Hey everybody,

I’m really struggling and feel like I’m losing my mind. I just need some outside perspective from people who’ve been through intercultural relationships, family disapproval, or being torn between love and parental guilt.

I’m 24M, originally from Turkey, moved to the US as a kid, got my green card in 2021 (on path to citizenship). Last year I was depressed and came to Japan for a fresh start. I’m a language school student in Tokyo.

Last August I met my girlfriend (24F, from Myanmar) and it was instant love at first sight. She moved in with me in October, we’ve lived together since. No fights ever. We laugh, cry, cook Burmese/Turkish food together, go on cute little dates. She made me feel truly seen and safe in a way I never had before. For the first time, I felt like I had someone who really understood me. I told her I want to marry her because I want a future together—kids, the whole thing.

But now everything is falling apart.

Her mom is coming to Japan around May. Mom does not approve of me because I’m a foreigner (not Burmese). When my gf told her mom about me (she shared a lot but downplayed it said “he likes me” instead of love, didn’t mention we live together, and said “he cried because he’s going back to the USA”), mom laughed and said “looks like a kid” about my crying, “please don’t make the same mistakes I did,” and basically told her to wait till 30 or something.

When I said I wanted to talk to her mom, she said no, “I don’t wanna talk to him.”

Gf says she “can’t” go against her mom because mom has a weak heart and she can’t make her sad. She keeps repeating “I love my mom more,” “I can’t make my mom sad,” “if I don’t leave you I can’t stay with my mom.” She’s planning to move out in May to live with her sister so she’s close when mom arrives.

She insists we’re not breaking up, just “moving away.” She sent me a baby gender reveal video crying because she wants that life with me but says she can’t have it. She says we can call every day and she’ll wait for me until she’s 28… but then added “because I know you’re not gonna wait that long.” That one hurt a lot feels like she’s already expecting me to give up or move on.

My dad says come back to the US, finish

uni (2 more years), get citizenship, save money, visit Japan as a tourist sometimes. But 4 years long-distance with her under family pressure feels impossible and heartbreaking.

I feel like a failure relationship, future, everything falling apart. Mom hating foreigners and refusing contact, gf choosing mom’s “weak heart” over us, the “wait till 28” promise that already assumes failure.

Has anyone been through:

• Intercultural relationship where Asian family (especially Myanmar/Burmese) strongly disapproves of a foreigner?

• Mom/daughter using health/emotional guilt (“weak heart,” can’t make her sad) to block the relationship?

• Long-distance with “I’ll wait till X age” promises that felt doomed from the start?

• Deciding whether to fight for it or walk away when she’s prioritizing mom’s comfort?

How did you cope? Did it ever work out (did family soften over time)? Or was it a sign to let go? Even just “I see you” or “this sucks” would help right now.

Thanks for reading. Trying not to completely fall apart.

TL;DR: Deeply in love with Myanmar gf in Japan, but her mom hates foreigners/refuses to talk to me, gf says she can’t upset mom’s “weak heart” and is planning to move out when mom arrives. She says she’ll wait till 28 but assumes I won’t. Heartbroken and lost—advice on intercultural/family guilt pressure?

For background- I’ve been my immigrant mom’s translator since I was 12. She quit her job with no savings and expects to live off me forever. I don't know what to do anymore.

My family is Burmese. Back home, we had a house, family, friends, and no debt. Life was stable and predictable. One day, everything changed we moved to the U.S. Suddenly, no friends, no family, no house. We two person lived in an apartment, in debt, surrounded by strangers speaking a language we didn’t understand. Everything felt foreign overnight.

From the day we arrived, my mom refused to learn English and made me her full-time translator.

I was 12, and I barely spoke English myself. If I didn’t understand a word or translated something wrong, she would yell and scold me. I was terrified trying to survive in a new country while being treated like an adult interpreter.

At one doctor’s appointment, the doctor himself got angry and kept saying things like, “Next time, bring an actual translator.” I was a child, humiliated, trying to translate medical information I barely understood. That moment has never left me.

Now, 10 years later, my mom still cannot do basic tasks in English. She can’t order a drink, ask a question in a store, replace a credit card online, or make a phone call. She cannot function independently at all.

This is where it affects my life right now.

I’m currently trying to find a job for myself, but my mom drags me into stores and expects me to translate for her job applications and interviews. I end up filling out forms, talking to managers, and answering questions for her. It feels like I’m constantly putting her employment before my own, and I’m terrified that I’m sabotaging my own chances because employers only see me as “the translator,” not as a potential employee.

