tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post3765232672877022509..comments2024-01-24T11:32:46.099+01:00Comments on DeusEXMachina: Third Culture Kids -or- Memories of a Russian-Israeli KidMaria Alexanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-56441911561524066492017-01-08T08:27:35.105+01:002017-01-08T08:27:35.105+01:00lol totally, well said XDlol totally, well said XDGNnekohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16692677025707391736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-37666437342310447392017-01-07T19:16:23.747+01:002017-01-07T19:16:23.747+01:00Your mom's experience makes a lot of sense, st...Your mom's experience makes a lot of sense, still Israeli with a none-european background are treated differently than ashkenazim. Israel is the best salad ever, and it tastes funny.Maria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-2510793885311326942017-01-07T16:01:39.023+01:002017-01-07T16:01:39.023+01:00well, alot of the time the blog discuss things I c...well, alot of the time the blog discuss things I can't really add or relate to ^^" but I still like to occasionally read it.<br />My non experienced it herself. Had to prove herself almost on every step when it comes to learning (all the years at school and the beginning of her academic studies), because no one believed an eastern-immigrant child with no money could achieve anything academic. She also had it a bit hard something from her "own people" - being the nerd she is, she enjoyed studing and reading books and walk around her neighborhood or near fields and imagine things, so she sometimes got mocked for it and regarded as impractical.<br />Racism in general is always such an complex and interesting subject in my opinion, so we can totally talk about it in the future =D<br />I think it makes sense people don't know there's a big Russian population in Israel, since everybody worldwide know about The Holocaust and the Jews running away from Europe, but most people don't know something similar happened in the Suviet Union.GNnekohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16692677025707391736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-48936445500489421852017-01-07T15:39:51.707+01:002017-01-07T15:39:51.707+01:00Thanks for reading! I had no idea you were reading...Thanks for reading! I had no idea you were reading the blog! Happy to hear from you again!<br /><br />Did your mom experience racism herself as a child or you meant racism in Israel in general? That's a heated topic that many leftists (especially in Berlin) like to ramble about. Politics aside, I love talking about my very subjective experience in Israel, because no one knows there's a huge Russian population there :PMaria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-43667289861651458542017-01-07T15:31:40.393+01:002017-01-07T15:31:40.393+01:00what a great post! I think you describe quite well...what a great post! I think you describe quite well the feeling of so many children of immigrants. I'm a Tzabar so I wouldn't know it, but my mom was an immigrant's child, since both her parents came from Iraq, but she usually talks about the racism and her childhood only from the Israely aspect, so it feels so different from what you described.GNnekohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16692677025707391736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-86685500370000343222017-01-07T15:10:04.709+01:002017-01-07T15:10:04.709+01:00Yeah I had no idea about this term, maybe it's...Yeah I had no idea about this term, maybe it's strictly American because it makes more sense there, but we did touch a lot on Turkish immigrants, their children etc, which is a huge theme in Germany.<br />Thank for reading!!!! I think by growing up in a homogeneous society you have a better idea who you are and where you come from, if that makes sense. Maybe you'll be less questioning about your cultural identity. I feel I had some questions that confused me as a child. Then again, you kind of discover your identity as you grow up, each and every aspect of it, and they are countless! heheMaria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-69364476195172816952017-01-07T15:07:17.239+01:002017-01-07T15:07:17.239+01:00I can really understand your mother though! Soviet...I can really understand your mother though! Soviet Union was shit and my parents definitely still see it that way. I think it was the language that my mother focused on more. My parents were happy to live in a western land where stupid unspoken conformative USSR rules do not apply. I see this type of behavior on peers who came from Russia to Berlin. Their way of thinking sometimes freaks me out!Maria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-11958783507246378002017-01-07T15:05:10.532+01:002017-01-07T15:05:10.532+01:00Thanks for reading! Yes, stability is something th...Thanks for reading! Yes, stability is something that I felt lacking. But no matter the country, staying in the same place does not provide variation. It's cool that you decided to move away! That's a brave thing to do, actually. I used to envy people who could stay in the same place forever when I was younger ;)Maria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-55964254837915771482017-01-07T14:57:32.133+01:002017-01-07T14:57:32.133+01:00Thanks so much for reading and for your story! I a...Thanks so much for reading and for your story! I am happy you enjoyed the post, we will meet and talk about it!