From Where to Here

E14 Language Legacy | Leaving Taiwan at 18: A Journey of Language, Identity & New Beginnings

• Alexandra Lloyd • Season 1 • Episode 14

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Welcome to Episode 1 of the Language Legacy Project Series, a 5-part community storytelling initiative capturing the powerful conversations between youth from Alabama and elders from immigrant and refugee communities.

In this first episode, a young teen sits down with an elder who left Taiwan at 18, uncovering a deeply personal story about language, identity, family, and the journey of making a new place feel like home. Through guided storytelling and cultural exploration, they dive into memories of childhood in Taiwan, learning English in the U.S., navigating cultural misunderstandings, and the rich traditions passed down through the generations.

You’ll hear stories of:
✨ Growing up in a multigenerational Taiwanese household
✨ Facing the challenges of learning a new language and culture
✨ The emotional realities of immigrating as a teenager
✨ Why idioms, tones, and tiny language differences matter
✨ How Mandarin and cultural traditions are being passed on to her granddaughter
✨ The humor behind a Mandarin filler word that caused a major English misunderstanding
✨ The warmth of Chinese New Year celebrations, storytelling, food, and family rituals

About the Language Legacy Project:
Language Legacy is a youth-and-elders interview series designed to preserve linguistic and cultural heritage through storytelling. Alabama teenagers interview elders from immigrant and refugee backgrounds to capture their language memories, idioms, childhood stories, and first-language expressions. These conversations are then edited into short video stories and shared across online platforms to foster intergenerational understanding, cultural appreciation, and community connection.

Through this project, we hope to:
🌏 Bridge generational gaps through the power of storytelling
🌏 Elevate and preserve the lived experiences of elders
🌏 Celebrate the richness of languages and cultural identities
🌏 Empower youth as interviewers, listeners, and cultural documentarians

If you’re inspired by stories of culture, identity, migration, and language... This episode is the perfect place to begin.

🎧 Watch/Listen now and join us for Episode 1 of 5.
New stories from the Language Legacy Project are coming soon.

