Foreigners Plaza

May 12th, 2012, 11:20 PM

I would like to start this thread for mainly who are alianated from American Culture AND your own culture. So, I am targeting mostly the first generation who came to live in the State in later their life - after 18 at least. OR someone who is AT LEAST Bilingual - fluently.

I am not intending to bad mouth any culture. Critics is different from bad mouthing as long as it is not emotionally charged. So, you can critisize your own culture or American's.

Well, I am a Japanese born in Japan in 1961 - yep, i am an old lady. I was always ANTI Mainstream. I always try to think for my self rather than buying other people's MainStream idea. I was a punk as a young girl. I always trust myself. Not anything else.

I could not be happy with Japanese Culture since the age 12. I felt the culture was so so so strict. You can nott be yourself. Since US represent Freedom in sprites, I dream about migrating to the States. Well, I got green card by lottery and here I am.

In Japan, I was an software programmer for a newspaper agency and an utility company. But when I came to the states, the economy was still bad and I had to take any job I could get as I came here only 3k in my pocket and 2 suitecases. NO Place to sleep in.
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I came to New York and lived there for a short period of time - about 14 months. During that time I worked for Nomura Research Institute of America as an assitant to administrator.

I tried to climb up the corporate ladder there. But without any financial knowldege, finding a programming job was difficult.

So, I moved to San Francisco. Got some kind of translating job. Then hired by Symantec then fired by Symantec. While working at Symantec, I developed bad health condition and could no longer work like a slave. That's is the reason I got fired. After that, I had a couple of good contract jobs in Sillicon Vally. I could manage my work hours and I enjoyed my work.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I still have the health condition and I don't work. I am most of time very tired. Well, it is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

So, trading from home office really suites me.

I have a different view of work ethics from Americans and quite different view of health care systems.

So, I just want to know different perspetctive of life in general from people of different nationals.

By the way, please don't tell me you love SUSHI, cause I don't. I am not from TOKYO. Sushi started out as pretty much like "Fast Food" in Tokyo, well about 300 years ago? I am not from Tokyo and I don't care about SUSHI.

May 16th, 2012, 07:51 PM

Someone who was reading this thread kindly mentioned that if I say "Cultural Difference between America and your own nation", the American might think I am putting down on them.

That was not my intention at all. And my main focus of this thread is not so much on talking about cultural difference, but more on "How you reconcile two different cultures within".

The reason being is that I never felt any sense of belonging to my own culture - except culinary one, and when I came here I was intoxicated. I felt so free. I truly loved it. But after the honeymoon was over, again I don't feel any sense of belonging to this culture, either. I feel I am totally alone, in that sense.

Still, within me, there is very Japanese part, and there is some American part. And I don't belong either.

My husband is American and very understanding of me. But he can not totally grasp conflicts within me. So I am reaching out to people who can somehow somewhat related to what I am describing.

So, point is my motivation was more of inner work. Of course some kind of talk about cultural difference comes with territory - it's given, but not the main focus.

Thank you for reading this thread,

Foreigners Plaza

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Foreigners Plaza