Monthly Archives: September 2014

Third Culture Kid

In English class a few weeks ago, we were talking about immigration and different cultures in regard to Americanah, and it made me think about my own roots. Coming to Penn State has made me think about my background more than ever, and, if I’m being honest, it’s possible that I’m having a bit of a cultural identity crisis at the moment.

I explained a good deal of my basic background in my first passion blog post. I was born in Hiroshima, Japan as a dual citizen of both countries. I moved to America around the age of 7, but I went back and forth between the two countries for the majority of my childhood. Japanese is my first language, and English is my second. I attended elementary schools in both Japan and America (one school in California, and two in Pennsylvania). Growing up, I had both cultures in my house, and I was switching back and forth between the two countries. I’d say I spent about 40% of my childhood in Japan and 60% in America (and even in America, I was moving around from state to state). It was odd, and now I’m confused. It seems like I have multiple cultures within me, and yet I can’t say that I feel particularly connected to one over the other. In fact, I don’t feel connected to any. Instead, I associate with this mixed culture that is a product of the travel-filled childhood that I had. I don’t think I’m American enough when I live here, and I’m too American when I live in Japan. But don’t get me wrong, I’m proud to be American just as much as I am proud to be Japanese, and this is by no means a complaint. I just think for the most part, I was expecting Penn State to give me a place where I fit in culturally, but I’ve since realized that that’s not really going to happen. Instead, I have to embrace the undefined nature of my mixed culture instead of both halves separately.

A picture with my cousin for my first day of second grade.

A picture with my cousin for my first day of second grade.

Enough people have experienced this to create a term for it. I’m considered a “third culture kid” (TCK).  According to TCKid.com, “TCKs integrate aspects of their birth culture (the first culture) and the new culture (the second culture), creating a unique ‘third culture’.”After looking into this term more, I stumbled upon an Asian-American issues blog that addressed the idea of the “third culture kid” as such:

It’s an experience that comes in many different variations. Say you live in Lisbon, then move to Paris, and constantly move between the two cities. What point does the Portuguese end and the French begin in your culture? This is where the Third Culture begins: when you feel loyalty to neither city, but with the people in the interim: those in the airports, those on the road, and those in transition. It’s the people who can be coming from Marrakech, Toronto, Rio, or Los Angeles, whom you all meet while living elsewhere that you relate to more. Their nationalities and ethnicities are arbitrary–it’s the experience of moving between cultures and being tied to none.

Another page I found on TCKid.com was “You Know You’re a TCK When…” Here are some of my favorites that are relevant in my life:

  • “Where are you from?” has more than one reasonable answer
  • You have multiple passports
  • Your minor is a foreign language you already speak
  • Your life story uses the phrase, “Then we moved to…” three (or four or five…) times

Overall, I’m happy that I had this little epiphany. My unique cultural identity hasn’t changed, but it’s nice that I finally found a title for it.

Civic Speech Reflection

After hearing the majority of the speeches from our class, I definitely think that there are some elements and rhetorical techniques that were more successful than others. Personally, in my speech, I tried to organize the topics in a logical order and provide background information only if it was relevant. I also tried to emphasize the theme throughout my speech so I could use details to constantly support the main message. Regarding other people’s speeches, I overall really enjoyed listening to them and found them to be interesting and informative. No one did poorly in my opinion. Everyone followed the guidelines and explained how the artifact/interviewee was civic in all of the different categories. However, I do think some speeches were stronger and more effective than others. I particularly enjoyed when people added a good bit of personality to their speeches (Corey and Edka’s speeches come to mind immediately). I found those speeches to be especially entertaining to listen to probably because it was apparent that they had a personal connection to the interviewee. As for visual aids, they contributed to the overall presentations but they of course came secondary to the speech.

Conversely, there were a couple things that were not as successful when giving the speech. For example, I tend to speak quickly in general, and that’s something that I try to stay cognizant of while giving a speech. I also found myself going back to my Speech League routine and presenting my speech in a way that is similar to what I would have done for competition. This involves a certain way of speaking and a particular set of hand gestures to emphasize certain points. While this may have been effective in competition, it was probably a little weird in an English class. However, I am overall pleased with my speech. I think everyone so far did a great job, and I am excited to hear the rest of the speeches in the next few days!

