Why am I learning it? Part of it is to use it as a communication tool. Part of it is the guilt of not having learned it or spoken it at all. Part of it is to overcome some of the obstacles I had to deal with being a 2nd generation immigrant.
Growing up, there were various times where I wondered why I couldn’t speak Korean like the other Korean kids around my age. My parents spoke to us in Korean, but we responded back in English. I thought it was normal, at least for us.
My brother and I had a lot of exposure to the language in various forms. We went to Korean churches. Some of the babysitters that I had while growing up were Korean. The language was around me for the early years of my life, but I don’t know what happened that I couldn’t speak it.