Cross Cultural Experiences

SoulPatcher said:
I lived in 4 countries, and my spouse is from yet another one. I look at the world of a bunch of bus stops and the differences between cultures are very vague. I see as many differences as between the big enders and small enders.

I am a cross-cultural experience myself.
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There are so many creative ways to say, "I'm not like the other boring, bigoted white people!!"
 
this is only temporary said:
Hm. Does it count as bilingual if you shop at the BIGGEST KOREAN AMERICAN GROCERY CHAIN IN THE US (the caps are theirs, not mine) and can't read any of the signs?

I live in an area with a lot of immigrants and a lot of diversity. Probably around 40-50% of the people are some form of white, and have been in the country so long they've lost whatever european identity they may have had, except for a few from other regions, who insist that they're Irish or Italian, although what makes them different from anyone else is beyond me. There are a few real live Europeans from Eastern Europe (Poland, I think, or maybe Romania) who seem to want to live together in the same neighborhood, and open insurance agencies and bakeries. There's a russian mail order bride in my neighborhood, but she won't talk to me. The remaining 50-ish percent are black, asian or hispanic. There's a hindu shrine a few miles down the road that looks like a wedding cake. The schools are attempting to offer more language classes, though I do not believe secondary languages are a requirement, just highly encouraged. Certain industries require that you speak both Spanish and English, and speaking the two languages gives you an edge. I have a few friends who are ESOL teachers (English as a Second or Other Language). My children are quite accustomed to having friends who look nothing like them, and I like it that way, because it keeps them from becoming narrow-minded bigoted cretins. I speak a couple of other languages, but not very well. I don't like to travel much, and have not traveled much outside the country.
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Well I figure language and literacy are different (which is why illiteracy is a thing)

Personally I find it easier to understand and speak a language than read it, especially with things like Chinese if you didn't grow up with it.
 
[MENTION=4680]this is only temporary[/MENTION] it seems highly unlikely that verbal fluency would be achieved if you can't even read simple words from that language, save for the blind and kids under 5 years of age
 
niffer said:
[MENTION=4680]this is only temporary[/MENTION] it seems highly unlikely that verbal fluency would be achieved if you can't even read simple words from that language, save for the blind and kids under 5 years of age
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Well romanization helps there but I don't count that as being literate.

Or put it this way - people raised on a Latinized alphabet are used to being able to 'sound out' the word. For example you can learn easily the word Guānhuà in pinyin because the way it is written gives a clue to how it sounds according to the rules, but in simplified Chinese it's just 官话 and it's harder to relate things to that.
 
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sprinkles said:
Well romanization helps there but I don't count that as being literate.
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Yes, literacy is different.

What I meant was that it's unlikely for a person to be able to gather enough experience to be fluent in a language without ever utilising the written form and learning the basics of it at minimum.
 
niffer said:
Yes, literacy is different.

What I meant was that it's unlikely for a person to be able to gather enough experience to be fluent in a language without ever utilising the written form and learning the basics of it at minimum.
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Yeah, in truth I just feel dumb kind of because any kind of written Chinese is so damn hard for me and it bothers me because that is part of my heritage.
 
sprinkles said:
Yeah, in truth I just feel dumb kind of because any kind of written Chinese is so damn hard for me and it bothers me because that is part of my heritage.
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Lol yeah. It's a lot harder for those of us who have grown up in North America / non-China. Eventually you realize you don't know how to magically read all of the words even though you feel like you should be able to. It's one of those things that requires lifelong, active effort to learn if you haven't been forced into it 24/7 for the first 10 years of age.
 
niffer said:
Lol yeah. It's a lot harder for those of us who have grown up in North America / non-China. Eventually you realize you don't know how to magically read all of the words even though you feel like you should be able to. It's one of those things that requires lifelong, active effort to learn if you haven't been forced into it 24/7 for the first 10 years of age.
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Yeah. I wish my grandmother had taught me, I don't know why she didn't, maybe my parents had something to do with that. She always spoke English to me except teaching me to count and little things like that, but you could tell that she was very Chinese. She was born in Beijing and grew up there before coming to the US at a young age, and she would tell me about things there from when she was growing up some times, and she somehow brought with her artifacts and crafts, I don't know how she obtained them but some of them were literally ancient heirlooms. There was this jar that she had and she didn't really say much about it, it was just in her cabinet with some other stuff. After she died it was appraised and determined to be a priceless jar from the Han Dynasty possibly, and probably belonged in a museum, they said.

