Want to be notified of new posts? Get the RSS Feed or Register by Email
Laura Chan’s Blog: Expatriate communities…and me!
This post has 234 views
Sorry for the lame blog title, I don’t really have any cute nicknames here ^^;…though I guess Laura-chan is better than anything, right Brice? 
Also, sorry for the absence, I just haven’t had the time (stupid research papers…) but now I have that load lifted! It’s so great to be back, it’s like a breath of fresh air! I remember back when it wasn’t even 500 members, and there are so many new faces that I really would love to get to know!
Before I get started, for those new people that don’t know me yet, I’ll give you a brief, run-down about me: CCK, born in Finland, moved to Germany when I was 1 year old, moved to the US when I was 2 years old. Went back and forth to Finland every summer, spent a year there in high school (the most difficult one of my life!) and now I’m studying in China for the semester, because my dad lives here too.
The point of this blog is about expatriate communities. Ever since coming to China I’ve met SO many expats, and have friends from every continent now. The community here is so active, and so lively (there are a LOT of expats here!). This got me to thinking, I didn’t have that growing up in Wisconsin (an hour north of Chicago), there are VERY few expats, and I was lucky to know a few other Finns. However I can count them on one hand, and none of them live in the US anymore. Here’s the kicker, none of the *few* expat Finns were my age. I know, I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, hardly the heart of global-minded society. Though now I wish I had had other TCK/CCK friends, who could understand how I felt of not belonging in Finland or in the US. Because my friends complained that I talked about Finland too much, and now most of my friends don’t even ask. When I meet new people, and they ask me where I’m from, I sometimes neglect my “Finnish-hood” and say I’m from the US. (like someone I know I won’t meet again, someone I don’t want to know! lol) However, since having read *most* of the TCK book, and being apart of this community for almost a year now, I can’t deny that Finland is a part of me. Luckily, my university is very broad, and open-minded. I’ve met a few other Finnish speakers, and I pretty much kick-started the Finnish Language Table there.
So even though I had no expatriate community around me growing up, it helped me to realize that, yes, I’m different from my friends. I’ve seen and experienced things that most of them could only dream of which has made me a better person. Now that I’ve found an expatriate community (that means *you* TCKid members!) I feel like I can at least belong here, where you guys understand me and where I’m coming from.
Yeah…kind of no point to this blog, so I’ll leave a question open for you guys: Do you guys think that it’s important to have a community of expats around you? Like did it help you to adjust/deal/etc.? For those of you, like me, who didn’t have that, did it help or hurt you at all?
What do you think of this post?
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Related Posts
Comments
10 Responses to “Laura Chan’s Blog: Expatriate communities…and me!”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
-
Top Commentators
- Ayako (781)
- Cynthia (554)
- miyon (505)
- Uncle Dan (502)
- mairabay (368)
- kristine (363)
- MsMerising (279)
- mmmmmm (249)
- marie (229)
- Cattt (224)
Polls
Loading ...
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 am
You know, it changes for me from time to time. I grew up so used to it that I didn’t really feel the difference until I was in the US for the longer term, and it really kicked me.
Switzerland has been nice, but I have to admit that most of the joy was finding a new expatriate community. On the other hand, compared to most in that little student/expatriate community, I was more immersed in Swiss culture, what with living in Zurich and being able to understand Swiss German and even speak some.
But I do know that when it comes down to it I am definitely not Swiss, which is the thing about expatriate communities: It’s Okay To Be Different, Because Everyone Else Is.
(Is this spam?)
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
funny, Laura, because this is what my blog that I just posted is a bit about
I grew up thinking that I was the only incompetent person in brazilian culture, always feeling so ashamed cause I was never good in relationships like them
so yeah, maybe an expat community would have made a difference. who knows now? I can’t go back to the past.
I’m also glad I have you guys now, because it makes all the difference in the world. And I guess that’s all I can stick with: the present. The present is being good to me.
I tell myself (and you): “Let’s focus more on the present”
(Is this spam?)
May 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Laura-chan, this is off-topic but I love the advice you gave here and wanted to thank you for it.
http://www.tckid.com/group/general-relationship-friends-and-boygirl-friends/#comment-8674
(Is this spam?)
