Definitely. I always speak Vietnamese with my parents at home, because that’s their mother tongue and it just feels much closer than speaking French.

Growing up as an immigrant is a unique experience, at one point one of my previous girlfriends said “you should stop with your immigrant things”. I knew it was over (for other reasons too, but that was one of them)

My current partner also grew up abroad, so she knows what that is like to be a foreigner in another country. We also live in a country where none of us are locals. But we’re both fine with that, because we know how it is.

I real the wall of text, very interesting

It probably depends on which ones are the two countries, in your case it’s even more complex as you seem to support Taiwan.

I’m second generation Vietnamese, and while I like the Vietnamese language and culture, I’m still closer to the country where I was born, grew up and spent basically my whole life.

Also Vietnam being a one party state that my parents left doesn’t really encourages me to fight for it.

That’s harsh, sorry to hear…

Not everybody knows English, I’ve been to the Dutch countryside where quite a few people aren’t comfortable speaking English. And even if they were, it’s not their native language, so if you never speak you will always be less integrated.

Denmark and the other Nordics are a bit in the same situation, of course people know English there, but not knowing the local language is still frowned upon.

Yeah, that’s definitely a valid concern x)

Well, as you can guess, this is an account I created mostly to discuss being a second generation Asian (that’s usually some information I don’t tell on my main account). I created it after seeing your post (to be honest, it was at the back of my head for a bit after seeing some of your posts).

We can wait for a bit if you prefer to see if I’m trustworthy.

Definitely! It kind of baffles me that people can live for years in a place and not learn the local language, but because they speak English it’s fine

“but you live here you really do need to know the language a bit???” (About the parents)

I’ve seen it reversed with English speakers moving to other countries and not bothering to learn the local language because they didn’t see the point. And I’m not talking about Thailand, I’m talking about the Netherlands or Spain

Hey,

Sorry to hear you went through this, it’s unfortunately quite common for immigrant children.

I was lucky enough that my parents knew the language of the country they moved to and lived on their own for a while before having me, but I know other people my age who definitely have a similar experience to yours.

By the way, I feel like an second generation Asian community is missing here on Lemmy/Piefed, would you like to start one with me? It could be a dedicated space to share such experiences between people who lived through them