Living In Different Cultures

When I was young my family and I moved to the Philippines and I had absolutely no grasp of the language. I had no idea how the culture was or how to behave in certain situations (there's this thing where younger people have to address their elders by taking the older person's hand, bowing their heads a bit, and tapping the back of hand to their foreheads to show respect). It wasn't so harsh for me since most people understood that I was a young kid who didn't grow up these customs. In school it wasn't so bad either since it was an international school and english was the dominant language. 

Eventually, enough time passed and I could understand the language to the point where I could get involved with casual conversations. But I couldn't speak very well since I refrained from practicing talking (I was teased a lot since my accent was really bad). This was my "mushfaking". I could pretend enough by laughing along with the jokes they made but my "real side" would be uncovered once I had to talk. 

Now that I'm here in San Diego it's easy to pretend that I'm from here since I have no accent and english was my first language. But I think over time my mannerisms and behavior would give away the fact that I did not grow up here. 

Gee brings up an interesting phenomenon. In his article he says, "very often dominant groups in a society apply rather constant 'tests' of the fluency the dominant Discourses in which their power their power is symbolized. These tests take on two functions: they are tests 'natives' or, at least, 'fluent users of the Discourse, and they are gates to exclude 'non-natives' (people whose very conflicts with dominant Discourses show they were not, in fact 'born' to them)". 

There were times where I was mocked because of my "american accent" when I was younger. Some people thought I was boastful or flaunting the fact that I had a different upbringing from them. 
I definitely had my moments where I felt excluded (and a bit dumb since there were toddlers who could speak more fluently) but overall I wasn't too affected by my feelings of exclusion. 

Looking back on these memories is quite interesting, though, since it was definitely a unique experience and something to think about in terms of looking in from the outside. 


Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 9, 2018 at 5:06 PM

    Hi Dana,
    I completely relate to your experience and understand how much of a culture shock moving to the States is! I do feel like your customs from the Philippines might be more different than the ones that I was used to in Mexico, but it still was a hard transition.
    I did find so many things to be different about our cultures. The first thing that I noticed was that in school, people didn't knock on the doors before opening a classroom door. It might seem silly but it was what opened my eyes to the difference in the customs. Therefore, it does get to a point where you have to pretend to know what you are doing in front of everyone else in order to feel like you belong.
    Thanks for sharing this with us!
    Julianna Jimenez

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownSeptember 10, 2018 at 10:48 AM

    Diana,
    That's hard, in the end it probably felt like you didn't belong in either world. In both situations you felt like you were faking it. I'm sure growing up somewhere foreign to you was a struggle but you have to admit that it makes for a great story.

    -Shawn Eccles

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 10, 2018 at 10:29 PM

    Hi Dana,

    I can only imagine the effects of not being able to speak thew native language as a kid, during some of your most formative years and not being able to develop "normal" friendships. It must be a nice feeling now though, looking back and knowing you made it through a tough time like that.

    Thanks for sharing!
    -Cody Edgington

    ReplyDelete
  4. Erin FlewSeptember 13, 2018 at 5:48 AM

    Like Cody, I can't imagine what it would be like to go from here to there, not to be able to speak the language and then to have our mannerisms critiqued. I hear it in reverse from my students who come to the States from another country, but when you describe your experience, it makes me picture myself as a child, moving somewhere else. That makes it more real. Thank you for sharing that, Dana.

    ReplyDelete

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