 My parents tried to like have me learn my heritage and at the time I didn't really want to oh really do we have dual citizenship We're rolling. All right. Here we go. Let me do an Instagram story behind the scenes Hi guys, welcome back to my channel I have such a special guest with me because this is Leni D. Hi. She was adopted with me We were in the orphanage together And if you haven't seen one of my other videos with one of my other shaman sisters Emily I will link it down below. Also, Leni D has a YouTube channel. So I'll link her channel down below as well I'd love it if you would go check it out. She talks about different topics and hopefully in the near future She will talk about going to boarding school. That is coming soon So go over to her channel and like spam her comments saying that you want that video because I want that video Do you want to say anything? I mean basically, I think you just covered that intro Anyway, if you enjoyed this video make sure to subscribe and also give this a thumbs up Leave a comment down below if you are adopted or know anyone who's adopted because I would love to know Today's video. We are answering some questions from you guys About being adopted if you guys are not following me on Instagram Make sure to do so and you can participate in any of my other Q&A type videos. We're gonna start off with Twitter Okay So Laura says would you like to learn the native language that your biological parents know? So a fun fact. I actually did learn it, but very badly Um, I mentioned that in my other video. Basically, I took Chinese I think for about 10 years before I quit taking it and I learned how to speak it so I can like Conversationally speak to someone in Chinese Mandarin only not Cantonese, but I can't read anything for me No, I don't really care. I know that sounds so bad But number one Chinese or Cantonese or whatever you just I speak Mandarin specifically And that's what they speak like on the mainland primarily not it and yeah But I've just heard that it's so hard to learn and I could barely understand Spanish and around here There's a lot of people that speak Spanish. She would think that I would know like more I know some words or whatever because I had to take that in school But like that was my hardest class. I found like it was harder than any other class I've ever taken and I've taken some pretty challenging classes So no just because I don't think it would come natural at this point Also, I'm just kind of done taking it because it's like I could probably go back and learn more But at this point in my life, I'm just not particularly interested I took five years of Spanish actually so I speak that much better and I just find there's more places I can use it the next question is actually a really good question So thanks Courtney Courtney has a channel. Thanks girl for supporting me Even though I called you out about not asking a question Do you have dual citizenship as far as I know? We don't I don't know I don't think so, but I'm gonna call my mom and ask because hopefully she'll answer Hey Do we're filming a video. Do we have dual citizenship or no? Okay, then we don't yeah, yeah cuz Shailen's right. Yeah, what am I gathered? It's like it kind of transferred over when we came over here. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Sherry. Thank you Okay, you're welcome. What are you guys doing today? Filming out filming hanging out. Okay. All right. Bye Sherry So, no, we don't have dual citizenship Nope It all just transferred over when we came over here like I have the old passports that we used to have yeah We do have an old passport. So speaking about the passport. I have mine and this is what it looks like Here is my Chinese passport Obviously, I want to show you guys a picture of me as a baby before I was like adopted and stuff There it is There's me as a baby and my name in the orphanage was Joe Mangin Joe Ma Jean. Yep. What was yours? Song Zihong. Sherry says that you have the prettiest Chinese name Yeah, it's really funny because people always say how pretty it is when I think talk to Chinese people and they're like Oh, what's your Chinese name? I tell them because like in English it just sounds kind of ridiculous It's thinking rainbow. Song Zihong. No in English if you translate it it means thinking rainbow Well, then what does mine mean? I don't know. That's the problem with not being able to read Chinese Okay, well anyway, that's my passport We had the passports which is like what they issued us when we had to you know cross the sea to come back over here and then I think from that point like it was just done because then we were officially like American citizens and She's from Washington state. Mm-hmm. So if you guys didn't know all of us live in kind of different states I think you guys already knew that though. All right, so let's move on to Instagram Instagram Someone says have a good day. Thank you. K saw asks in what ways have you felt connected to your heritage? Oh, I gotta think about this one Both of us were completely from like white families, so It's a very different attempt to connect to it. I guess you could say then You know like Alyssa who was raised by Chinese parents So there's like a difference with just that to begin with I mean for me, I didn't really connect to it for a really long time If you look at my channel, I've got these like videos that are like these Asian studies projects from college And that's kind of what I started to do like actual connecting to my heritage because before that my town is like very small And very like non diverse so I didn't really have any way to connect to my heritage I just kind of would try to like ignore it because more often than not it'd be something that would make me other than like Part of something I only got to really enjoy that kind of part of being like Chinese and when I went to high school and hung out with Chinese Americans boarding school not my public school and then When I was doing my studies stuff to kind of like get in depth and just kind of think about it Um for me, I haven't really and I know that sounds so bad But because like she said we come from white families and a lot of people around here are not at least Chinese I was friends with a lot of Asian people like during my childhood and growing up So that is kind of where I got my Asian pride, but they weren't Chinese necessarily for strictly the heritage part I haven't really connected at all. I mean that your parents and try to like I want to use like this like with quotation marks Like make you though like no your heritage because my parents like tried to like have me learn my heritage And at the time I didn't really want to oh really yeah, you know with like I'm taking Chinese And then I took like some kung fu and I quit immediately because I really hated they put you in kung fu Yeah, I mean I wanted to learn a martial art cuz like You know those things how like every like kid like there's always kids that are taking like martial arts and whatnot Yeah, but no, it's just funny because that's kind of like your Chinese like not saying that's racist But like that's very stereo. No, it is