This piece tells, but doesn’t show, what was so fraught for the daughter in her relationship with her mother, and in that sense is both generic and judgemental (as Lanu Pitan) points out.

Any response it evoked in me was more about language than about a relationship with a person. The French language comes across in more detail and dimensionality than does the mother. Perhaps the author should read “The best we could do” by Thi Bui for some insight into coming to terms with one’s parents.