I'm an almost-teen who was a teen when I got in touch with them

I think it was good since I was so young, it was probably easier to build a relationship with my siblings. My older sisters are 10, 7 and 4 years older than me and I have a younger brother by 1 year. I've experienced two of my sisters getting married and have their first children, and my brother is in uni and dating his 2nd gfriend.
And it's easier to learn a foreign language at a young age, so that's the positive things. Any questions?

believe410 wrote:

what foreign language did you learn?

Sometimes I wonder if it's good/bad for me because now that I've gotten to know them, it's just hard in a different way. My half-siblings are all younger than I am. The youngest is four and the oldest is 11 or something like that. I have six half siblings.

I started learning Korean on my spare time, I'm in university now and my major is... Korean! (plus some of the country's history, social civics and litterature&art).
Since I already knew English, and the family... didn't, plus it's easier for us westerners to learn Korean than it it for them to learn English. And I mean, what was the chance my 50+ Korean parents will ever learn English? (<-- the inner thoughts of a then-14 year old.)


Wow, they're that young? Well, are your relationships good? They'll eventually grow up so maybe you'll get (even) closer then. Relationships are like plants, y'know? Gotta take care of them to make 'em grow!

I've met three of them already. The three that I've met live about 45 minutes away. They don't understand my relationship to them; they understand that I'm a pen-pal to their mother. The oldest son kind of resents me because his mother pays so much attention to me (fine) but he likes me. The middle child, a daughter, adores me because she's never had a sister. The youngest boy likes me for the most part; he's autistic so it's hard to know how exactly he feels about me. I got him a t-shirt last year with thomas the train on it and it's his "favorite" shirt and every time he wears it, he reminds his mom, "this is the shirt Jena got me!"

the other three (two boys, one girl, again) live three thousand some miles away in Canada. They, unlike the ones I actually know, know that I'm their half-sibling. I've never contacted them, though. Contact is hard enough with their father, I'm not about to throw a bunch of complexities into my life right now.

For graduation, i asked my bio. mother to tell her kids about who I am. She agreed, but the timing hasn't been right just yet. They just lost a grandparent, soooo...

and, wow! I think that's awesome that you did that for your biological family. Learning Korean would be hard, regardless of anything you said. I think that's awesome that you did that for them. :-) Are your relationships with them good?

I think it's a good start that your siblings already know you as a person!

Well, my korean family has never been the main reason for me to learn Korean, I just enjoy learning the language and I think I would've done it anyway But I always thought it was an extra (HUGE) plus to be able to communicate with them.

Nowdays I have a good (working, functional) relationship with my korean family. It was a little bit harder when I was a teen. My korean family's non-existent concept of "personal space", the language barrier and my own immaturity made it harder.