<br />Yes, I do think you carry the past of your parents and grand parents with you whether you like it or not. It comes across in the atmosphere, the way it feels in your own home, something of the past still comes through.<br />Personally I do emphasize with many Russian things but with a lot of Israeli things at the same time. I love having both within me, and I think both have shaped me. I see it especially after living in a foreign territory like Berlin. Maria Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17472843818105697984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-8229646877872300402017-01-07T12:10:59.853+01:002017-01-07T12:10:59.853+01:00It was great to read more about you and your thoug...It was great to read more about you and your thoughts! :) <br /><br />I can see why that term by Ruth Hill Useem did not catch on: social sciences were struggling the whole 20th century with the fact that the Western culture has appreciated more of those "hard sciences" like mathematics, in which you can make calculations and get one single conclusion. That is not the case in social sciences because humans are not as simple as mathematical formula. Hence the term "second generation immigrant" (one generation, two generations, you can count them!) became more used than the "third culture child". Or that is just my uneducated guess. :D <br /><br />Unfortunately my cultural background is rather homogeneous but I do hope that Internet among other things has exposed me to multiple cultures. :)Jadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17657394873058225387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-74834112258318456762017-01-07T06:06:50.827+01:002017-01-07T06:06:50.827+01:00My parents were the complete opposite of yours! Wh...My parents were the complete opposite of yours! When my mother fled the USSR, she left with a hatred for all things Russian, and refused to actively teach it to us (even though she was learning English herself!). Her goal was to make us as American as possible so we'd fit in, and while that worked, I'm sad I didn't get to be fluent in it. If you can teach your children different languages, do it! But I wondered how strange it must have been for her to raise a child in such an alien land...basically raising a stranger who didn't talk like you or think like you (despite the soviet parenting, lol). 5th Avenue Gothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15631503951105585937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-59747188396292000542017-01-07T04:25:12.819+01:002017-01-07T04:25:12.819+01:00Fascinating post! My family have been in not only ...Fascinating post! My family have been in not only the same country but the same small area of the country for at least four generations.* Growing up, I was knew only a narrow slice of culture. Certainly, that type of upbringing provides stability... but it's stability to the point of stagnation. It tends to make people close-minded and resistant to change.<br /><br />*Except me. I moved away after college. Exposure to different cultures, even within the same country, has affected me dramatically. I am much more open-minded than my family, who generally still believe there is only one "right" way to live.J.Banehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17195276109146618481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3128275531907223462.post-6560149262754317972017-01-06T21:16:27.731+01:002017-01-06T21:16:27.731+01:00Its really intersting post. I have so much to say ...Its really intersting post. I have so much to say I wish we could have coffee. My Ukrainian grand mother and Italian grand father were immigrants after the war and deportation for one of them, and because of racism and how it was back then, they decided to only speak German ( their common language), then French to their children. Two of them eventually learned Russian and Italian by themselves. They felt it was terribly missing. Even without the language, things still arrived to me, even as third generation. My grandmother sovietic upbringing and starvation influenced all of us. Her impossibility to see her family because of the iron curtain also made her truly melancholic. All her friends were Russian speaking people. I forced my father to go back to the Italian village he had to stop going to, after 40 years.( my greatgrandfather sold his house so the bastards couldnt have it). I could talk to the old people there and they all knew who I was, and my Italian was enough. I cook Italian and Ukrainian food. I always have vodka in the freezer. Like my grandma. Its not for fale folklore, I just do and so does my dad. The memoir of my grandpa is called " a man without a village". The idea of exile and deprivation of your land and identity was their burden. Strangely enough I decided to not belong to anywhere, to move and learn languages and be the foreigner, because its easier. I m born and raise in France from French parents but still all the stories, the habbits, the food, the exile, it is somewhere inside me. I still cant speak Russian but before I die, I think I will. I know who I am in Italian and its fine, I m not ready to know who I am in Russian. Yet. Random thoughts, sorry to be so long. Really enjoy to read you, and the questionning that goes with it. alixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09804808176002890414noreply@blogger.com