132. How Do I Chinese Again?

But Where Are You Really From?: An Asian-American Struggle

Many children of immigrants grew up learning their parents' language as their first tongue. Our first language was Mandarin, but like many other immigrant children, this was quickly supplanted by English. Despite attending Chinese School every week from the ages of 5 to 18, our current level of vocabulary and reading/writing skills are sadly on par with 5th graders in Taiwan, at best.

As we've gotten older, we've both developed a desire to revisit our mother language as part of better understanding our cultural heritage as a whole. Not only do we need it to better navigate our mother country, but we also need it to communicate effectively with our parents and extended family. In Angela's case, in this past year after feeling less than sufficient with her vocabulary on a recent visit to Taiwan, she's even gone as far as to start taking conversational language classes to improve her Mandarin and fill in the gaps on everyday vocabulary she needs to sound, well... more like someone her own age!

And of course - this is also a matter of pride! Mandarin is our mother tongue after all, so we want to be proud of having a level of proficiency worthy of that title. Being able to show off our skills and eavesdrop on conversations doesn't hurt either ;)

Listeners - what are your experiences with your mother tongue? Are you highly proficient or also picking up the pace later in life? Write-in in the Spotify Q&A section or in our comments on social media!

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