there is a language barrier problem because I don’t have fluency past an elementary school level

Same, can barely hold a conversation with my parents. Talk about like space exploration, medical terms, science, politics, or any deep conversation and suddenly I’m struggling to find the vocabulary. I have the Chinese Language Lexicon of a 2nd grader.

Conversations with relative in mainland China or any like older relatives like grandparent are basically impossible. Even the aunts/uncles in the US that speak English… it’s still gonna be awkward when its always Cantonese in family gatherings, suddenly speaking English feels so like “wrong” for some reason, like its weird, the vibes would not even feel like family, it would feel like talking to a stranger lol.