What Foreign Born Asians deal with when visiting Asia

[dnoblett]

This topic has come up before, what an American Born Asian deals with when visiting Asia not knowing the culture and language, and the reactions Asian born have when encountering a Asian "Foreigner".

 

 

http://shanghaiist.com/2014/12/08/overseas-asian-in-china.php

[Mick]

At the university in China where Li and I taught and lived for our last four years over there, the school ran a Chinese language program, specifically geared for foreign born Chinese. The school had Chinese students, university aged, from America, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, England, Thailand, and several other locales. These kids had it rough as the native Chinese all thought they should be fluent in Chinese. The students had trouble getting across the idea that they were, in fact, at the school in order to become fluent in Chinese. These students often came by our apartment, as that was one of the few places they could speak English. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Li and I held an "open house" where our students could come by to practice their English. Some of the foreign born students used to come by as well, but the native Chinese speakers often gave them a hard time, simply because they could not wrap their heads around the idea that someone that looked Chinese could not speak Chinese.

[warpedbored]

I vaguely recall PJ (CFL founder and a Chinese American) posting on this subject from his trips to China. I'm too lazy to dig them up.

[dnoblett]

At the university in China where Li and I taught and lived for our last four years over there, the school ran a Chinese language program, specifically geared for foreign born Chinese. The school had Chinese students, university aged, from America, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, England, Thailand, and several other locales. These kids had it rough as the native Chinese all thought they should be fluent in Chinese. The students had trouble getting across the idea that they were, in fact, at the school in order to become fluent in Chinese. These students often came by our apartment, as that was one of the few places they could speak English. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings, Li and I held an "open house" where our students could come by to practice their English. Some of the foreign born students used to come by as well, but the native Chinese speakers often gave them a hard time, simply because they could not wrap their heads around the idea that someone that looked Chinese could not speak Chinese.

This in part is what Lianne Lin dealt with when she lived in Taiwan for a couple years, trying to teach English, the locals could not wrap their heads around the fact that English is her FIRST language, and she was there to learn Chinese.

 

http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/46215-reverse-racism-in-taiwan/