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hi I'm Alexandra Lloyd a French Canadian who's called Birmingham cultures and the stories that connect us all from different backgrounds to explore their cultures languages and tackle some fun in our truth or dare or debunk segment whether you're a language enthusiast what is Language Legacy it's a youth and elders interview series where teenagers from Alabama engage in meaningful conversations with elders from immigrant and refugee communities through guided storytelling and cultural exploration these interviews were edited into short video stories through the power of language and storytelling preserving cultural heritage by connecting youth with immigrant and refugee elders the possibility of this project is cultural connection through the power of language and storytelling we want to foster cross generational elevate and preserve the linguistic and cultural stories of elders listeners and cultural documentarians but not using your name job where you're from or what you do for fun how do you describe yourself I grew up in a fourth generation household wow so my my aunts and uncles many cousins we learn how to respect one another I did take ballet and figure skating so I like that while all my sisters play piano that's really cool I am just that's really cool I did a little sprinting in high school but in my 60s in my 60s and we want to have strong bones I want to be able to play with my grandchildren a lot of extra weight on me OK so we came because my parents believe that we will be coming to a land of opportunities come for better education um um now I can tell you where I'm from oh wow we'll tell you how small it is it is as long as for LA to San Francisco that's pretty small that's pretty small for a country and it's a little island yeah the government the system education is very different they could because the country is so small they have to only be able to educate the best the smartest alright so the competition is very yeah and so mediocre just sometimes not enough which I was I went to private school but my parents really they were both were educators they're teachers professors they felt it is an opportunity for us to come my mother worked for bank of America she's certainly familiar with America um yeah but her work said we will give you job transfer if you can get yourself sponsor to the states and we did so they came we came we are better to have um better options and opportunities as long as we work really hard yeah do you like um do you like like the education here or in Taiwan better overall there is no one perfect country there's no one perfect system so when I came to this country Olivia I was almost 18 years old so I've always come okay but the school what we were required to learn was very good but the way we learn is not very good don't ask questions'cause our goal is to memorize camels have different stomachs cows you have to remember and keep it in there and then you have to repeat it alright to take the examinations yes so in that part it's not very good I again because I came when I was almost 18 I really believe I had the best of two world I was able to keep what I thought was good what I Learned from the first um part of my life and then I was older then I came to the school here and I finished university and high school here I was able to have the best of both world that's really cool OK to arrive in a place where your first language isn't wasn't spoken oh yeah I think um knowing that um we were coming here to live you know anybody going to America um and a little hesitant little concerned like how am I going to do this how am I gonna learn there's so much to learn but you know I was young enough I couldn't I was more worrying about the things of that's gonna affect me immediately like how am I gonna make my friends how am I gonna shop in the store I didn't know anything moving to like a completely new a completely new state it must be like really hard especially if they don't speak your language if I could imagine it it must have been like really worried you'd be like what if someone like ask asks me a question in English what am I supposed to say to them am I just gonna ignore them you will be able to communicate more than you know you would do sign language and people usually are really good they see someone who's trying to speak their language what were some of the biggest challenges in culture um those are um the challenges rather learning a new language so in Chinese if you ask me don't you wanna bring a sweater or you don't want a sweater okay you would say no I don't or sure I'll take one right in Chinese we will agree to your statement do you know what I'm saying so you would said you don't want one I would say yes and I'll walk away you'll be very confused oh yeah that would be alright because English you would say yes I do yes but the Chinese when we say yes it means yes I don't want one I agree to your statement I agree to what you said or I will say no and I'll take it here you go alright so even simple yes and no is very different excuse me I remember the first time I encounter American family teenagers and this young boy said do you want some water in Chinese we never say yes that's not uh polite you said no thank you but I expect him to bring me one he didn't bring me one I was very confused I'm thinking where's my water but we don't say yes please so I Learned very quickly if I really want water I will have to say yes please and that was kind