May 24th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
it’s funny Laura-chan (I feel the same way as Maira too!!!)
i’ve been wondering about this question for some time now but never came across to ask. i didn’t grow up in an expatriate community and was more so isolated in my view about who i was–how i was different from my peers. you know what. i wish i had someone who told me that it wasn’t my fault that life was just so hard. the least thing that i want happening to new generations of TCKs is self-blame and i want to do my best to prevent self-blame from taking place.
(Is this spam?)
May 25th, 2008 at 6:38 am
Laura-chan sounds really cute maybe because I speak Japanese
I grew-up in an expatriate community too but it was skewed because it was inside this artificial village made just for the scientists and their families.
In my adult life I haven’t had very good experiences with expats in my passport country. They were mostly arrogant people who were living beyond their means (from poor American to living like a King in Tokyo) and this made them feel like they had a right to change Japan in anyway they wanted. They also seemed to think they knew more about local culture than the locals themselves.
I tend to shun expatriates who have lived in Japan for this reason though it doesn’t mean I’ll avoid every single one. I think I tend to red flag them and put them under very critical observation for awhile after which I decide what the verdict is! :p
I think I’m fine being an expat myself in countries outside Japan, because I don’t have to listen to the expat community bad mouth my passport country all the time…
(Is this spam?)
May 25th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
aww, thanks! It’s just what I’ve experienced in my life, and maybe it could help them…
And Thanks to all of you who’ve replied to this thread! It’s really been good
Ayako: I think Laura-chan is cute too, but I’m just a big anime nerd X3
(Is this spam?)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I also avoided expatriates, mostly because having been an ethnic minority in my passport country, but not in my adopted country, I only experienced racism when interacting with expats. My friends growing up were from a strata of society that was closed to me in my passport country at the time I left. I also couldn’t stand hearing the derogatory comments expats had to say about people who they also would have never been allowed access to in their passport countries - the president and his children, cabinet ministers and their children, billionaires/millionaires (however ill gotten) etc.
It was a if their new found status went right to their heads. I will probably be blasted for this but - many of the TCK’s I meet now are the children of the very same derogatory, condescending people who RESIDED abroad, but never LIVED there. I even had someone tell me that since I am black American and moved to Africa, I didn’t leave home, I moved home - racially that may make sense in a very closed minded way - but culturally, that is utterly ridiculous.
I find there is little discussion about how race plays into ones TCK experience. Since I blended in, I experienced what my local friends experienced in the hands of expats. I experienced first hand where the term “ugly American” came from (how would you react to having your father called boy by a table of expats in a restaurant because he was mistaken for an African waiter? or having an African friend who was well travelled and well educated, being praised for knowing how to speak English - by expats in his own country, who didn’t recognize his very unique name as that of the president’s?).
In Africa I often hid that I was from the US, much the same as while in the US, although a proud TCK I don’t readily volunteer that I grew up in Africa. The reaction is not always positive.
(Is this spam?)
June 8th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Catherine,
your comment made me feel like you are torn between the African and American continent. It’s ridiculous you aren’t welcomed in either places. Why can’t we all accept you as a whole being. You aren’t just African. You aren’t just American. All this experience growing up abroad, having seen incredible things not everyone can… why can’t we all see you as who you are?
(Is this spam?)
June 8th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Catherine: Expats…pffttt. I really have a passionate dislike for those types of expats. My parents disliked people who treated other people like that very much and they made it very clear since I was very young that that kind of behavior would not be tolerated in our house.
“It was a if their new found status went right to their heads.” < —-Totally!
You’ll see lots of those in Tokyo too. The condescending attitude is more subtle there but it’s pretty obvious they think they’re better than you just because they’re white.
You see them here in Costa del Sol too. English pubs where the English want to ban Spanish people…lol I mean this is their country. It’s not part of the British Empire. When are these people ever going to wake-up?
(Is this spam?)
June 8th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Yeah, I agree with the others, haha. Expats can be *terrible*. Sometimes they’re very, very cool, open and interesting, but most of the time they’re not. My dad had moved to Indonesia because of an American company… but after 7-8 years working with them there, he couldn’t really stand it. He was Asian too, after all. My parents couldn’t stand the British moms who made up the PTA of my school, either.
It’s funny though, that even though most expatriates can be this way, their kids become us.
(Is this spam?)