On what does Mr. Shi's daughter blame her emotional fluency in Chinese in the short-story, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers?

Mr. Shi's daughter believes that her quietness while speaking Chinese is due to her parents never speaking much at home throughout her childhood. When her father comes to visit, she deflects most of his attempts at talking with her. When pushed, she tells her father that everyone knew he was not a rocket scientist, and that his refusal to talk about any part of his work had negatively affected her emotional fluency in Chinese.