of difficult for me to learn because that's outside of my culture yeah okay so yeah the language is they have a lot of the interesting things yeah I've heard like other people I don't even remember when but like I remember like people like saying how English is one of the hardest languages to learn because it's like how you pronounce things there can be like two different words and then you can and they can be like have like two different meanings but or they can be spelled the same but then you pronounce them differently so it must be like pretty confusing to like um most of the world Taiwan is considered what's called developing country so most I can only speak like for all the Asian countries to learn English is mandatory since junior high so when you go to junior high you are required to learn English so it is not unusual for you to meet someone from a different country that understands some Chinese I mean English okay but I am under the understanding that actually Chinese is one of the most difficult ones to learn um because Chinese again that's what I was told we use our left brain to learn Chinese so it's very different English and European language they have the basic same similar root Latin the people that you can learn English I think easier than Chinese yeah Chinese language each word has different tone so it can be complicated cause you can pronounce like you said a word maybe pronounce it differently yes we can pronounce a word with five different sounds oh wow and each sound may have different characters I feel it's like really um interesting to like learn your point of view like someone else's point of view like someone that actually went through having to learn English and having to only speak English it's like more interesting to actually learn about like what the truth actually is like how learning how English is like how easy English is to learn because I only know English and so I haven't ever had to learn to speak another language but I have a friend from Israel and she told me that she also has like to learn or it might have been one of my counselors that it's from Israel at one of my summer camps she um she told me that she also has to learn how to speak English um it's like mandatory for like college like in college you have to learn how to speak English you have to learn how to speak English when you graduate and stuff yeah English is a common business world so what was your life like before you came to the United States I was a student if you remember the student's life is very simple because we have one goal is to pass the exam to go to a government run um high school and government um run university so that's your goal so my days my life in um growing up is very simple I get up I go to school I come home study eat and go to sleep repeat over and over again for 12 years can you share a memory or experience that shaped who you are today I love that question because um regardless where we're from how we've grown up or the environment we grew up in the family that we have the one experience actually make who I am today is actually happened in the United States no I I encountered in Taiwan as well um is when I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior and I made that decision to be a follower of Christ what accomplishments are you most proud of the most proud accomplishment that I'm a wife I'm a mother and I'm a grandmother that that our little family tree is growing I'm definitely when that happens to me I'm definitely gonna be really proud of it that I actually have a real like full on family yeah yeah keep that tree going yeah how have your experiences as an immigrant shaped your outlook on life as an immigrant and the age that I came I wasn't too young so I was very much aware the process that we went through um and later on realizing well my mom and dad you know they must uh face a lot of challenges as they came arrive take care of us provided for us um and I had a financial assistance from the government so that I could finish university um I actually when I send my last payment back to the the loan to the government I actually wrote a thank you note no cause I don't know who because a lot of the taxpayers everyone in this country helped me to be who I am um so I wrote a thank you note I didn't know who to ask I just want to thank you for giving me the loan so that I could finish university so I think the whole process made me a much more thankful um and I want to be gracious and kind to others as well I think it helped me to be who I am as well yeah so um so basically like you had um a moment that like ends that if people are like so nice and like gracious to you makes you like you love that feeling so you wanna be nice and gracious to others you mean like when I came yeah um yes my very first impression feeling welcomed um um we had these are maybe you might not know but do you know what a green card is that permits me to come here with intention to to the government that I am coming to United States and I want to make this my own so they give me kind of like a driver's permit yeah right OK kind of like driver's permit yeah not a driver's license yet cause I get it later on yeah you have to practice for a while right make sure you know how to drive so we picked up our green card at our they call it entrance point so from Taiwan to the island right we flew all the way to Hawaii and that's where we go through the immigration where you um have to see the officer they check your luggage and there were five