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Explaining the TCK experience to others
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Hey
I was at a lunch the other day with my karate group and it was one of the first times that i had met one of the new instructors, Chris.
We get to talking and it turns to “Where are you from?” I say that i was born in LA, raised there til i was about 6, then moved here to Sydney, but i spoke French as my first language. And the poor guy just didn’t understand. I tried to spare him by saying at the beggining that “It’s a really long story… you sure you want to hear it?”. He had this tight, polite smile on his face, and obviously looked unconfortable, so, thinking that i was being rude by talking about myself, i asked him if he had ever been anywhere, and he looked even more uncomfortable and said “No”.
I mean, i read the situation well enough and gave him plenty of outs, to move the conversation along….
I felt bad and i’m not quite sure why. Was it that he felt somehow threataned by the fact that i have more overseas experience? That i am bilingual.
I just wanted to say “I’m a third culture kid, you wouldn’t understand.”
I mean, having been born elsewhere is a HUGE part of my life… it IS my life. I don’t see why i should be made to feel…. bad about it. If i don’t have my experiences then i am nothing.
Being from an expat family makes up my identity, and as do my experiences outside of this island. Even if i haven’t moved coutries as much as all of you, i’ve moved houses and schools.
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January 9th, 2008 at 1:37 am
I did notice that an inordinate amount of time was spent talking nonsense in the company I worked at (an American ad agency). This was ok if you were just saying hi to someone but really, really annoying if you were the conference interpreter.
Some of the jokes weren’t really ones you could translate into Japanese and you just wanted to strangle the guy who was making them. Between the slang usage and jokes you could just kill all the Americans. Then the Japanese wouldn’t bother to speak in complete sentences - omitting the subject or just not finishing their sentences or just be ambiguous and you wanted to kill them too
Oh, let’s not forget the overuse of acronyms. ‘Kill’ might sound like a rather strong word usage for this minor offense but since these very same people had this amazing knack of blaming every miscommunication in the company on interpreters including badly prepared meetings that went wrong with the client or yelling at the interpreter for not translating fast enough….well…
But on another note, I think you’re totally right about humor. It can get you very far in the corporate world. People who aren’t very competent but very funny can get promoted so high up the whole situation is a joke.
*Note: As far as translating jokes and sarcasm go, I was probably their best interpreter. I mean I don’t think I was the best interpreter but there was more laughter at my meetings than anyone else’s
So it’s not like I wasn’t good at translating jokes. It’s just that some jokes don’t translate however hard you work them in your mind.
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February 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
This bugs me a lot. The problem, like Cynthia says, is that too many people try to stereotype you based on where you say you’re from. When the fact is, for many of us where we’re from says nothing about who we are.
I know it’s human nature to generalize, I sometimes have to consciously keep myself from doing it, but still, I wish people wouldn’t ask “Where are you from” just to pigeonhole you.
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February 17th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
I usually say, “My parents are from Chicago, but I grew up in different parts of Europe until high school.”
Because I went to high school in the States, I feel a bit more confident to understand what my daughter will face when attending US high school..she’s only 8 now.
I also teach in the middle school in her system, exploratory foreign language.
At the beginning of each quarter of new students, I pull down the map, and go through the bouncing back and forth across the Atlantic. By the 14th move in 18 years, their jaws have dropped.
It’s a great way for me to let them know that I totally know how it feels to not fit in, therefore making me soooo relateable to 7th and 8th graders.
With other adults, I tend list the countries quickly, and change the subject to what hobbies they have, or good restaurants, etc. What’s nice about living in the same area and teaching in the same school system for 8 years, people know my background, and I can get on with my life without being a “novelty” anymore.
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