If you grew up outside of the motherland, have you ever found that you seem to care more about explicitly connecting with your culture (i.e., through seeking out specific types of food, celebrating cultural holidays, etc.) than your own family living in Taiwan and China? In this episode, Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression partner teacher Crystal Hsia and Angela discuss this interesting phenomenon.

We speculate that it comes down to our family members abroad growing up in the broader environment in which all aspects of culture are as normal and commonplace as the air they breathe - just stepping outside during Mid-Autumn Festival, you'd know immediately that it's that time of the year and feel it all around you. Whereas in the West, our family's culture is not baked into the broader environment, so we have to explicitly seek out the foods, the fashion, and actively practice the customs to connect with that side of our identities.

Another aspect is that for many of us who grew up in the West, we have insecurities about our Mandarin abilities. Because language is such a critical aspect of culture, and yet something that is hard to completely master and claim as our own, we tightly hold onto the other aspects of our culture that we CAN control.

In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 涉及 / shè jí ("to touch on / to involve / to concern"), 文化產物 / 文化产物 / wén huà chǎn wù ("cultural products - something created by, reflects, or results from a culture"), 稀鬆平常 / 稀松平常 / xī sōng píng cháng ("ordinary / everyday / commonplace"), and more.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments here on Spotify or on Instagram at @realyoumandarin or on TikTok at @realyoumandarin.

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