Where are you from? Your English is so good!

Microaggressions from both sides of the Pacific

It’s been exactly one year since my family and I moved from California to Taiwan. My spouse and I have been thinking about living overseas for many years before we made the move last year. As a couple raising biracial kids, we wanted to live in a bilingual and bicultural environment so that our kids (and us) could learn to de-center the American way of life. As a first-generation immigrant growing up in a mostly white American suburb, I wanted our kids to grow into their identity as a source of pride — not one that would force them to assimilate.

I felt so many different emotions on that plane ride: excitement, fear, courage, worry. My tendency to over-plan was trying to take over my complete exhaustion from all the energy it took just to get my family and I completely out of our home in San Francisco and onto the plane that would take us to Taiwan. In my head, I ran down all the things (and people and animals) we were leaving behind and the next ten steps I needed to do to make sure everything would go smoothly to get us in our apartment that was to be ready for us in Taiwan.

Customs forms. Check.

Passports. Check.

Visas. Check.

My physical preparation for transition did not completely prepare me emotionally for the amount of cultural transitions I would experience as a Chinese-American teacher in an American International School…