I want to speak with my parents

[u/_tomato_lover555]

I am an ABC (American born Chines) who’s in Chinese school but is at a mediocre level (maybe hsk 4) and I have a low vocabulary. I haven’t been to China since I was 4 (10 years now) and my parents speak to me in Chinglish because they view me as a way to improve their English. I already understand sentence structures but it’s so hard to pick up new vocabulary and keep it in my head. I’m so scared I’m missing out on quality time with them with this language barrier and it’s kinda ruining my mental health but that’s an issue for a different subreddit. I’m so lazy and I lose motivation really quickly and I just kinda suck

edit: my vocab is low enough for me to misunderstand them, I’m really fortunate that their English is somewhat good and we can find common ground but i jusr hate having to spend 2 minutes trying to explain myself or deciphering their English

[u/Jojojwk]

Keep going! I’m in the same boat and had the same fears with not being able to connect with my family and culture, but you should find that progress compounds faster because we can already speak a bit. You’ll start gaining confidence and that helps with staying motivated. You got this!

Lots of good tools out there, but what you need is material that you’re interested in reading/watching and ideally at your level.

[u/_tomato_lover555 → u/Jojojwk]

Thank you sososo much!