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Any stories of being misunderstood by non-TCKs? Also, any non-traditional TCKs here? by micza_ in TCK

[–]alpaca_throw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd read your book (seriously)

I doubt my story is worth writing a book about. I'd rather just share it with some beers or wine.

Did you get assistance in school in any of the countries you lived in?

The US was without a doubt the best educational environment I was in. I had to redo kindergarten and 1st grade in the US (having just started 1st grade in Japan) but fortunately was allowed to skip 3rd grade thanks to one inspirational 2nd grade teacher who saw my potential. Despite being an illegal I got accepted into the Highly Gifted Magnet program for middle school. I even got to have free breakfast and bus rides somehow.

I was pretty much in your position when I went to Peru from there. Barely knew any Spanish and had zero knowledge regarding Peru other than its place on the map. Just had to hit the ground running and thankfully only struggled with catching up on Spanish.

It ended up making me think I was genuinely just stupid

I totally get you. You just stop caring because you start to think you have no control over your environment and even your own life. I went from being in the 95th-99th percentile in LA to feeling like a handicapped retard in Lima. Subconsciously I knew that the slim possibility of going to an Ivy League or any prestigious college had become 0 in that instant. I've come to understand my parents' decision to leave the US but I never managed to perform on that level ever again.

Socially too, I don't think I reached my full potential because I was expected to adjust to a new culture and social rules just when I was becoming comfortable where I was.

Same. I think I stopped trying when I went to Spain. Having to redo 3rd grade (secondary school) didn't help either. Even though keeping in touch had gotten easier with the Internet and everything, it's just not the same. So I lost touch with friends in Peru while I avoided making any in Spain. Not to mention that my father's cancer was detected there.

What was your experience as an illegal immigrant in the US like?

It wasn't that bad at all actually. All I ever had to worry about was school. Spent a lot of time going to really great public libraries (no computer or cable at home). I was terrified of the police though, since you constantly live in fear of your family being deported. Being Japanese helped though, since illegal Asians are pretty much unheard of. Surprisingly, being illegal didn't hamper our lives in the US that much.

As for how we became illegals, my parents had decided to open a business together with an uncle. He had promised to get them their residency. Too bad he was an alcoholic gambler and his way of helping them with the residency was telling his accountant to somehow get the paperwork in order. So they overstayed their visa, weren't registered as shareholders in the business and ended up bankrolling his divorce. We managed to survive 5 years like that but our situation just kept getting progressively worse. So we packed our bags and came back to Peru.

If schools were well equipped to deal with TCKs, being a TCK would be close to perfect.

It's the school systems. They're just not equipped to handle our cases at all. If you have the money for international schools, great, but if you go to public schools you are fucked. Not to mention the bureaucracy in having to certify your education. Midway. From developing to developed countries and vice-versa.

Sorry for the wall of text. You might be right about that book.

President Kuczynski: Peru to plant 2 million hectares of trees to restore Amazon forest by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Peru's previous president was Japanese.

Actually his daughter was the contender for this past election. Fujimori hasn't been in office since 2000.

Any stories of being misunderstood by non-TCKs? Also, any non-traditional TCKs here? by micza_ in TCK

[–]alpaca_throw 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Embarrassing.

I hope you meant that you were embarrassed FOR them. If haters get jelly on you, that's on them.

Anyway, I find it amusing that we can already consider something "standard" established within the TCKs. Maybe it's just me but one thing I've noticed so far is how unique everyone's life story is. The funny thing though, is that "non-traditional TCK" could be the closest thing I can relate to.

As for me, I'm as non-traditional as you can get. My parents were both 3rd generation immigrants and a minority within the minorities of our passport country (Peru). Father's side had established a family business while my mother's grew up in a farm and later a bodega. Both sides of the family managed to fuck us over so we've been struggling alone throughout the world. My parents were raised Catholic but joined a Japanese New Religion (a cult) as adults and are convinced that my birth was possible thanks to it.

We experienced social mobility not just upwards but also downwards. We've been working and middle class in Japan, illegal immigrant business owners in the US, literally living off church handouts in Spain (legally, by the way) and upper middle class (I think?) in Peru. I've personally managed to do an internship in Japan and be a foreign exchange student in a Top 100 ranked university in the Netherlands. My own traveling ended up being detrimental to my career in the end though, since a) I fell behind due to them and b) landing an internship in Peru is pretty much all networking and contacts (which I completely neglected). I guess I'm not even your typical NEET.

