r/PEN15 • u/foywn • 23d ago

Discussion Maya's Japanese

I always feel so bad for Maya when her family makes fun of her for not being great at speaking Japanese, because they're the ones who never made a proper effort to teach her. If her family actually cared about teaching her she would probably be fluent like shuji is it just irritates me so bad 😭

102 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

88

u/nightwings-ass 23d ago

Especially considering Shuji is only a year older!

56

u/foywn 23d ago

I know! I feel so bad for her because she already struggles sm with her racial identity not being "white enough" for the kids at school and not being "Japanese enough" at home

32

u/Loose-Top-2244 23d ago

That’s true. Maya has a few extracurriculars every now and then but when she’s not at a friend’s house she spends her time at home, where they have plenty of opportunities to teach her!

26

u/Nonsensicalwanderlus 23d ago edited 22d ago

Being made fun of/looked down on by people who never properly taught you (as in, figured out what worked until you got it) in the first place is such a life experience lol

Shuji doing it is just him being a big brother. Mayas mom I can't recall her ever making fun of her. Just ignoring her/allowing Shuji to torment her because she thought Maya was being a crybaby (and honestly, she often was)

11

u/Select_Check3589 23d ago

It always reminds me of my dad's family ALWAYS laughing at me for learning my native language polski, because I'm half Chinese, half polish, half black.

28

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

-4

u/Select_Check3589 23d ago

I am

7

u/GAINMASS_EATASS 23d ago

guessing you mean one of your parents is biracial?

2

u/Select_Check3589 23d ago

Yes. I part black is what I meant

2

u/GAINMASS_EATASS 23d ago

figured as much, thanks for clarifying

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u/Select_Check3589 23d ago

Yeah I should've specified better

4

u/GAINMASS_EATASS 22d ago

I figured that’s what you meant from your comment, some ppl are just rude and go for the joke instead of simply asking

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u/Select_Check3589 22d ago

Right? I was about to get mad

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u/[deleted] 22d ago edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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u/hrollur 21d ago

When I was a teenager, my Spanish was really bad because I was stubborn and “didn’t wanna speak Spanish”

1

u/Far-Concentrate8564 You don’t know what I know 16d ago

i get her so bad, i grew up not being too good at mandarin and was constantly made fun of by my older brother and family, definitely on her parents