Have you ever moved to a country long term after the age of 20?
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My parents can't speak English well...
My brother can speak English...

Talk behind parents' back everyday ;)

Anyway, for those with parents whose first language isn't English: Do your parents mind when you don't speak in your "mother tongue"?

I always speak in English to my brother and my parents couldn't care less. The problem is that my mom has become quite good at evesdropping and deciphering our conversations. I know in some strict families the "official language" is Chinese; no one is allowed to speak English in the household.

I'm really messed up though. Despite growing up in a Chinese household, my first language was English. My mom basically forced me to read and watch English television at an early age.

It's not as hard as you think.

Plenty of people come in their 40s-50s and integrate quite well (learning the language + following customs).

I don't really like cultural enclaves, it's inherently narrow-minded. Coming to Canada, one should realize that this is a multicultural country and embrace the different cultures out there. Not wall yourself out from the rest of society.

If I can learn 5 languages, I'm sure English cannot be hard seeing as its my third for those saying no need to learn English in Canada.

My god this thread makes me wanna shoot myself lol

Give this man 2 bullets

Yes, my parents can speak English. They came to Canada 30+ years ago from HK and were fortunate as kids to have access to education. Here, they ran their own business and dealt primarily with Caucasians so they continued using their English.

My in-laws however, cannot. My mother-in-law could get by in a pinch, but not my father-in-law. They came to Canada around 30 years ago from China and as kids, did not have access to education. They worked mostly kitchen-type jobs, so there was no real need to learn English.

So in conclusion, it depends on what your parents' background was like when they were kids, and what type of work they got into after coming to Canada.

Cause he's gonna miss on his first try?

Look at how many people managed to be successful without having to learn english. I konw of multiple punjabi people who worked in saw mills their whole lives, could barely make out a english sentence. Yet they have nice homes and can afford to send their kids to university.

My grandfather lived here for 50 of his 70 years, and never learned english, worked in a saw mill for 40 years. But at the end of the day the home he bought in east van is now worth over a million and he was able to provide for his family so we could flourish, so i wouldnt say he was handicapped by a lack of english.

If he doesn't then his dad can shoot himself in the nuts for creating this guy

4th gen canadian parents...would be embarrassed if they couldn't speak English
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Who knows how much more money your grandfather could have had if he spoke English. Im parents are from Punjab and my dad worked in the mill. Now the the mills shut down and many of his friends have lost jobs. Our family owns multiple businesses homes and cars. If my parents didn't know English that wouldn't have happened.

my dad is an immigrant and speaks perfect English.













of course hes from the UK :troll:

Parents immigrated here 23 years ago
mom's english isn't good at all
dad's is better and can sort of get by with the language...and I do mean "sort of"

they picked up Cantonese pretty fast when they got here though LOL (family is chiu chow and grew up learning mandarin/vietnamese so canto was new to them)

My parents came to Canada during 1990's. Their English isn't that great but can communicate just fine. My dad is better at English than my mom.

Sometimes is so funny watching them talk to my neighbours but hey at least they are trying.

My parents use their limited vocab trying to put together a sentence and talk to people. I love watching them doing this, makes me realize how much I love them.

Parents immigrated to the UK first then moved again to Canada. They got over their English deficiencies before arriving here, lol.

my mom's family immigrated to Canada when she was just entering post secondary, so she had a few years to work on it. I would say she has a decent grasp of the language. She does have a noticeable accent, but then again, HK english was never 'good' to start with.

Dad's family immigrated around the same time, but he chose to redo what we call grade 12 over here (different naming system in HK) and attended David Thompson. He has no problems interacting in english. Just like my mom, he has the accents, and sometimes the phrasing is awkward, but it never stopped him from talking. In fact, sometimes his accents change depending on who he's talking to :lol

my parents came 23 years ago as well, and to this day their english is still horrible. back in the day, the citizenship examiners pretty much help you answer the questions. however, they did start a business and was fortunate enough to hire translators to get by.

can't blame them though, my high school education was more than their schooling combined.

maybe they should enrol in new immigrant english classes :badpokerface:

I dont jerk off to Asian porn, I dont speak Chinese and I get pissed off when people dont bother to try to learn any English at all.
I also use the term "fucking Chinese" at least a couple times if I go to Richmond.
Call me racist all you want. It just pisses me off when someone comes to this country and doesnt give a shit about anyone but "their own kind" and ends up making my life more difficult when I need to communicate with them.

btw my parents and grand parents all speak English... they moved here 40 years ago... I'm not sure about my mom but my dad could speak English after 1 year of moving here.. he did this while supporting his family (he has 11 brothers and sisters... only 3 were old enough to work)

GOD I hate when my mom does that!

Whenever she's talking to our filipino cleaning lady or people from malaysia/singapore she talks purposely with an accent, I swear she does it subconsciously but it drives me mad because she can communicate perfectly fine without much if any accent

On my dad's side hes actually the only one out of 9 brothers and sisters born in Canada. During WW2 they had to move from place to place in Eastern Europe to get away from the Nazi's. So I have aunts and uncles born all over the place. They speak low German but my Oma (I never knew my Opa) made everyone speak English because out of the respect for the Canadian people and she felt that she has to adapt to the new western culture.

I can’t speak another language and I honestly wish I could but it really frustrates me how people come here and don’t give a fuck about the way we live or our culture and they expect us to adapt to the way they live and act. I’m all for everyone being equal and multiculturalism but it honestly pisses me the fuck off when people only care about their kind and don’t have enough respect for the culture and the ways for the country they live in.

Believe it or not, they do.

I'm usually the "token" white guy in my group of friends, (possibley 1 other white guy will come out) but we go to asian restaurants and I get stared/glared at. I have an asian girlfriend which seems to make them even more hateful towards me...

If you had a sense of low self-esteem then you'd probably feel really uncomfortable going the asian restaurants in Richmond or China town, luckily I don't.

Really. You guys from chiu chow? You guys speak the language at home?
My parents are also from there, but from the city shantou

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Both my parents are immigrants moved here in the early 80's my dad from Iran and mom from Philipines...both can speak english fluently and my dad met my mom in Philipines and he had to learn my moms language plus english since he was going to school in the philipines. My dad is FOB as shit and he obviously knew if he was coming to Canada you better know fucking english if not you would be fucked since the place he moved to was Trail. No persian live there only old italians/caucasians so if he didnt know english he couldnt communicate with anyone.