Venting

I am afraid to say that I had to delete yesterday's post. Although entirely true, I am afraid even without naming names, it came across like gossip... or idle venting. What is it that mom used to say? (I mean aside from, "children should be seen and not heard.") I think it was, "If you don't have anything nice to say..."

It's easy to sometimes get upset with the way people conduct themselves overseas. For too many people, it seems the guidelines they use to structure their behavior and attitudes towards others get thrown out the window when they step off the plane... They see their situation as temporary and therefore give themselves license to behave in ways they couldn't conceive of "back home." This is a little problematic, especially in places where there hasn't much contact with "overseas residents". There is the possibility that the person behaving badly might be seen as a kind of an anthropological specimen - an example of what people from that culture are like. I am not suggesting that people conduct themselves as "ambassadors" for their country.... but that just behave as they normally would - no better, no worse.

This is a pet peeve which often gives way to venting. Unfortunately venting doesn't help anything either... and I am guilty! I am guilty of not only venting re: the behaviour of my compatriots, but also about the work culture of my current "home". Venting doesn't really help me learn how to deal with the disorientation that seems to have lasted longer than in other places I have lived. It is not fair to measure working life here against another cultural standard as working in a foreign country is a choice! There is always the option to leave! (But hopefully not without having learned something first).

Two weeks ago Monday, there was an ad for a senior editor for the Taiwan Review, a local government published monthly magazine. Although I never seriously considered applying, I thought about what it would be like to write for that magazine all week long. Think about it... writing in English in part for the local culture would mean that anything I wanted to say about Taiwan would have to be written with a Taiwanese person's view taken into consideration... This completely eliminates any compulsion one might feel to classify into "us" and "them" because "we", the readership, would inlcude both.