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Immigrant TA's in General
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| Lira |
I noticed that many TA's were not born in the country they live in (reason why some regional forums couldn't be created), and I decided to ask these people:
1) Why have you left your country?
2) Do you think of ever going back to your homeland?
3) What troubles did you have when you arrived? Culture shock, difficulties with the language...
Share your experiences :) |
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| whiskers |
the short version
1. won green card, moved due to lack of future in the former soviet union countries.
2. sometimes, but after 5 years it doesn't seem plausible anymore
3. lots of things... language being one of them... mostly abandonment issues related to leaving everything we knew behind. |
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| Lira |
| You went to the US by yourself? (whoa :p) And why do you feel it's not plausible to go back anymore? |
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| DRM |
1. left wales cuz i was going to uni in england
2. yeah i go back for summer and christmas
3. they all speak geordie up in here in newcastle and they smell of cabbage
:p |
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| whiskers |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
You went to the US by yourself? (whoa :p) And why do you feel it's not plausible to go back anymore? |
no, i moved with my family.
dunno, everything's just too different. i don't belong there anymore and i'm too used to here, though i don't belong here either. at least that's what i feel like. |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by whiskers
no, i moved with my family.
dunno, everything's just too different. i don't belong there anymore and i'm too used to here, though i don't belong here either. at least that's what i feel like. |
You know, this is one of the reasons I'm asking this.
My teacher at uni made wrote a monography about the colonies here in Brazil and their descendents. Their kids (born in Brazil) after visiting their parents' country felt they didn't belong there, even though, when they come back, not many of them feel they belong here either, which leaves them "in between".
I find it interesting, because also when they speak their native tongue, they already borrow many words from Portuguese, creating a whole different language :)
| quote: | Originally posted by DRM
1. left wales cuz i was going to uni in england
2. yeah i go back for summer and christmas
3. they all speak geordie up in here in newcastle and they smell of cabbage
:p |
lol :p |
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| jdat |
Well my parents moved to France over 25 years ago dad was from usa mother grew up in taiwan but she was also an american expat ..
I grew up in France and spent my life going back in forth between the usa and france as I mentionned before so I suppose I didn't get that much of a culture shock, more of a boredom struggle actually :p.
I really never was attached to any particular place moving every two years or so :rolleyes: ...
My parents decided to move back to the usa and we came here august 2001.... It wasn't because of any particular need for my parents... maybe for me to finish school ( which I quit before getting anywhere near done )
2. My homeland simple, I have none! I feel closer to Switzerland yet I've lived there shortly... it's kind of an oddity on my part.
Last year I made myself the promise to never move back to France and right now I want to do anything in my power to try and get out of the usa. So I don't even fit in your question. As of right now I'd like to go anywhere but here and "there" ( france ).
3.I am far from being an extreme case and I am aware that the average person went through so much more shock then I did. I grew up speaking english at home and I sound somewhat american but what pissed me off ( and I'm somewhat hypocritical having told you in a previous thread to ignore people's reactions to your "foreigness") was all the retarded question's! ( where's france? do they have electricity? does it ever snow in France ? FFS you idiots! )...
I always was highly offended by some arrogant pricks you'd laugh at my english cause some words I didn't know how to pronounce ( mind you I don't really have an accent but when you don't know how to say a word it comes odd odd ) example : Documentaries ... this girl humiliated me in a literature class we were working by group of two and I just couldn't pronounce the word and she started mocking me and telling it to other people and that kind of lame attitude....
Ignorance is bliss. |
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| jdat |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
You know, this is one of the reasons I'm asking this.
My teacher at uni made wrote a monography about the colonies here in Brazil and their descendents. Their kids (born in Brazil) after visiting their parents' country felt they didn't belong there, even though, when they come back, not many of them feel they belong here either, which leaves them "in between".
I find it interesting, because also when they speak their native tongue, they already borrow many words from Portuguese, creating a whole different language :)
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It's called third culture kids !
