What accent do you have?

Our boys, and the many others like them, don't fit neatly
into other people's ideas of who they are or what
they should sound like. 

We celebrated Australia Day this year with some new Australians, British immigrants. One of their guests also had an English accent, so I asked her if she was visiting from overseas or if she'd moved over. It turned out that she'd been in Australia for many years, but never really lost her accent.

But she was quick to point out that if she were to return to her land of birth, people there would ask what her accent was. So, she's forever in an inbetween-world.

We've had Australians identify that our accents are no longer 100% Aussie. That was especially the case when we first got off the plane. Yet those we meet in Japan identify our accents as very clearly Australian.

The situation is more complex for children growing up in different countries. When I was at uni I remember meeting Australians teenagers who had been at an international Christian school in Manilla, their accents were American to our ears. 

The same has happened to our children, especially our younger two. They've all been strongly influenced by American teachers in their younger years. In fact at their school in Japan the American accent dominates (yes, I know you'll tell me that there is no such thing as "the American accent"), even for those who've never been to America, like our children.

Accent has a tendency to label you, to identify where you fit. So it is no surprise that with at least two or three accents in their history, the accents of children like ours (called TCKs or Third Culture Kids) will shift around depending on their context, as they strive to fit into their environment. 

Nor is it surprising that a TCK who moves to a completely different culture, would seek to cultivate a different accent just in order to fit in. Check out this well written article by the son of former colleagues in Japan:
http://denizenmag.com/2015/02/what-accent-are-you/

You might also enjoy reading this post I wrote early last year about answering the question, "Where are you from?":
http://mmuser.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/where-are-you-from.html

"Hello" season

This week we continued our three-year-old tradition of welcoming at least one new staff-family to the CAJ area by having them over for a meal and, if they have kids, to a romp in the park.

We had the Erwin family over for dinner on Tuesday night. This is their first time in Japan, though they have lived in Asia before, most of their recent years they've lived in Texas. Their kids are somewhat similar in age to ours, so it was a fairly good mix. Then today, using the train, we took them to a long-term favourite park.

This is the other end of the "goodbyes" that happen in June. Not only do we say "hello" to old friend who return, but we say it to new friends too. It is good for us to see Japan through "newbies" eyes. We get so familiar with things that we forget how difficult it is for newcomers. It is easy for me to beat myself up about how little I know of the language, the culture, etc., but in reality, I know quite a bit (though what I know of this country and language is still a drop in the bucket of what there is to know).

As we straggled out the door this morning, though, I wondered if we were making a mistake. The temperature was already above 30 (actually it barely dips below that overnight in July and August) and the humidity was high. I felt like I was swimming through the air, and it was only 9.45. Thankfully, though, God sent us some rain that cooled the atmosphere just a bit and made it much more bearable.



Going back to an old favourite destination like this is also fun, it helps me to feel a part of this strange land of Japan, just a bit more. After all we have quite a history here now. Most of our marriage and child raising years have been spent here. We have so many memories buried all over the place.

But here's a question for you. If I say, "Erwin" with an Australian accent, Americans think I've said, "Owen".  Should I "put on" an American accent to say their name? I've had to change the way I say "Isaiah" and "Megan" for Americans with those names, so that they match the pronunciation they know, but "Erwin" requires an American "r" and I don't know if I'm comfortable with that . . .