Nikko Trip Part 2 - Reflections on identity

[dcrono]

One thing that was apparent during the trip was that...I did not fit in. I'm not blaming anyone for anything but...I was constantly reminded that I was different. When introduced, I was often "the American." To be fair, I wasn't like everyone else, and it was obvious whenever I spoke. Despite my fluency in the language, I have a distinctive ABC (

Comments

[dcrono]

yeah, Japanese is my priority right now, but even if I didn't have Japanese I would still be hesitant about learning Taiwanese. Mainly because...I have a connection with the language/culture. You learn the language to understand the culture, but there is nothing really pushing me to learn Taiwanese. I think it would be interesting to learn more about Taiwanese culture (I feel like I know more about mainstream Taiwanese culture comparatively), but its not like learning it will allow me to connect with family or anything. No one in my immediate family (even up to grandparents) knows it, so what would be the real purpose of learning it?

[elentiriel]

If none of your family speaks Taiwanese, and most of your peers/friends don't, then there's really no reason to learn more than beyond the basics (like names of food). Given that Taiwanese is only used in Taiwan, I don't see a point in a OtPP (to use your terms) descendant learning it for any real use.

My reason to learn Taiwanese, or at least to be able to understand more of it, is to be able to communicate directly to my grandmothers. My maternal grandmother is fluent enough in Mandarin but she was the one who taught me Taiwanese and Japanese when I was little. My paternal grandmother can understand very basic Mandarin, but speaks only Taiwanese to her children and grandchildren, which makes direct communication different for me. (My mom's family I think is OrPP; I know my paternal grandfather's from Shandong and my paternal grandmother is from 宜蘭)

[the_great_elk]

It all depends on how you feel about it. Not knowing Japanese bothers me sometimes, but more often I realize that I am too lazy and too bad at languages to let that aspect define who I am. There are historical and cultural reasons that led all of us to where we are, linguistically, culturally, etc., and we just need to accept those and let them speak for themselves.

tl;dr I think you're awesome, hahaha.

[jjemerino]

Since when has identifying as "Taiwanese" made any sense to any of us? In American we're Taiwanese, in Taiwan we're American. Does that bother you that much?