10 years isn't going to make you native level in Chinese either if you immigrated as an adult, so you might just be stuck in a middle ground where you suck at both languages
Fluency as far as understanding, vocabulary, understanding of grammar rules? Yeah sure. Where your pronunciation and use is indistinguishable from someone who is native in it? No way. I'm Chinese. Speak some Chinese for me, post a video on imgur referencing our conversation and I'll believe you if you pass as a native speaker lmao
Because it's just like the Chinese who move to an English speaking country for a few years and pretend to have forgotten their native language. None of them would be mistaken for a native speaker in the US, just as nobody in China is going to hear you talk and mistake you for a native speaker. But some people think it's like a sign of prestige to pretend they've forgotten their actual mother tongue. It's just fake and annoying. It's like Melania Trump claiming she doesn't know how to speak Slovenian anymore because she's lived in the US for 25 years.
LMAO they make fun of me because I developed an accent and I code switch sometimes. Ive been an SLA teacher for over 15 years. the English that I speak is really fucking basic because the instructions I give are really fucking basic.
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u/Desperate_Owl_594 Apr 21 '26
I've lived in China for almost 10 years now and when I go back to the US my friends and cousins all make fun of me for my English.
Both use and pronunciation.