girls um just us cause my parents came already so each one has two big luggage and they the officer was very nice they realized we had green card five little girls and he said welcome to America and I always remember how nice the gentleman was cause we were very you know nervous yeah and he was very nice yeah was there a person or moment that made you feel especially welcomed or unwelcomed when you first arrived which you already told me yeah OK how have you passed your language or culture on to younger generations I grew up in four generations remember now I live in a three generation household and guess who's the oldest in the house you that's right we're the oldest one so we actually live with our daughter and son in law that's two generation right and their children well one is on the way but we have a two and a half year old granddaughter so we live in a three generation household and because I am partially retired yeah so I get to spend a lot of time with my granddaughter and so that's how I pass on and my daughter um requested us to only speak to our granddaughter in my native tongue which is Mandarin and my husband speaks Spanish so our little granddaughter she knows more Mandarin I would say than Spanish she just Learned how to count to 10 in Spanish but she can count quite a few numbers in the 20s and 30s and 40s in Mandarin so I shared that with her and um we celebrate some um Chinese holidays and we actually had a um 100 day old birthday for her because Chinese um when a child is born we will is born we will they kind of keep the baby by themselves for like 100 days cause they wanna make sure they're alive you know stay well and then in 100 days it's a big Celebration so they will um have a big banquet they will invite friends and family to kind of like present the baby so we do different things with them and I teach her um like um songs yeah when we wanna kill a fly we sing the kill the fly song yeah it's a lot of fun yeah are there any family traditions or rituals that you still practice yes not as many because we don't really have um a lot of Chinese community that I stay in touch with so I hear from my mom and not my cousins go oh it's Moon Festival oh is this festival I'm like oh good thank you but I don't really celebrate a lot but one thing that we do do is New Year so we do New Year Celebration and then um is really big is food we love to eat food yeah so we do this big thing called hot pot oh my goodness oh my gosh I really that's huge yeah one time I went so we went for hot pot the first time yeah a few months ago we went to a place and did you like it I really liked it and it was really fun to like actually like cook stuff myself yup so that's really cool that that's like we make sure that's one thing we do do yeah and I'll make them the dumplings and it's more food tradition that we do how do you feel when you hear someone speak your language today um curious are we ear drop haha like what are they talking about should I like say hi or should I not but I don't have like particular uh feelings about it it's just but it's kind of nice to hear someone talk are there any words or expressions in your language that don't quite translate into English there are actually quite a few OK but I will give you two examples OK now Chinese is a very old country I don't know if you know this it's over 4,000 years old okay and many of the literature that they talk it's in idioms they like come in four letters okay so instead of saying a lot of words they will say those four words now if you know Chinese and I don't really I guess you have to be somewhat educated you will have to know the characters then you will know or maybe I can say it I think most people will know even commoners okay so for example I will say um Sai nai is Chinese there's no translation literally for it okay um Sai the first word could be like squeezing alright nai is just kind of like a I don't know I can't even describe it okay but what it means it's kind of like a charming manipulation you want somebody to do something that maybe that person not sure what they want to do yeah okay um so usually would be some people that are very close and you will probably say it about a children to a parents or a wife to a husband guys don't do that okay guys just don't do that you don't say that word to a guy even if he's doing it so am I getting it like right so is it like oh my gosh your kid is so cute I just wanna give him a hug um it's more like you going up to your mom or your dad go oh daddy please please can you please let me have this or please let me go there it's kind of it's almost like whining I guess whining is not cute right yeah but sign it it has a charminess to it alright so there's no translation to it but um I can only give you like the gist of it it's cute yeah it's charming now you can be two good friends like me and you and you can try to do this and I go stop it okay cause that's not cute anymore and another one will be those four letters cause sign night oh this Chinese always syllables each single syllable it's a word okay versus Japanese or Korean they have a multiple sibol syllables now we just have 1 so Sinai is two words one so now four words is um how to wager doesn't have translation but I can try to tell you what each word sort of means how is good 自is like yourself 为is kind of like I don't know how to translate 之is you should know like no so好自为之the best translation not just four letters four words to tell you is something like it's when you have