Sunday evening meeting my Korean student always brings something new for me to write about.
March 18, I wrote one on her husband's job loss. She told me that she used to spend money without any planning. Now she started budgeting and putting aside some savings for any uncertain events. Last week she told me the story of her five-year-old daughter.
I told her that there were lots of things that we could learn from the children. I shared with her my writings on my children’s birthdays. She said, “OMG, it's so wonderful that you remembered all these little things of their childhood. I don’t even remember things happened yesterday."
Next I shared with her a Chinese saying, 一个烂笔头强过最好的记忆力 (yī gè làn bǐ tóu qiáng guò zuì hǎo de jì yì lì), the shortest pencil is better than the best memory. The saying emphasizes recording information, ideas, and experiences through writing can be more valuable than having a good memory alone.
Additionally, writing can help clarify thoughts and provide better reflection when you look back. It definitely can compensate for bad memory or for the limitations in our memory.
I told her writing itself comes easy with modern technology. I don’t write on paper anymore and I seldom type. I use the small mic 🎤 at the bottom of the keyboard on the cell phone and just talk to it, then do some editing. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes.
My student said she would do the same thing to record the childhood stories of her two daughters, too precious to forget.