Take your "home" culture, the culture of where you live, mix em up = you have nothing that " no one" else has. And it's kind of hard to relate to other people in some sense. |
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| BLuEOcEaN420 |
im 100% japanese... born in japan but was raised in the US (age5-12)due to my fathers job. got all my education in english (american school system) and currently residing back in my native country (japan). b/c i never really studied japanese and forgot most of what i knew when i moved, i have very lil knowledge of the japanese language. i cant write or read in japanese, bar the basic characters + very few knajis. so techincally, my native langauge is japanese but, my preffered language is english. my parents met & wedded in UK, my sister was born there. my grandma was born in china... my parents have both lived abroad for over 20 yrs of their lives (individually), my grandparents also have lived abroad for hefty portions of their lives. everybody in my family understands english, going back to my grandparents. even tho its not the spoken language at home...
so anyways, im no immigrant BUT, due to the circumstances of my life, i consider myself a 3rd culture kid. i consider the states my home tho it wasnt where i was born. due to my complicated background, i did have a major cultural identity issue til couple of yrs ago. since i was so young when i moved to the states, i never faced much cultural problems intitially. oddly enough, i had a major culture shock when i moved back to japan. i had one hell of a time adjusting back to life in japan. i had major trouble fitting in at school and even elsewhere. to this day, ppl tell me im prolly the most "white washed" japanese girl, theyve ever met. lol... ppl cant seem to figure me out. some ppl dont even wanna accept me cuz of my weird background. they dont understand how a girl w/ the japanese exterior can be so influenced to the core by the west. oh well, i stopped caring what those ppl think yrs ago. luckily. :p |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by BLuEOcEaN420
im 100% japanese... born in japan but was raised in the US (age5-12)due to my fathers job. got all my education in english (american school system) and currently residing back in my native country (japan). b/c i never really studied japanese and forgot most of what i knew when i moved, i have very lil knowledge of the japanese language. i cant write or read in japanese, bar the basic characters + very few knajis. so techincally, my native langauge is japanese but, my preffered language is english. my parents met & wedded in UK, my sister was born there. my grandma was born in china... my parents have both lived abroad for over 20 yrs of their lives (individually), my grandparents also have lived abroad for hefty portions of their lives. everybody in my family understands english, going back to my grandparents. even tho its not the spoken language at home...
so anyways, im no immigrant BUT, due to the circumstances of my life, i consider myself a 3rd culture kid. i consider the states my home tho it wasnt where i was born. due to my complicated background, i did have a major cultural identity issue til couple of yrs ago. since i was so young when i moved to the states, i never faced much cultural problems intitially. oddly enough, i had a major culture shock when i moved back to japan. i had one hell of a time adjusting back to life in japan. i had major trouble fitting in at school and even elsewhere. to this day, ppl tell me im prolly the most "white washed" japanese girl, theyve ever met. lol... ppl cant seem to figure me out. some ppl dont even wanna accept me cuz of my weird background. they dont understand how a girl w/ the japanese exterior can be so influenced to the core by the west. oh well, i stopped caring what those ppl think yrs ago. luckily. :p |
Interesting :) In fact, the "colonies" I was talking were mainly Japanese colonies and I've been told by many people that Japanese-blooded people who aren't born in Japan usually find more difficulties fitting in than an ordinary gaijin. In fact, my girlfriend, whose parents were born in Nagano (near Tokyo for those who want to look it up on the map :D), had to deal with a lot of pressure when she got there, because she's culturally Brazilian. There's this article I read about "dekasegis" on how they introduced a concept similar to jdat's 3rd culture kids :) When they were in Brazil, they thought they were strongly linked with Japanese culture. However, they were so traditional that what happen in Japan (language shifts, among other things) didn't happen here, so when they went back, they didn't feel Japanese, but something else other than Brazilian :)
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
Well my parents moved to France over 25 years ago dad was from usa mother grew up in taiwan but she was also an american expat ..
I grew up in France and spent my life going back in forth between the usa and france as I mentionned before so I suppose I didn't get that much of a culture shock, more of a boredom struggle actually :p.
I really never was attached to any particular place moving every two years or so :rolleyes: ...