to make a choice and usually knowing that you probably gonna not make a very good choice it's like you should know what you should do you know what you should do but I probably know what you're gonna do yeah but I'm gonna give you a warning and so you know the option kind of like behave yourselves but it's not it's kind of do what you know you should do but probably it's more like a warning okay so somebody tells you how to wager it's like you have a choice make the best decision what's your favorite word or saying in your native language what does it mean I don't really think I have a favorite word sure fun eat how's that ha ha can you share a proverb idiom or common saying from your culture okay so the idiom that what I mentioned to you that's four words right so I'll give you another one OK now in old ancient days and you will see like like old time Egyptian Jewish they have scroll right like Parchment paper now in the really old days Chinese they would have like pieces of wood or like the peeling of a tree they will tie them together okay and then then it will roll them so they tie them kind of like a sushi mat you know what sushi mat is if you can imagine that's the idea OK but it's wider so you can write on it now 检测流明Leo is like floating OK 检测you put it together so it will keep going 明is like be known or your name okay so in order to keep something known for generations that's an idiom that's actually my father used that to name my children he took one word for my son and one word for my daughter but that one word is more masculine it because when you put those roll it up and you put many of them together it's like a volume right you have like many of them so that's what the word is but my daughter it's a she it's a girl so that's a very masculine name so she he added a female part to it it becomes a different word Shan it's not Su it's Shan that's the way that character pronounce that's a very good idiom are there any traditional rap songs rhymes or lullabies you remember from your childhood yes I do I'll teach you if you want my little granddaughter can sing it my grandfather was a pilot and he fought in World War 2 he fought with the communists before they retreat from mainland China to Taiwan so whenever we had reunions in the States we will always put up a show and but ever since we were very little we'll sing this I don't sing very well but I'll sing it for you it's about making a playing like children so you can have whole bunch of them in the yard you go like this and you make planes okay so what he's gonna sing is to make a plane make a plane in the green green field and then you you will squat down I will be the um engine I guess and and you will be the wing and then bend over and bend over and you can fly into the blue sky that was because my grandfather was a pilot so okay yeah you wanna hear me sing yeah hahaha okay 坐飞机坐飞机来到青草地蹲下去蹲下去我说飞机 起蹲下去蹲下去你说飞机 一弯着腰弯着腰飞机坐得起 Fey Shan Chu Fey Shan Chu Fey dao bying Lee that's the one yeah wow yeah so if you um pay attention it actually rhymes most of the words it ends with the e sound 坐飞机坐飞机来到青草地蹲下 one sharky one sharky what's a fake e one sharky one sharky what uh what's a fake e what's a fake e so there's a e sound so it's teaching us the language so that's how you learn do you still think or dream in your first language when do you notice it most I don't no longer dream in Chinese I did I would say like the first two years I would dream in Chinese and then he stopped at some point can you describe a holiday or tradition from your childhood that involves storytelling or language yes um there was a time we have this thing called Moon Festival and the story was in the moon there was this fairy and there was this guy really want to go to the moon to meet with the fairy so you will see it in Costco they sell mooncakes sometimes it's for the Moon Festival so yup and wait I have a question so uh aren't wait I'm thinking of oh wait no I was thinking of Moon Pies from New Orleans oh no I mean by Moon Festival mooncake mm hmm yeah next time you see it in Costco you know it's mooncake there's another fun thing that you have story about is the Mid Autumn Festival I hope I'm not mixing these two up but but it's when they have the race for the dragon boat have you seen those no okay you can Google it oh wait I have yeah I think I saw in a movie mm hmm so the story of it is um a child and we eat certain food okay um so his father died I don't drown or something so this child would um you know Chinese have the superstition of reincarnation so I have to bear with that that's what they believed um so they made these um wrapped rice with bamboo leaves and he would go into the river and toss it to be the fish so they don't eat his dad see the fish so they don't eat his dad oh or something like that and we will have the Lantern Festival that's really fun you will see that in the store sometimes they come like in a round different shapes but you can pop it up that's actually a lantern festival so we have many festivals we have Children's Day we have teacher's day um we have cleaning tomb day that's when everybody go clean their family tombs so it's a holiday yeah do you do you celebrate um in um Taiwan like mother's and Father's Day yep we have Mother's Day Father's Day we have Youth Day yep young people day oh yeah yeah like Children's Day yeah um so yeah many many many holidays but the New Year's the spring vacation is the best you get two weeks off okay really wonderful that's really good you just eat