by jessie tu

My mother and I were born in the same country, though we don’t speak the same language. We migrated to Australia from Taiwan when I was four years old, and though we only spoke Mandarin at home, my vocabulary never expanded beyond that of a four-year-old. Year by year, without frequent use or improvement, I’d lose words and turns of phrase, and my intonation grew coltish and distorted.

My mother never learned English, passing by with the few necessary staples: ‘thank you’ and ‘please’. I played the reluctant child interpreter, unremarkable among the millions of migrant millennials just like me. I’m not sure why she didn’t learn English. It is not for me to judge the ways she has chosen to navigate her midlife migration and resettlement.