Lesson 5: Family

Peter: Rachel, how was your trip to the States?

Rachel: It was amazing.

Peter: What did you do?

Rachel: I got to see and spend time with my family. You know I’m really close to
my immediate family and my extended family.

Peter: Both of them?

Rachel: Yeah, they all live over in the States so it was just a great time to have a
family reunion and to get together.

Peter: You must miss them, living so far away from them.

Rachel: I do. I miss them a lot and after this recent trip I realized the value of
family even more. It was bittersweet just saying farewell to them when I was
coming back here to Korea.

Peter: That sounds sad.

Rachel: I’m really close to my sister. She’s like my best friend so at the time it was
really great to see her and at the same time it was so sad to know that I was
going to leave her again.

Peter: That is bittersweet. It’s the same for me, because my family, my immediate
family, my mother and father, they live in London, which is miles away. We’re
really close-knit as well like a typical, I guess my mom is a typical Korean mum.
Like she really takes care of her only son. But because she’s in London, it’s really
difficult. So I do miss them.

Rachel: And you know, now that you have a family of your own, you have a son
and your wife, does(do) things on family kind of change for you? Like
perspective on family?

Peter: Yeah, it’s really strange, because now I have my own little family. And then
above me is my mum and dad so I’m a bit confused, because I only had my baby
recently, but I think it turns into a bigger network. And there’s just more family
love, I guess. And then it gets even more close knit, because then your parents,
they want to see you more often to see their grandchild and things like that.

Rachel: That’s true. And it’s really important for your grandchildren to have good
relationships with their grandparents. It’s connecting those generations. You
know what they say, blood is thicker than water.
Peter: It is. By literally. So never forget about your family. Don’t take them for
granted.

Rachel: I agree.

I love to talk about my family! I have a great extended family with aunts and uncles
and cousins spread out all over the world. My mom is the oldest of eight so she had
lots of brothers and sisters… we try to get together once in a while and
keep in touch over Skype or some other internet means.
But the real joy of my life is my immediate family with my twin boys and my beautiful
wife. So I do everything I can to get
out of work quick and go spend time with them… and just enjoy family life.