and visit and eat and visit oh I know what I want to tell you what um I think I forgot to tell you during a language part because this is really for general peace a PSA because people will run into this and I hope you don't but if you do you need to put forbearance just know that you don't know the language when I was dating Mister Tony came to visit me my mother called me so I answer the phone I talked to her I talked to her I got off the phone my husband Tony looked at me he said you know you really shouldn't say that word I said what did I say like you don't know Chinese how do you know he said you kept on saying a bad word today's episode is brought to you by Red Cat Coffee House and their landmark series coffees as a cat lover I could not resist but introduce you specifically to this blend called Light Rails it features a cat on the label but not only that each blend features a landmark is inspired by a landmark of the city this one is inspired by our vibrant Rainbow Tunnel downtown and it has sweet fruits and mixed berries you can find the landmark series including blends like Iron Works Full Steam Ahead Alabama Audubon and John's Valley Trail either online at REDCAT locations or your local Biggley Wiggley it's coffee with a story and even with a feline charm I said he said you said the word nigga I said I did not he said yes you did you said nigga nigga I go oh I said silly that's Chinese this and that it's like your hmm let me see how about uh oh uh huh we go Jigga Nigga this and that that's all I said that's what when you said I I said something in English to my mom I went like no I didn't but all I said was oh haha that's really funny chicken nugget so I went back and told my roommate what happened and she said you better talk to Shelly a black lady at work she's been mad at you cause she said you would talk about her in front of her face walking by her I go really yeah she thinks that you're talking about her calling her big bad word oh my gosh yeah imagine we talk like that in the bus we'll be laughing hahaha chicken nigga and the black people with them like what are you talking to me about we're not talking about you we're just talking so I had to explain to Miss Shelly said Miss Shelly I need to tell you something I understand you think I am disrespecting you but I want to let you know I never did I don't even know her very well so I explained it to her it's a Chinese expression like hmm like I'm thinking yeah that's all it's just an expression it's very common um you if you're in a crowd or you're listening to a conversation inevitably do you know what that means yes sooner or later you might catch that next time if you hear it you can go I know what that means that person is just thinking out loud like processing maybe to have like a podcast or TV show or something talking about this and like saying no like talking about like things that like if people are speaking another language that you might hear that you shouldn't think wrong or something that might be interesting but that's that's okay though I think it's just more of a personal sometimes I think um it's it's a strong word I think just people are very self centered and they're ignorant of other people in the world they only think about themselves so they get very easily think somebody's doing them wrong yeah so that's why it's good to meet many many different people from different countries so this is my favorite question so can you teach me a word or phrase in your language and I wanna learn how to say hi how are you today and a proper response okay that's an easy one that's probably one of the most common things that people want to learn right if when you go to everywhere you want to know how to greet um we learn how to say come on sir right in Spanish um so is ni hao ma ni hao ma very good now now you want to make sure you get that three letters in the right sequence and you want to have the right tone it's ni hao ma and you did it right yeah you will see some people learn Chinese they will be moving their head because they remember different tones is there is actually five tones one is like a quick dot like a question Mark OK but if you do Ma like a long sound is mother oh ma down and up is horse oh Ma ma ma and also ma is also a fabric like um I think it's muslin it's also also a Muslim a muslin you have to see the character so when you have two or three multiple sounds you have to look at the character and then Ma is to scold someone so you just you can pronounce be pronouncing a lot a lot of different things so it's ni hao ma ma is like a question Mark now if you say money how what does that mean uh that means Mother Mother you're good me it's you how is good or well money how it's a different like when you see your mom you go money how yeah ni hao ma ni hao that you're switching it ni is you well good hao ma so if I switch it around to say ni hao what does that one am I just saying me it's you you your your mother mother well good good okay it's all three words but just depends on how you pronounce it it's fun so yes so commonly when you see some friends on the street we don't say ni hao ma that is the proper official way alright but the commonly we will say ni hao you probably hear that people say oh yeah ni hao ni hao ni hao yeah now another way on the phone we never say ni hao ma we will not call people people and say ni hao ma when we answer the phone we talk to people we will say have you eaten we care about people's well being so we'll say hey have you eaten

