For me, I didn't have much struggle really. I never had the urge to "fit" anywhere. I'm comfortable for who I am and accept it. Many of peers went through the struggle of having to *choose* one side. ie. Either they're Asians or they're Australian. I never even THOUGHT about which side I belong to. I find it irrelevant as nationality was created by humans and matters not genetically or, in other words, in a grander scale of perspective. We're all humans. We're all earthlings. Big deal. Though, I did take a bit of thought when someone asked me which do I think I belong. Or rather, when my parents accuse me of being to Western and as of current, I have a sneaky feeling they have an unnecessary prejudice against me whereby they think that I've renounced being Taiwanese/Asian altogether and have completely embraced being Western/Australian. This is really the only problem I have. I consider myself Taiwanese by birth and ancestory but brought up in Australia. I'm a mixture of both the Taiwanese and Australian culture though I have to admit I'm more more Western than my parents like me to be simply because I've spent a much longer time in Australia than in Taiwan. However, I do not consider myself any less Asian than need be. I try and mix the good of both culture as much as possible. There is no need for me to choose to be on either side and I never will. I'm a mix - culturally but definitely Taiwanese genetically.
The biggest problem I have is people LABELLING me. A friend of mine claims that I'm not very Australian and is more Asian. I can see where she's coming from because personally, I'm not 100% into the Australian culture ie. love sports and clubbing and drinking beer. The main reason for this is, I hardly ever go out to parties during my school years and even now, I don't do so that often either. (I blame this on gaming and internet :p) However, the Australian media and my friends are there to influence more or less so Australian I am but to what extend? Who knows. I don't think ANYONE can define 100% what it means to be a person of a certain nationality or culture.
Switch back to the Taiwanese community here, whenever I meet any friends of my parents, one of the most hated prejudice I experience is the immediate assumption that you can't speak Chinese because you were brought up here. I HATE that! I'll tell you if I can't speak Chinese thank you very much. Don't assume. Oh, and the assumption that I can't understand Taiwanese also. All these adults around me speaking in Taiwanese as if I was invisible - until, of course, I laugh with them when they said something funny and then they all look surprised and realise that I can understand them xd .
Another problem is when the parents start discussing about their children and how some parents are concerned that their children becomes to Westernised if they stay overseas too long. My dad usually disagree. He says, to some extend but if you make sure they keep in touch with the mother culture, you won't completely. In comes me who happens to be in English mood (yes. There is English mood and Chinese mood. This is why I say I'm a mix. Both languages are in my head and I can switch if I want to) and comes round to ask dad for a bit of money to rent some videos. At this point, I'm still speaking Chinese (and mind you, I don't have an accent. I speak way better than most of my peers - 連續劇可不是蓋的.很有用的 :E ). It's only when my dad starts giving me certain instructions that I start to answer him in English (but that's only saying "Yes" instead of 是 or 知道啦). This is when one of the parents whisper to her children, "她洋化了".
拜託啊, 這位阿姨. 我不過答沒幾句英文就被妳說洋化啦? 真敗給妳. 會聽, 會看, 會寫(限打字:E ), 會講已經夠好了可以嘛? = =""作者: virginia_0103 时间: 2010-2-2 16:57
evenstar
2007-07-08, 04:21 AM
個人覺得語言不是最大的認同問題,
而是那種「哪邊才是我的國家」的感覺。
文化當然也是很大的問題囉....作者: 阿让 时间: 2010-2-2 16:57
Morgan Lai
2007-07-08, 10:54 AM
在美國的時候都說自己是台灣人
但到外國的時候,手裡拿著美國護照
說著"im from Taiwan"一點說服力也沒有= =""
總會很猶豫自己到底是美國人還是台灣人
Shopping with mum. The lady at the counter goes, "So you're on holidays, I suppose? From where?"
At university, someone goes, "Where do you come from?"
Me: I live here
Whoever: Yes, but where do you come from?
Me: .....I'm a local
Whoever: Oh. But where were you ORIGINALLY from?
Me: =.=|||| Fine...Taiwan
*nods furiously* My parents complain that to me A LOT! They use that as a point of argument with me ALL THE TIME. My retort: "You brought me here." Their answer: "I'm regretting it now"
Me: .......=.=|||
I find that there's even some sort of prejudice against me like, I'm only talking back to them because I'm too Westernised or I have too many Western friends and that I'm copying them (not true).
Even my brother, annoying as it is, find it easy to say that I have a Western boyfriend because I came here too young and am too Westernised. It's not like I PURPOSELY sought for a Western boyfriend. In fact, he's like the one Western boy out of my pack of friends as of late (rest are ABC).
Yes, I agree. Many of my current friends don't like clubbing either. We find it boring in fact. Ironically, this particular friend of mine was also an odd one out back in high school along with the rest of the gang. We hated shopping - which was beyond comprehension with most of the other girls. It's a matter of preference as you've said.
不可能完全斷絕中文的使用於思考. 兩者常用的話是不可能遺忘的.
我寫英文文章時常出現的障礙是會忽然以中文思考.
要麻是會忽然想到一個中文的表達方式貼切於主題但無法完美的翻成英文導自於老師常說我有些表達方式(expression)非常怪. 連我朋友說我有時候會忽然聽起來像fob(Yes, I know. Bad term but that's what she used. *sigh*). 雖沒口音但反而更怪
當然, 我proof read以後是沒問題但兩者通用是不可能遺忘任何一個.