My parents decided to move back to the usa and we came here august 2001.... It wasn't because of any particular need for my parents... maybe for me to finish school ( which I quit before getting anywhere near done )
2. My homeland simple, I have none! I feel closer to Switzerland yet I've lived there shortly... it's kind of an oddity on my part.
Last year I made myself the promise to never move back to France and right now I want to do anything in my power to try and get out of the usa. So I don't even fit in your question. As of right now I'd like to go anywhere but here and "there" ( france ).
3.I am far from being an extreme case and I am aware that the average person went through so much more shock then I did. I grew up speaking english at home and I sound somewhat american but what pissed me off ( and I'm somewhat hypocritical having told you in a previous thread to ignore people's reactions to your "foreigness") was all the retarded question's! ( where's france? do they have electricity? does it ever snow in France ? FFS you idiots! )...
I always was highly offended by some arrogant pricks you'd laugh at my english cause some words I didn't know how to pronounce ( mind you I don't really have an accent but when you don't know how to say a word it comes odd odd ) example : Documentaries ... this girl humiliated me in a literature class we were working by group of two and I just couldn't pronounce the word and she started mocking me and telling it to other people and that kind of lame attitude....
Ignorance is bliss. |
A couple of friends of mine had a problem with this mockery because they didn't know how to pronounce words sometimes (I remember they got laughed at "hyperbole" because they said it the way we do in Portuguese). And we often get these questions about Brazil too: "do you live in a jungle?", "do you have a monkey as a pet?" (I wish :D), "are there giraffes (!) where you live"? I think they'd be surprised if I told them I live in a city with post-modern architecture in the middle of a place that, in august, is as humid as Sahara :p
By the way, I understood why you want to leave the US, but do you mind if I ask you what the problem with France is? (although I believe I already know the answer, do to the fame French people have about their stance over American people).
By the way, john, you can always come to Brazil ;) |
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| jdat |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
By the way, I understood why you want to leave the US, but do you mind if I ask you what the problem with France is? (although I believe I already know the answer, do to the fame French people have about their stance over American people).
By the way, john, you can always come to Brazil ;) |
oh I don't know why I just realized now that you were Maaz ( horrid memory I forgot your name :( ) lol
In regards to going back to France well it is due in part to the american hate over there ( which already existed in the past actually it's not something new but lately it's gotten much worst ). Last summer I never felt so much hatred from people cause I dared to live over there in the country of G.W.B. FFS stop it already. He's my president, I don't accept all of his views as well as you don't all of those of your president.
Other reasons are because I would have nothing if I went back, school- can't even consider it cause the objective is to eliminate you; work- HAHA even with a completed college degree you can't get a job + it pays like crap.
I just couldn't go "forward" if I was over there. I don't like my current situation but it's so much better then if I were to go back to France that would be a big step, backwards.
Are you considering of going to jp anytime soon ;) ? |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
oh I don't know why I just realized now that you were Maaz ( horrid memory I forgot your name :( ) lol |
hehe, no problem ;)
| quote: | Originally posted by jdat
Are you considering of going to jp anytime soon ;) ? |
I was recommended by the Brazilian embassy to get the Monbusho Scholarship (5 years in Japan, being paid by the government :D), but the Japanese government didn't accept me (I guess it's due to my poor skills on Japanese language, as I've been studying it for just one year).
Nevertheless, my goal is to focus my degree on the Economic Relations between Brazil (or South America as a whole) and East Asia. The reason why I prefer Japan is:
1) We have the largest japanese community outside japan (I live amongst them by accident, hehe).
2) We're the third largest foreign community in japan (behind China and Korea).
And this potential has not been fully explored (most people involved in this area are children of immigrants). They seem to be interested on our culture (there's a fun carnaval in Asakusa, for example, and bossa nova has a strong appeal there, I guess) and many Japanese products are so popular in Brazil (such as "Yakult", "Nissin Lamen", etc...) that we don't even see it as "foreign" products. I find Korea and China intersting as well for similar reasons (although Chinese and Korean immigration to Brazil was a lot smaller).
This explains my influence and goals :) I'm working on other scholarships as well, so I guess the short answer for your question is:
"Yes, I am" :D |
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