Joanna and Chip Gaines' Oldest Daughter Started Taking Korean Classes After Inspirational Family Trip to Seoul

The design experts, who share five children together, went on a family trip to South Korea in April 2023.

Joanna and Chip Gaines’ daughter, Ella, learns a new language and embraces her mother’s heritage.

In the title story, Fr Magnolia JournalIn the Spring 2024 issue, Joanna, 45, revealed that the eldest of her five children is learning Korean after the family traveled to Seoul last year. (Magnolia Journal is published by PEOPLE’s parent company, Dotdash Meredith.)

“Ella, our oldest daughter, was so inspired by this whole trip that when we got home she started taking classes to learn Korean,” the proud mom wrote alongside a photo of her children dressed in traditional Korean clothing at a venue in the main the city. .

Along with Ella, Joanna and Chip (49) are also parents to sons Drake (19), Duke (15) and Crew (5) and daughter Emma (14).

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Chip and Joanna Gaines pose during a family trip to South Korea.

Courtesy of Magnolia Magazine

Mom Joanne Gaines spent months trying to find the sister she hadn’t seen in ‘Decades’ – and she found her!

Joanna and her family traveled to Seoul in April 2023 Magnolia Journal an issue, the Fastener Top: Welcome home the star said it was wife Chip’s idea to go on the trip after they scrapped the idea “because of the time, or the calendar, or the kids and work, the time and the calendar.”

In addition to their five children, the couple also persuaded 24 members of Joanna’s family to join them on the trip — including her dad, her two sisters, her uncles and her cousins.

Joanna recalled in the Spring 2024 issue that some of the highlights of the trip for her were seeing the cherry trees in “full bloom” and visiting the food markets.

She also said that seeing her children embrace her culture was an experience like no other. “We all tried on traditional Korean costumes together – it felt like we stepped into another time,” she wrote. “The children loved exploring while the adults sat and drank tea together.”

The cover of ‘Magnolia Journal’s 2024 Spring Edition.

Courtesy of Magnolia Magazine

Joanna also revealed in the release that her mum Nan has been trying to find her sister, who she left behind in South Korea, for months ahead of a big family trip.

“My mom spent those months trying to contact her sister, who she hadn’t seen in decades,” Joanna said. “It turned out to be impossible to overcome many years. The number system in South Korea has changed, rendering the number my mom scribbled down in her phonebook useless.”

She added that as the family boarded the flight and was ready to take off, her mom was still looking for her sister. However, things changed when they landed in Seoul. “A few days after we arrived, an old family friend managed to find my aunt. My mom met her in the lobby of our hotel and we all had to watch them hug each other in that hard-to-explain way where it seems like a lifetime has passed, but also that there’s no time,” the mother of five wrote. .

Joanna added that everyone “had tears in their eyes, witnessing that a missing part of my mother was found and returned.” Her aunt later joined all the activities the group had planned for the rest of the trip.

Joanna Gaines helps her youngest son Crew with his hanbok.

Courtesy of Magnolia Magazine

Joanna Gaines visits South Korea after opening up about her difficult journey to embrace her heritage

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in November 2022, Joanna revealed that being teased as a child kept her roots hidden for years.

“It was deeply personal because it was half of my story,” the design expert said at the time. “I realized that if this is not accepted, maybe I have to hide it and play more on the other side of who I am.”

Through writing his memoirs, The stories we tell, Joanna said she has since fully embraced her heritage and passed it on to her five children. “My Korean heritage is one of the things I’m most proud of. I’m trying to make up for that lost time—the culture is just so beautiful. I think discovering who you are and what you’re made of is a lifelong journey,” she told PEOPLE.

To read the full cover, visit magnolia.com and pick up a copy of the Spring 2024 issue of Magnolia Journal, on newsstands Friday, February 23.

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Source: HIS Education