RCL Interviewee

For my RCL assignment, I decided to interview my current MGMT301 professor, James Thomas. During the first week of school, he mentioned to my class that he was the former Dean of the Smeal College of Business here at Penn State, and he also worked in the government for both Texas and Florida. So when I heard about this speech assignment, I thought he would be a great person to interview. He represents the civic life because he has performed civic duties at various levels. He bettered lives and held leadership positions as an ordinary citizen, management professor, dean of a large college, and in two government positions. He has an interesting perspective on what makes a “good citizen” and what constitutes civic duties because he thinks from a managerial perspective. He definitely fulfills his civic duties and exemplifies a “good citizen” is numerous aspects of his life. Not only does he show civic responsibility here in the United States, but he is also globally engaged.

Kairos is a rhetorical technique based around taking advantage of the opportune moment. It is relevant in this selection because leadership qualities are always necessary, especially recently. As a society, we progressively see the necessity for people to strong leadership skills. This may also be beneficial in order to help people perform their civic responsibilities.

Last Day of Hosting

Yesterday was the last day of hosting a student from Ibaraki University for my independent study. Since my last post, Takaaki and I hung out a few more times. We saw each other last Thursday, and I took him to a Japanese class. We went downtown for a little bit afterwards and got smoothies from Irvings. We met up with another member in our group, and we went to the Creamery together. He loved it, but really, who doesn’t like the Creamery’s ice cream? Afterwards, we went to the Palmer Museum of Art which was nice because I hadn’t been there yet. At the end, he bought a small glass butterfly for me as a souvenir. How sweet! Then we went to the White Building and played squash. Neither of us had played it before, but I figured since he likes playing tennis, he would like it. I was terrible at it, but we had a lot of fun!

On Tuesday, Takaaki and I went to the Waffle Shop for breakfast since he hadn’t been there yet. He said they made the best waffles he’s ever had! Then we went to my Japanese class together, and that was really entertaining. I bet it was interesting to see how his native language is taught in a basic level in America. Afterwards, he told me he had another gift for me! It was a traditional hand fan which is now hanging on my wall. Overall, I really think Takaaki and the rest of the Ibaraki students had a great time here at Penn State! I know I definitely had an awesome time hanging out with everyone. I really appreciated that I was able to make friends while reconnecting with my Japanese culture.

Playing squash with Takaaki!

Playing squash with Takaaki!

The fan matches my room perfectly!

The fan matches my room perfectly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a little bit of a tangent, reflecting back on this whole experience made me think about American culture. Last week, I asked Takaaki what kind of restaurants he wanted to try, and he said he wanted to eat things that are “very American.” I’m not sure what that even would be. Tacos, spaghetti, burgers, burritos? Nothing really stood out to me as distinctly American. I think this also reiterates what we were talking about in English the other day, when we were talking about Americanah and immigrants. America is indeed a “melting pot,” which personally, I think is both a positive and negative aspect about American culture. In Japan, everything is distinctly Japanese: the houses, cars, food, music, television shows, etc. If I wanted to do something that was very Japanese, it would be incredibly easy because so many things are specific to Japan. The United States, on the other hand, is blend of numerous cultures with an Americanized twist. I found it difficult to give Takaaki a real, distinctly “American” experience, but hopefully he was able to find it in the small, everyday things that make this country unique. I think what actually is “American” is this interesting blend of cultures that we have. This “melting pot” is our culture. We are an incredibly diverse country, and that can be seen in our citizens, restaurants, towns, etc. I believe that’s why it’s difficult to simply define what is distinctly “American.”

Persuasive Speech

Question #3:

In high school, I was a member of the Speech League team (also known as Forensics). My team competitively gave speeches in different categories in front of a judge, and we were ranked relative to the other competitors in our room. During my senior year, I competed in the persuasive category, and my speech centered around the idea that happiness is a choice. In my 10-minute speech, I used several facts and statistics to reinforce the idea (e.g. 10% of happiness comes from external life changes, 50% from genetics, and 40% from our own actions), and followed with examples to further support the facts. I also gave suggestions on how to decide to be happy. For example, several studies in positive psychology show that altruistic actions that have intrinsic value give us the greatest internal happiness. Overall, I would say that I was successful in persuading people because I would place at most meets which means that I was in the top six out of 30 to 40 competitors in my category.

Regarding other people, it was definitely easy to tell the difference between a good persuader and one that is not as strong. During competition, several competitors sat in a room together, so we were able to hear other speeches. It was interesting that even though some people may have picked similar topics, the way that it was presented made a huge difference. It was incredibly easy to tell who truly understood rhetoric because I would become absorbed into the speech subconsciously. Conversely, those who were not as skilled at rhetoric seemed to lose my attention, and instead I would focus on the ineffectiveness of the speech.