Cynthetiq

So I was at an event this past week a family member was doing a book reading. There were 2 family members there that I have never met before, they are 2nd or 3rd cousins, not quite sure yet. Nevertheless, the first questions about myself reminded me that the converse of the questioning that most "Americans" would ask.

"Were you born here?"

"yes"

"Oh cool. Do you speak Tagalog?"

"yes, I can. I can understand better than I speak"

If I don't say that and just answer yes, then the conversation switches to Tagalog, which I don't mind, and I speak what I can and answer as I can.

"Have you been back "home?"

Now this one is a tricky question to answer because I know what they mean, but it infuriates me that they think that my home is the "homeland"

I think this really underlines the differences that the Asian American challenges since we don't fit into either camp and both camps feel that they need to know more information about us since we seem to be total and completely foreign to them.

And yes, I have been a "Balikbayan" (person returning home) 3 times. I'm looking forward to my next trip back but will have to bone up on my Filipino english accent so that I can just speak to people as such in english and not worry about the "American" baggage and "extra charges."

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