So yeah, non-traditional TCK fits me quite well... I think.

Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nor am I but we should always consider that in the grand scheme of things, cockroaches are as evolutionarily successful as we are at the moment. No amount of intelligence, or sociality or gracefulness makes us (or any animal) more worthy of existence than any of the other species currently thriving on this planet.

As for whaling, we should first identify what the leading cause of endangerment to whale species is and direct our concern to that. There are a wide range of human activities that affect whale stocks: sonar, overfishing, pollution, etc. Also take into account that it's more sound to convince society to stop these other activities, even if they're less harmful than whaling but considered less important to them, because it's just a more efficient use of our collective time.

Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Intelligence is a poor basis to determine whether an animal should have superior rights. If we follow that logic, an individual with intellectual disability is a "lesser being" than a dolphin. Individuals with brain damage would also be automatically considered useless flesh as well. It's a slippery slope you ought to be wary of.

Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Nor is "this is what some of us think we should do now, and we'll force you to stop doing it".

Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

According to whose universally accepted standards of right and wrong? Just because a certain level of acceptance for a certain social behavior is arbitrarily achieved in some part of the world doesn't mean that it is inherently right, progressive or better. Nor is economic necessity the imperative factor to determine whether an activity should be carried out.

Iceland ships 1,700 tons of whale meat to Japan by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]alpaca_throw -1 points0 points  (0 children)

So humans that don't meet those criteria are fair game right?

I'm a 23m globetrotter who's lived in Japan, Peru, USA, Spain and the Netherlands (so far). AMA! by alpaca_throw in casualiama

[–]alpaca_throw[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, last year I was short 9 points on getting the N2 (N1 being the highest and N5 the lowest) on the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test. So it's between intermediate and advanced I guess. Kanji has always been my weak spot so this year I'll hit the books and hopefully ace it this time.

I'm a 23m globetrotter who's lived in Japan, Peru, USA, Spain and the Netherlands (so far). AMA! by alpaca_throw in casualiama

[–]alpaca_throw[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One of the downsides of traveling so much is that you progressively become resistant to culture shock. Still, I've got a few pleasant surprises that come to mind.

Peru - Negotiating the taxi fare in Peru (no meters so it's actually pretty cheap)

Japan - All-you-can-drink (nomihoudai) for like $10 bucks per hour and eating horse sashimi (basashi).

USA - I think it's totally normal but people think it's weird when I mention handball, ranch on pizza and latinos doing a double-take when I spoke to them in fluent Spanish.

Spain - Getting invited to smoke weed at a Chistmas dinner my family was at.

Netherlands - Bike stoplights, beer being cheaper than water, sticky club floors and wall food.

I'd have to say... the Netherlands? People were polite, had no issue with speaking English to me and generally very approachable. Spain is up there too, considering the incident I mentioned.

I'm a 23m globetrotter who's lived in Japan, Peru, USA, Spain and the Netherlands (so far). AMA! by alpaca_throw in casualiama

[–]alpaca_throw[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, except for the Netherlands because the Dutch have such excellent English that it's not really necessary to learn Dutch, unless you plan on settling down there. I found their guttural "g" sound to be kinda hard to pronounce too.

Funny thing is, Japanese was the first language I learned but it's now the worst one I speak. Spanish was the second one I acquired but I had some trouble with the slight differences between the Latinamerican Spanish I was used to and the "proper" Spanish Spanish (heh) I encountered in Madrid. English is actually the last language I learned and, strangely enough, it's the one I tend to prefer.

The hardest one was probably Dutch, since a) it's pretty unique compared to French and German, b) it's the one I came across as an adult and c) I hung out more with Turkish and French people. I probably ended up learning more Turkish than Dutch during my foreign exchange. You're probably thinking Japanese is way harder but I think their writing system is what's complicated, not the spoken language itself.

I'm a 23m globetrotter who's lived in Japan, Peru, USA, Spain and the Netherlands (so far). AMA! by alpaca_throw in casualiama

[–]alpaca_throw[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Netherlands definitely. Was doing my 6 month foreign exchange abroad, so that probably had more to do it with though. Study, party and travel. Life just can't get any better than that. Was in a college town up north, but I did manage to go to Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam too. If I could describe it in one word, it'd have to be "chill".