it really is cuz here's the thing So everyone's taking like martial arts at the time. So I was like, yeah, I was taking karate Let's do that and instead they put me in kung fu the martial art itself is fine But the way that it was taught at that particular place. I did not like it was very let's say intense It was very intense. I also wanted to say she is right My parents never really forced upon me to learn or connect with the heritage And I'm kind of happy about that because that's not who I am as a person. That's not how I was raised It's not where I grew up or anything So I kind of am appreciative of that because I wouldn't want to feel something pushed on me because I think I would have your reaction of Like not really wanting to do that and I personally don't if I wanted to do that I would want to have it within me to want it. It's like when you choose you want it Yeah, it's like time to come back to it or whatever. Yeah, which I did do that a little with learning Chinese when I was taking community college I thought I was I was trying to go to a school that had a language Credit requirement So I actually took some a bit of Chinese at the community college because I was literally like I've done five years of Spanish I don't need more of this. Let's see if I can learn how to read. All right next question Have you thought about meeting your birth parents? Not specifically when I was younger I might have dwelled on it a certain amount just because of like again being one of like the only Asians and the only Chinese people in the area So sometimes, you know, people would ask that a lot which got really annoying as a kid But I would sometimes wonder about that just because of the fact that like oh would I belong there better than like here And that kind of thing keep in mind too. She lives in a very very small town. It's very white very white very small town I grew up in a obviously a larger city a lot more diversity, so we have a different experience. Yeah It was extremely different. I was it was like I'm from like really rural parts of Washington Like when you think Washington you think like the rain and like Seattle But our side is like a desert climate so you get like all of the seasons and also it's extremely rural So sometimes I would just sort of think like what I fit in better there and those kind of things But it's not necessarily about finding like my family and who I am It's more about like just when I was a kid It was more like what I fit in better and then I kind of you know, let that go as I got older Have I thought yes, and I still kind of do but not necessarily to connect with them on like any emotional level I would just want to see what they'd look like. Who do I look like more? Do I look like the birth mother or birth father and to just put this out there? They are birth parents They're not my parents not the people that raised me Please don't use the word real parents because people use that all the time in real life It's at least to me very annoying. It's just they don't understand though. Yeah I'm saying like as an informational way like I'm not like trying to like attack people who are doing that I'm saying like for future reference, you know, like personally for me And I think for you as well like using real parents is just kind of annoying. Yeah. Yeah, but then I correct them So I'm like, oh my birth parents. Yeah, that's what I do, too Yeah, just to like make sure that they understand so I feel like I mean I'm guessing about this But I feel like I have the birth father's body. I don't know but I have an hourglass figure So maybe I have the birth mom, you know I feel like I have like male shoulders though because they're just so broad and it's annoying You never know maybe like your grandma's shoulders or something now. Oh gosh. Yeah, that is something I am curious about sometimes. So the next question is kind of towards me But Baraboo 101 asks did you have any struggles growing up being adopted by two women? No, not really I had a couple people that thought it was weird, but that was when we were in middle school Other than that not really I was always and I'm still nervous about telling people because like I don't know what reaction I'm gonna get but we are in 2020 now and you know times have changed So I get less nervous saying like hey, I have two moms. They're gay, but I'm not that sort of thing I'm I was adopted when I was one That's like my spiel when I meet anyone just because if you're not gonna like me and my family Then you can kiss my booty because I don't want anything really to do with you because I don't want that negativity in my life But I've never really had anyone hate on me I mean So you think you probably lived in the places you have because of the fact that like if you were where I was that'd be a Massive thing exactly Baraboo also asks another question. Do you ever want to try and find your birth parents? This kind of segues into something I'm working on because I took a 23 and me DNA test And I wasn't like specifically looking to find my parents or family when I took it It's actually funny people like when I'm in public will like walk up to me and like Korean people and they'll be like Are you Korean? You look just like my sister and so I was mostly I look Korean too. Really? I think it's because of our eyes. Yeah, it might be the eyes And I really high cheekbones and so me too. Yeah, I mean mine are high. We come closer Like we've got those like high cheekbones, which are in certain areas. Yeah But yeah, so people will ask me that and so after a while I was like, let's put this to bed I'm curious now. Like is there any Korean in there? Like is there anything else non-Chinese in there? So I figured let's take the test for that reason But then like I also like clicked off the on the like find my relatives thing because I thought oh, this could be Really interesting. What if I find like a random adopted sister or something? You know, that's gonna be really interesting Yeah, I know so I figure like I don't know if I'll I don't know if I find anyone if I'm gonna approach them or not But I just thought it'd be interesting to like Specifically see those results and then if anything shows up that could be interesting as well Um for me I would want to try and find them only because I want to see what they look like and Because I think it would make a great video It would be like titled finding my birth parents or something But I need a lot of money for that which I don't have so I don't know if my YouTube channel like skyrockets or something and Yeah video coming soon, but obviously I don't have the money to find China and especially with the corona virus The last question is where are you from? They probably mean like where you from in China? Yeah Oh, we're called shop and sisters as far as we know. We are from China and a Fuji on province Yeah, okay, so that is going to be it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed it make sure to give it a thumbs up go over to Lenny Dee's channel and She will have hopefully a collab with us that will be up relatively soon Hopefully and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye