Growing Up With Immigrant Parents

(mouse clicking) (soft music) Headspace Studios. (gentle music) Hey, it's Dora, and you are now tuning into the Sunday Scaries, student edition. I am joined by the wonderful Gael. Gael, introduce yourself. Hi everyone, I'm Gael Aitor. I am one of the hosts of the Teenager Therapy podcast, and I'm so excited to be here. I think today's episode is going to be a good one. Oh, it will be. So recently, I have been thinking a lot about identity and the concept of being one person at home and another outside of it. And I actually started thinking about this, because I listened to your episode of Teenager Therapy about being an immigrant, and it really resonated with me because my parents are from Africa. So my mom's from Kenya and my dad is from Ghana. And it definitely felt at times like there was two Doras. So Gael, I would love to talk to you about your own journey as an immigrant and the effect you think it had on your identity and who you are today. I came to this country when I was six years old. So not only am I a child of immigrants, I am an immigrant myself. My mom was from Mexico and that's where I was born. And coming to this country not speaking English, I quickly realized I have to learn the language. By second grade, I was speaking English more fluently. And by third grade, I was able to communicate pretty well. I spoke English. Thankfully, I was surrounded by people from my community and from my ethnicity, so there was that support. But throughout that time, I was watching Disney Channel, and all these shows, all these cartoons. And I remember just being so upset. I'm like, "Ugh, I want to speak English." But my mom would always tell me, "No, you can only speak Spanish at home." And I would play on the PS4, I would play video games with my friends online. And we would be chatting, and I would feel almost embarrassed that you could hear people in the background speaking Spanish. I always muted myself. I remember as soon as anyone came into my room or I heard any background noise, I would be like mute. Did you feel that way? What was it like when you were a kid? Yeah, it's interesting, because my mom, she wanted us to like speak English, because she wanted us to assimilate, get good jobs. You know, she didn't want us to stand out, so we spoke English at home. That's it. Now, as an adult, I wish I could speak my mother tongue. Like I feel so lost when I'm around my other cousins that live in Kenya, and everyone's talking and I'm just there like, I don't know what anyone's saying, but there is that like yearning to want to know that side of me because it's who I am. But you know, I grew up in...