I called around 4 to 6:

00

7:

00 we will say that because you know maybe you said oh we're just eating so people can tell you what would you do if last night if when like we're on the call if like I like as soon as I if I already knew that what if I just said it's your final may it's your final may I would say final may may it's your final not yet would you be shocked that I knew that I would be shocked yeah so that's what I'm gonna do next time I call yeah so remember earlier you were talking about some cultural yeah okay and I talk about my favorite is New Year yeah some of the tradition we do yeah so the Chinese New Year we celebrate is the biggest Celebration my favorite is family reunion dinner everyone will come to my grandparents house so I want to tell you about Chinese New Year all right you want to hear I do Chinese New Year it's really fun a lot of fireworks a lot of food a lot of friends visiting now I've been away for 50 years I haven't been there so I know things have changed but this is what we used to do we used to we will cook like days before grandma will be cooking all the we will make hundreds of dumplings and she will make things and just different dishes frying them making like um shrimp paste and she'll put it in that little little bread like a little sandwich bite and then she'll fry them um she will make um things that you can see in the Chinese market now they like little twist together little bread thing with sesame seeds on it so we try to do a lot of the cooking beforehand and when the Chinese New Year start the evening comes we will have a big huge dinner but before we have dinner we'll go outside this is a a a it's traditional like a Chinese compound they call it usually it's a piece of land you build like three or four houses on it and in the middle it's open if you see Chinese movie you'll see this so it's called the courtyard okay so some family live in here some family live there and some family live over here and then we have the front door we didn't have four we just have three so we will have firecrackers so many of them and this is a little the um superstition but it was fun so we didn't mind so you pop these firecrackers right and then you don't sweep you don't sweep for a whole week because the firecrackers are red paper and they're all over your ground it just looks festive and then we little ones we little ones we get to pop these firecrackers they're like this small and um Chinese build houses not with wood they're always with bricks or concrete yeah Taiwan is 20 degrees from it's very hot yeah so when you live in the concrete and brick houses cooler okay so in the bricks sometimes they have little holes so we stick the little firecrackers in there I wanna go fire go pop pop pop pop it was a lot of fun so we will do that and then we will go eat we will Chinese food that's serious banquet you have um you will have something cold to eat first jellyfish pig ears um yum yum yum haha seaweeds you know it's different things and and brown eggs a lot of different things and then you will have soup you have you always have gyaru full course chicken poultry yeah ducks fish and some sort of meat so you have everything and then of course you always have vegetables you always have soup so it's a big meal alright and then you go to sleep next day everybody wake up and we will all go to greet my grandparents the eldest so we receive gifts from them Chinese gifts is very simple they give you money because we don't have Christmas many countries don't know Christ so they don't have Christmas so they have New Year they have some sort of Celebration so there's a custom the oldest will start giving gifts and you will the married ones will give gifts to the unmarried ones so children get gifts from everyone the grandparents the parents aunts and uncles mom's friends grandparents friends they all give you gifts Yay and they give you gifts and this is another um tradition is different in Chinese and I wanna teach you when you receive gifts you always use both hands you don't just go oh thank you when you go to receive the diploma you see that a lot of people just walk by they take it we never do that that's not respectful you will use both hands and you bow a little bit okay and then you say thank you thank you sure sure sissy okay yeah say that really nicely because it could sound like something else in English okay some people said you know Chinese are very strange people they're very polite they go she she and that one gets Bush it and that one goes she she that one goes Bush it uh she what are you doing but it's because the pronunciation really does OK so sheh sheh sheh sheh sheh so use both hand and you say thank you another custom in Chinese and probably many of the Asian countries you never open the gifts in front of the giver you wanna give it a guess why because um I don't know because it's a little bit of the opposite in America like they want to see you extremely opposite but why um you think take a guess I don't know okay well and that's something I had to learn here cause people give me gift I don't open it they will say open it I go oh no thank you I open later they say open it open it they want to see me open it right yeah now imagine at your birthday you get 25 gifts do you think every single one you're gonna love and you're gonna go wow just what I wanted do you think okay some of them you're gonna go I have one of these I didn't want that wrong color right so Chinese teaches a lot of gratefulness so when you receive a gift it's not what is in the gift you are grateful for people thinking of you and want to share something and gift you something yeah that in itself should be enough to be grateful yeah okay now if you have friends who's been here for a long time or born here it won't make any difference this will only be beneficial if someday you meet a friend that just come from Asian country Japan China I don't know about other people but if it's Chinese probably they will take a gift from you and they might even say no thank you you shouldn't have and you will understand so I want to share that with you so you receive with both hands you say she she right she she so we do that on Chinese New Year Day to grandparents parents blah blah blah okay but we have to say something before you get it everybody knows they may have different idioms remember we talk about those four letters 新年快乐Happy New Year 新New年Year 快乐Happy 新年快乐 新年快乐Good 恭喜发财that means to wish you prosperous mm hmm OK OK so say新年快乐 新年快乐恭喜发 财恭喜恭喜 congratulate恭喜发is to blown out of proportion bursting with财is well fat Thai fat Thai fat Thai Thai perfect okay so you have to say that to me and I will give you something and you will remember not to open it okay remember why right yeah OK so you wanna give it a try yeah OK so I'm the elderly I'm the grandma OK it's your turn you come up OK everybody's giggling cause they can't wait for their turn Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee your turn so you say con she find the side shin shin yen yen quai LA and then I give you one of these it's a red how do we receive them both hands shh shh shh and you bow say shh shh that's how you good try again Shh shh again yeah try again now I'm your parent mother okay okay what do you say you should get better and better now okay Shing Yang shing Yang koala go and see my side good thank you oh no she is ah pussy pussy one more time see these words here uh huh con she fatay con she con she fatay okay good alright here we go I'm your sister older one ready con shee Lin quite LA con shee fan Sha very good there you go and then two hands you say she she oh very good now you do it all by yourself okay sometimes you see these red envelopes they every year there's a different animal I don't have one of those um but this is a a lion yeah so I don't know if you heard of this lion dance it's very big like if you go to Chinatown if you ever go to one or the Chinese community these are the like the lion dance they have big drums and they have these Kung fu places is it the thing the big long thing yes yeah okay that's supposed to be a a some sort of dragon I think banana okay so now I won't help you you go ahead by yourself Xin nian Xin nian kuai le Shi KO Shi Fei Shi I'm your sister I go like sure OK fine here you go Xin Xin there you go yeah hey I'm not gonna open it no OK awesome I get four if you wanna stay where you are I'll take a picture of you too and you can show your your gifts that you got Olivia oh let's see perfect and I'll take another one right here and then we're done but y'all did so great and it's so good thanks thank you great job thank you to everyone who shared their stories and helped bring this project to life thank you for tuning in to from where to here if you enjoyed this episode be sure to hit subscribe leave a review and share it with someone who loves discovering new cultures follow us on Instagram at from where to hear pod for exclusive updates behind the scenes moments and a peek at upcoming guests until next time keep learning keep connecting and keep celebrating the beauty of languages and cultures adios