I was just amazed by those things and wish I'd taken the time to be more into it when I had the chance.
 
sprinkles said:
Yeah. I wish my grandmother had taught me, I don't know why she didn't, maybe my parents had something to do with that. She always spoke English to me except teaching me to count and little things like that, but you could tell that she was very Chinese. She was born in Beijing and grew up there before coming to the US at a young age, and she would tell me about things there from when she was growing up some times, and she somehow brought with her artifacts and crafts, I don't know how she obtained them but some of them were literally ancient heirlooms. There was this jar that she had and she didn't really say much about it, it was just in her cabinet with some other stuff. After she died it was appraised and determined to be a priceless jar from the Han Dynasty possibly, and probably belonged in a museum, they said.

I was just amazed by those things and wish I'd taken the time to be more into it when I had the chance.
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Wow. Old stuff and old people are cool.

Wait are you saying (based on your post on the last page which I skimmed before) that you are also biracial?... or like a quarterish chinese? LOL I was under the impression that you were completely Chinese.
 
niffer said:
Wow. Old stuff and old people are cool.

Wait are you saying (based on your post on the last page which I skimmed before) that you are also biracial?... or like a quarterish chinese? LOL I was under the impression that you were completely Chinese.
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Yeah, quarterish Chinese I suppose would fit. :P
 
niffer said:
Holy crap, first I thought you were a man in your early 20s, then I thought you were a 30 year old Chinese lady, now this. Where in the world is Sprinkles Sandiego? loooool
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LOL yeah I have an interesting mix of cultures and habits, between my grandmother, my dad who was in the Navy and all over Asia, Philippines, Guam and stuff, a Filipino half sister from a different mother, and a huge extended family through my aunt who are all very Chinese. I mean you go to visit them and 3/4ths of the people that show up are Chinese and you're legit eating Chinese cooking. So I guess I pick up things that effect my personality.
 
sprinkles said:
LOL yeah I have an interesting mix of cultures and habits, between my grandmother, my dad who was in the Navy and all over Asia, Philippines, Guam and stuff, a Filipino half sister from a different mother, and a huge extended family through my aunt who are all very Chinese. I mean you go to visit them and 3/4ths of the people that show up are Chinese and you're legit eating Chinese cooking. So I guess I pick up things that effect my personality.
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Do you ever have racial identity issues?

What is your opinion on people who have racial identity issues and why they arise in some people?
 
niffer said:
Do you ever have racial identity issues?

What is your opinion on people who have racial identity issues and why they arise in some people?
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Fortunately for me it's not as huge of an issue as with other people because my family is pretty cool and accepting of everybody. But some times I want to identify with like one or the other you know? I'm not sure why, I guess it's just natural.

It's kind of like feeling that I'm never quite this or that, no matter how much I might like to be. I also find it a little absurd because I'd think that it shouldn't be an issue but the feeling persists some times.
 
niffer said:
[MENTION=4680]this is only temporary[/MENTION] it seems highly unlikely that verbal fluency would be achieved if you can't even read simple words from that language, save for the blind and kids under 5 years of age
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Well yes, I was joking. I can't even read the Korean alphabet, but was describing the extent of my cross-cultural experiences, which can be summed up by living in a culturally/racially diverse area, and shopping at a Korean grocery store, as well as the other things I described. Oh, and this forum, which has taught me, more than anything in my life, that ignorance and bigotry are not confined to certain countries or races. And work, if you count that -- I work with a lot of people from different countries. Maybe one day I will become fluent in other languages, I think it would be awesome, but for now I struggle along as best I can. I usually enjoy learning about other cultures and am glad to live in a place where I have that opportunity.
 