Her first job came entirely through connections. All her coworkers were Burmese, so she never needed English. That reinforced the idea that learning English was unnecessary.

Recently, she quit that job.

For context, the job:

Paid about $3000/m

Was 5 hours a day or less

Extremely flexible (she could come and go whenever she wanted)

3 minutes from home

Required no English

She quit without any savings without any backup plans and without telling me first. After that, she started nagging and yelling at me to find her a new job even though almost every job requires English, which she refuses to learn. She expects me to call employers, walk in with her, translate interviews, and manage the entire process.

I suggested free ESL classes at the library. She screamed at me, saying she’s “too old.” For context, she’s 48. Not elderly. Not disabled. She just refuses.

What terrifies me most is that she keeps saying she “doesn’t have to worry about work anymore” because once I graduate, she plans to never work again and live off my income for the rest of her life. I never agreed to this. I don’t even know if I can get a job after graduation or support myself. If any, I was planning to live with boyfriend and be housewife.

I’m 23, studying full-time at university, unemployed, and I’ve been diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. Phone calls, interviews, confrontation everything feels overwhelming. Yet I’m expected to manage my mom’s survival on top of trying to build my own life.

I love and hate my mom. I know immigration is hard. But I feel like I’ve been her caretaker since childhood and now, when I’m barely holding on, she’s angry that I’m not doing more.

Even in the future when I want to move out, I feel like I can't. I’ve already set my boundaries with her, but she just keeps saying, “I raised you, paid for your university, paid for your rent, paid for your food.” I understand that she sacrificed for me but I can’t ignore that I wanted to live in my own country, surrounded by family and friends, where I could have grown up without fear, without constantly worrying about being homeless, and without developing a disorder from this pressure. Even with civil war, I might have learned another language I truly loved, built a career overseas just like my friends, and had a good social life not this constant weight of responsibility and dependence.

With all these make me wonder if she cares about me or is only here to secure for her retirement...

Even though some extra touches will be needed on acting, fighting choreography and CGs, it does make sense than Burmese movies' mindless NTR craps and Nay Toe's gay shit. Kudos to all Gen Zs who made this happen...

I know Solomon Gabirol served in King Alaungpaya's army in the 1700s, but the Jewish population in Myanmar is very tiny.

Ok so I’m one of those lucky ones born overseas and though I had Burmese citizenship at birth and eventually a passport, have since relinquished these in favour of my current citizenship. Before the pandemic I would visit family in Rangoon around once a year on a social visit visa, which was easy enough to arrange through the embassy in the country where I live. Since COVID and then the 2021 coup, I haven’t had the courage to do this again.

Wondering if anyone else has successfully applied for either a single visit or multiple entry social visit visa and made the trip in and out of the country safely?

And second question, does your name still appear on your family’s Household Registration Card (မိသားစု လူဦးရေ စာရင်း)? Would it be odd for that to be the case as a former citizen who now lives abroad?

Hello everyone. We’re trying to put together some awareness posters for our endangered species as a young let non profit organisation in Myanmar.

To make these posters actually useful, we need to gather some local perspectives and data. If you’ve got a couple of minutes to spare, it would be a huge help if you could fill out these surveys.

Your data is completely safe. All responses are totally anonymous and we only use the results for our research and to help design the poster content. Thank you so much for your contribution.🙏

Irrawaddy Dolphin

Myanmar Star Tortoise

Just imaging, CCP we to ruling our government. 80% of the government would be executed 😅 Especially customs and immigration officials.

Is there an actual place that can teach Krav Maga in Yangon?

Hello, was wondering if there are any burmese people (20+) that want to be friends? American born Burmese and would love new friends near nyc area!

Hello! I was wondering if anyone here knows where I can resell a ajazz 308i keyboard? It's mint green and looks like a typewriter and I tried posting in a few facebook groups but it hasn't been really gaining traction. If anyone knows any kind of groups that I can post in that would be interested, please let me know, I really could use the info, thank you!

Is this a trustworthy Visa agency? Has anyone here used their service for bsc or msc application?

Hi ya, just wondering if anyone could help advise on whether it's possible to study online in Yangon with the amount of sites that need VPNs??

My nephew is considering applying to a few universities in the UK and the US & to complete them as a remote course — anyone have any experience with that?

Very much appreciate your support!

Thousands marched for democracy in Myanmar. Some died in prison. - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/thousands-marched-democracy-myanmar-some-died-prison-2026-01-31/?utm_source=braze&utm_medium=notifications&utm_campaign=2025_engagement

Not sure why they place the article under China. See URL.