Learning a language you did not grow up with can be hard and stressful.

This boy is trying to learn Mandarin quickly so he can converse with his family at home, but when his older brother asked him a question he couldn’t understand, he simply broke down in tears.

Read the story below for all the details!

AITA for crying when my entire family started to speak a language I barely know?

So, I’m a 14-year-old guy, and my parents are from Taiwan.

Their native language is Mandarin.

My older sister (19F) and older brother (17M) both speak it pretty fluently.

This boy’s mother signed him up for an online language course.

Well, by the time I came around and was old enough to actually learn stuff, my family rarely spoke our native language.

Due to the fact that I barely speak it, my mom said I barely compare to a toddler in the language.

So she signed me up for online Mandarin lessons that I’m starting this week.

He found out that their parents want them to speak Mandarin at home.

Today, when I came home from school, my sister was the only one home and greeted me in Mandarin.

She started speaking to me in it.

I asked her why in English, and she told me in English that our parents want everyone to speak more Mandarin around the house.

When his brother asked him something in Mandarin, he cried.

I just started to have a lot of anxiety because of it, and tonight at dinner, everyone was speaking Mandarin, and I can’t really pick up on most of it.

I understand enough to kind of understand what’s happening in the conversation but barely, and sometimes, I get lost.

Then my brother turns to me, and asked me a question in Mandarin.

I just didn’t understand a single word of it, and I started to cry.

He feels like his mom is bullying him into making him use the language quickly.

I told my mom that she is bullying me for not knowing how to speak our native language, and she even agreed that it’s her fault.

I don’t get why she’s doing this to me.

My sister then said in English, “See, I told you something like this would happen,” to my mom.

My mom then got mad and said that learning this is important, and she isn’t going to let me crying about it stop her from making me learn it.

Some family drama over here.

Let’s see how other users reacted.

This person shares their honest opinion.

This one offers some advice.

The mother is going about it all wrong, says this one.

Here’s another valid point.

Finally, this user thinks what they’re doing is cruel.

Mom had good intentions here.

But we all know that’s not all that matters.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.