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cher sums up my biracial childhood experience pretty well *warning: gratuitous cher posting*
[video=youtube;0NZbkuPi2_Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NZbkuPi2_Y[/video]
 
My multicultural upbringing has greatly contributed to me feeling like a cultural nomad. I sort of feel like I fit in everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I'm very in tune to people experiencing any sort of culture shock, language barrier, etc. Sometimes I feel like a human bridge, so to speak. I don't feel entirely Caucasian, nor do I feel entirely Asian. Two distinctly different languages were spoken when I was growing up, but English was the predominate language simply because that was the language taught in school and the main language spoken in my home.

Two distinctly different cultural values were taught to me when I was growing up. Sometimes these values clashed and as a child I often had to build a bridge that could accommodate both perspectives. This bridge was not something I was taught as much as it was something I had to learn in order to make sense of the fact that my parents sometimes had opposing cultural customs and values.

As I think about this now as an adult, it would have been very helpful had my parents discussed and explained these cultural differences to me as opposed to expecting me to just deal with it. However, I'm not sure they entirely understood these differences themselves. I have mixed feelings about being a child of multicultural parents and I attribute my confusion about it to my parents confusion about it. In other words, had they fully understood and been aware of the differences they were dealing with they would have been able to discuss and explain those differences to me, but like I said, my folks married during WWII, cross cultural marriages were rare then and there was a degree of prejudice to deal with at that time in history.

I can't say I don't wonder what it feels like to belong to just one cultural group though.
 
i am 100% french canadian. both my parents, their parents and their parents etc as far as i can go back, all french.
i do not speak french, however. at least not well enough to have a rapid conversation, which is how the french prefer to speak. i feel like an outcast when a french person learns my last name and starts speaking french to me. when i tell them i don't understand, they're like bah! how can that be? it's wrong i guess to not speak your native language...especially considering this is a bi lingual country, one of which happens to be french.
 
Sadie said:
My multicultural upbringing has greatly contributed to me feeling like a cultural nomad. I sort of feel like I fit in everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I'm very in tune to people experiencing any sort of culture shock, language barrier, etc. Sometimes I feel like a human bridge, so to speak. I don't feel entirely Caucasian, nor do I feel entirely Asian. Two distinctly different languages were spoken when I was growing up, but English was the predominate language simply because that was the language taught in school and the main language spoken in my home.

Two distinctly different cultural values were taught to me when I was growing up. Sometimes these values clashed and as a child I often had to build a bridge that could accommodate both perspectives. This bridge was not something I was taught as much as it was something I had to learn in order to make sense of the fact that my parents sometimes had opposing cultural customs and values.

As I think about this now as an adult, it would have been very helpful had my parents discussed and explained these cultural differences to me as opposed to expecting me to just deal with it. However, I'm not sure they entirely understood these differences themselves. I have mixed feelings about being a child of multicultural parents and I attribute my confusion about it to my parents confusion about it. In other words, had they fully understood and been aware of the differences they were dealing with they would have been able to discuss and explain those differences to me, but like I said, my folks married during WWII, cross cultural marriages were rare then and there was a degree of prejudice to deal with at that time in history.

I can't say I don't wonder what it feels like to belong to just one cultural group though.
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i can absolutely relate to your post... having to learn how to make sense and live with three different cultures... coincidentally, my parents are of that era too and i've always felt that i only got 'half' the story from them... they kept a lot of secrets from my sister and i about the old country. and i can't say i blame them... they did what they could to survive and they will keep their secrets... i hope that makes sense :/

my parents were totally either unprepared and/or in denial to my racial identity... i seriously doubt they had any conversations regarding this... lol... i remember asking my parents what i was in kindergarten and they both said 'white'... i think that was the day i realized that my parents didn't really know everything because obviously my mom was brown...
 
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