My Asian-American Identity Crisis

My grandfather : speak Chinese My grandmother : speak Chinese My dad : speak Chinese My mom : speak Chinese My friends : speak Chinese Me : speak English

My Mom’s side: “You’re too White to be Hispanic” My Dad’s Side: Your’re dark to be white” Me: “WHAT AM I THEN?!?!”

Man. As a Korean American myself I found this so relatable. Especially the part where people teased me for not knowing Korean. This was so cathartic

I deeply relate to this as a Puerto-Rican American because I'm a white passing American born and raised who doesn't know any Spanish, so I feel totally disconnected from my own culture. I've basically fully assimilated into American culture only acknowledging my culture just from the fact that I know that Puerto-Rico is my heritage. The fact that people constantly deny the existence of my ethnicity by saying, "you're not Puerto-Rican, you're an American," because Puerto-Rico is under colonial control by the US just makes it even more frustrating.

Me: Japanese Also me: Can’t use Samurai sword Ancestors: Shame

Emily’s Dad : why don’t you have more Korean friends My Dad : why don’t you have any friends

My parents are born in Puerto Rico and I was born in Pennsylvania. I can say I’m a Puerto Rican American. As I was growing up I get nervous sometimes and I was diagnosed with Autism when I was 3, but it didn’t stop me from trying new things. Love the animation by the way. 🙂

I’m Mexican who’s a first generation in America and never in my life did ever think someone related to my issues, this video and the comments by other Hispanics made me feel comforted in a way, thank you for sharing Emily, I feel as of this is an underrated topic.

"Why didn't you teach your kid Korean" Responds in Spanish

“He just stared right back at him until he got uncomfortable” Yo legit, your brother is a straight up badass

this vid is relatable on so many levels. i was born in the philippines, but i moved to another country at the age of 5 and got exposed to english media. as u can predict, that influenced me a LOT, not only did my ability to speak tagalog get completely erased.. i even lost my understanding on the language and culture. i wanted to re-learn the whole language because i didnt want to embarrass my parents and i didnt want to feel disconnected from it, but i never fully committed. i always felt ashamed when i take the awful flight back to the mother land because of my relative's comments. knowing someone, and many other people, have the same experiences as me feels reassuring. Now that im older, ive been trying to learn the basics and the culture of my homeland^^

I can relate to this as a Filipino American. I grew up in America so I never learned the language so all I can say is thank you but I’ve been trying to learn the language and I love the food and culture but there’s a lot of times where I would feel closer to my American side but then my Filipino side and I would feel out of place when with my relatives. It’s nice to know a fellow asian has gone through similar experiences.

So basically Im an asian american, and this other guy is like, “you’re not asian you don’t have squinty eyes!” and I got so mad ;-;

"My dad would call out in Korean and I would call back in-" My sleep deprived brain: "American ..... wait...."

The vicious cycle of not trying because you feel like you sound stupid and never getting better which only makes you sound even more stupid is extremely relatable. I used to speak more Macedonian as a kid but because I lived in America (even though I did interact with Macedonian American family friends) I eventually lost my ability to speak well and only got worse with time due to the anxiety attempting to speak brought. I got even more embarrassed when I learned I had a thick American accent when speaking, which singled me out even if I spoke, and I completely thought I had a Macedonian accent when speaking.

As a Chadian-Canadian, this is so relatable. I have always had communication problems with my family. I couldn't even hold myself in a conversation.

The only perk ive experienced being an Asian kid in an america school is special treatment in math class

Asian American: Can’t speak their language really well. Duolingo: Come, this is no place to die

I FELT THIS SO MUCH! Like basically all the points she covered, except for my parents being Vietnamese I can relate!

Wow, I cried watching this. Thank you for posting. The analog of the potted plants as cultures that we nurture is really apt. I am a Filipino American who never learned the language and grew up also hearing what a 'shame' it was I couldn't speak OR understand Tagalog. To some degree, it's true I wish I had learned, but so I could keep the connection to that part of my identity. But when I or my parents are BLAMED for it, it does make me mad and resentful and I think it's just really disrespectful to the reality that multi cultural people grow up with. I have a lot of strong feelings about it now that I am older because 1) I am going to visit the Philippines soon for the first time since I was, like, a baby. And I feel so weird about it, and realizing I am kind of scared about it. I am excited but I am definitely an impostor or at least feel that way. 2) I have a baby now who is white (Russian)/Filipino and I have just all sorts of thoughts about how to keep him connected to his culture/identity, and feeling bad I can't even pass on Tagalog. I am trying hard to make sure he learns Russian since my husband speaks it at least. I cried when you said you once told your parents you wished they were white. Maybe because I identify with it, maybe also because I'm afraid of hearing it from my own son someday.