especially my dad and mom since they don't speak a lick of English. My MIL, even though she lives in Korea, actually has learned English a bit and can converse decently, so she has not yet been insistant on requesting that her grandsons know Korean but I feel the question coming in the near future.
I don't see my parents or talk to them often, so that kind of helps... but it seems like almost every time I do see my dad, one of the things he says is, "You should teach your kids Korean." My response so far has been either 1. no response or 2. the docile "neh" meaning something like "yes" or "sure."
I mean, I don't want to lie to him or imply that I am planning to teach them Korean, because I am not... and if he was really curious about my real plans and not just wanting to voice his disapproval of my current ways, I think I would be honest and say that I'm not planning to teach them Korean.
So, any of you in a similar situation? Have you had arguments about this with your parents? If not, how have you avoided it? If yes, how was it resolved? What do you say when your parents ask about teaching your kids Korean and it's just not that important to you?
- Mary wants to learn from the wisdom of the group.
