1. When everyone in the room starts chatting in a language you don't know, you just smile and try to look engaged in what's happening.
2. And if your family naturally talks loudly, you don't know whether an argument is happening or everyone's having a pleasant conversation.
3. It's so frustrating when you can tell some family gossip is going on, but you don't understand quite enough to get the full, juicy story.
4. When you hear your name mentioned in a family conversation you start to get nervous.
5. You've felt the dread of watching a movie with relatives that doesn't have subtitles, and tried to guess the plot.
6. But now you've learnt that films and TV shows transcend language sometimes.
7. And that it's possible to get really, really into them.
8. You've accidentally nodded along to something you definitely weren't meant to nod along to.
9. Someone will constantly remind you that a relative much younger than you is fluent.
10. And whenever you meet family from "back home" someone will remark on why you still don't know it, and a full-blown family conversation about it will kick off.
11. When you do try, you’ve had someone tell you that you pronounce with too much of an accent, and someone else say you pronounce it “too English”.
12. Sometimes a relative asks you to get them something and you stare vacantly trying to remember what the word means.
13. But growing up around it means there are a few random words you don't know the English word for either.
14. Whenever you try to bluff your way through talking to a relative, you're worried your face always gives it away.
15. And for some reason all you're fluent in is the swear words.
16. Your family never loses faith that you will learn to speak their mother tongue one day.
17. And it's made you realise how much effort your parents or grandparents went through to learn English as a second language.