The 11 year old thing is what they call the 2nd language acquisition (or something along those lines. Check wikipedia). They claim that when one learn a second language above the age of 11, they cannot achieve quite to the same degree as native speakers - which I think is complete nonsense because I've SEEN examples that contradict that theory. I know someone who came to Australia when he was 12 and now he's COMPLETELY forgotten Chinese and speaks English like a native. Another example is a friend of my uncle who's a tour guide. He placed A LOT of hard work in learning the language and even went so far as to imitate the accent to the point you think he's a native speaker. It's a matter of persistence really.
有時候一整個學期下來可以好到報告一氣呵成, 但放了個假回台灣後切換速度又開始spasm....
Looks like you're experiencing what I call "language confusion". Though I don't quite have the problem as you've stated there because I'm quite used to switching from languages to languages (school = English, home = Chinese - sometimes I have to switch within 0.1 seconds, especially if I'm talking to and from my friends and my parents or with a phone consultant and my mum. It's become my reflex)
Just for some fun, I'll tell you one bizarre experience I had.
This was back in year 8 and it was the last class of the day. It was German and at my school, our language teachers pretty much speak whatever language they're teaching us as much as possible (so that we get used to the flow of course). Anyways, I was EXTREMELY tired that day and hence, my brain was going haywire. At this point in time, I'm learning German, French and Japanese. So in total, I have about 5 possible languages circling in my head. Anyways, my teacher asked me a question and unfortunately as it is, ALL FIVE LANGUAGES were turned on. I was supposed to reply "Ja" (yes in German) but I went from "是" to "Hai" to "Oui" to "Ye..." *shakes head a bit* and finally "Ja". My teacher chuckled a bit but the rest of the class stared at me. ^.^|||作者: xizhang01 时间: 2010-2-2 16:58
布兒瑪
2007-07-16, 04:38 AM
我也聽過另一個說法 6歲or7歲以前出國 學習後語文能力方可等同於當地小孩
不過我覺得這樣自己本來的語言應該也會忘得差不多了吧作者: 阿让 时间: 2010-2-2 16:58
姓韓者
2007-07-16, 09:53 AM
wowwowowowow......
I'm losing my oracy in both Chinese and English...orz"
I mean, just feeling difficult to express myself and ideas through mouth...T_T
and my Cantonese pronouncitaion is also altering as I'm forgetting the accents......= =#
(it's the consequence of being 宅 for long time......)
who can help me...作者: xizhang01 时间: 2010-2-2 16:58
MikiRei
2007-07-16, 04:24 PM
我也聽過另一個說法 6歲or7歲以前出國 學習後語文能力方可等同於當地小孩
但是高中的班上沒有人知道這件事情,高中以前的同學知道作者: xizhang01 时间: 2010-2-2 16:59
冬風 軒
2008-09-29, 06:53 AM
我是大學才鬼混出來的，可能比較沒有身分認同的問題。我個人認為自己就是台灣人，而擴大而言屬於華人，再大一點就亞洲人。就算自己從小出生在外國我怎麼看還是一個亞洲人，頂多加一句: I live here for 1X years.
Hmmmm....so, what do you think of Asians born overseas though? Do you consider them Asians? Or wherever they were born?作者: virginia_0103 时间: 2010-2-2 16:59
ManUtd
2008-10-09, 11:47 PM
我個人覺得, 多文化的衝突往往是來自於其他人對某人身份的認定及從而給予的壓力, 而不是自身的想法或是刻意扭曲.
所以, 我想問題不是在於誰要怎麼想他自己. 而是在於人類世界之中, 社會化的結果會pomoting the notion of "we are all the same"..."we should be the same", "why can't you do the same as we do"等等.......現代人也許口口聲聲說be yourself. 殊不知社會化的基礎是從根本上的反個人為自身而存在的合理性. 當我們只講一個人如何如何時, 事情似乎可以很簡單. 但是當我們把社會拉進來. 一切就不是那麼簡單的了.作者: 阿让 时间: 2010-2-2 16:59
Krislih
2008-10-10, 07:17 AM
I definitely agree with both Man UTD(by the way i hate your team, im a LIVERPOOL FAN ) and Miki Rei's opinions.
In my opinion, the way how I see myself as both German and Taiwanese though, this is from the cultural aspect of course. Race, I am obviously Asian.
If someone of a race that's not caucasian does not have the ability to speak mother tongue, in my opinion, it is somewhat of a joke, but again, i cannot expect everyone to be the same. The world isn't fair after all, no one is the same, we come from different backgrounds, even if we came from the same country but we think differently.作者: virginia_0103 时间: 2010-2-2 16:59
ManUtd
2008-10-12, 06:58 PM
I definitely agree with both Man UTD(by the way i hate your team, im a LIVERPOOL FAN ) and Miki Rei's opinions.
In my opinion, the way how I see myself as both German and Taiwanese though, this is from the cultural aspect of course. Race, I am obviously Asian.
If someone of a race that's not caucasian does not have the ability to speak mother tongue, in my opinion, it is somewhat of a joke, but again, i cannot expect everyone to be the same. The world isn't fair after all, no one is the same, we come from different backgrounds, even if we came from the same country but we think differently.
I agree...
Mother tongue indeed is an issue which we have to think about carefully as language and identity are ultra close related. I kind of sick about the fact that some Taiwanese parents seem putting English as more of an elite/upper class language in Taiwan. But anyway, it is just my personal view.
by the way. Liverpool is doing very well this season so far. After the glory last year, I personally do not think the Red Devils can maintain their domination as they did last season. You cannot always on the peak. However, it will be a long season, let’s see.
