sasazukas:

I’m super proud of my mom. She was on a flight from America to Shanghai, and the man next to her was a Chinese dad who had been visiting his daughter in the States. He spoke no English.

So the stewardesses come around, and ofc there is Chinese service, but occasionally you would get a flight attendant who was American and didn’t speak any Chinese. During those times, my mother would kindly translate back and forth for him. He expressed his thanks and explained that it was usually his daughter who translated for him on these trips, and oh how it is so difficult to travel when you don’t speak English. My mother commented on how lovely his daughter must be.

Progressing along the flight, there came one stewardess who was particularly condescending. The man was a bit embarrassed when he could not express his meal order to her, since his English skills were so poor. The stewardess looked down her nose at him, gave him a side-eye, and snobbily continued snapping, “What? What??” as he struggled to communicate. She rolled her eyes and scoffed until he finally resigned to simply pointing at the menu.

Later on in that flight, when the same stewardess came around, my mother turned to her and asked in a bright, friendly tone, “How long will you be staying in Shanghai?”

“Oh, four days!” the stewardess answers excitedly. “I can’t wait.”

“Do you know any Chinese?” asks my mom. 

“No, not at all. I only know things like ni hao and duo shao qian (hello and how much does it cost?)”

At this, my mother nods and proceeds to flash the most dazzling smile.

“Oh, I see,” she says. She gestures to the nice Chinese man beside her and adds, “Just like him with English.”

The stewardess seems to get her point and doesn’t smile, doesn’t even stop at their seat once again for the rest of the flight. The man in the seat beside my mother gathers the gist of their exchange and apologizes for the trouble, but my mother takes none of that. She tells him he should never be ashamed of not knowing enough English. It is those who have more knowledge that should be understanding and willing to accommodate those who are trying their best to speak a foreign language. 

You see, when I was younger, I used to be embarrassed when my parents’ English wasn’t perfect. Young Me was a fool. My dad speaks four East Asian languages + dialects and my mother speaks five. They can read and write fluently in both Chinese (simplified AND traditional) and English. 

When they ask me what a word means, and I know it, I will teach them. If they ask me something in Chinese that I don’t know, then we will learn the English together. I have immense respect for them because they came to America with the equivalent of a shoddy high school language class and they became fluent. Anyone who’s ever attempted to learn another language knows exactly how hard that is. While I’ve studied for years, I still understand less than 10% of the Chinese news; they understand American TV + newspapers almost perfectly. So what if they need a definition or a few subtitles? They’ve mastered more than one language, and that is a feat hardly ever achieved by the average person. 

So yeah. I’m really proud of my mom. Of both of my parents. And I hope I can continue learning and growing with them.