The Korea Times
As third-cultured individuals, there is a very particular and peculiar kind of exhaustion we have always felt in our lives that comes from constantly calibrating ourselves to fit other people’s expectations. For us raised between cultures without belonging entirely to either, our identities seem to become less of a stable core and more of a series of carefully managed versions of ourselves, where we are not simply transitioning between languages, but translating personality, humor, emotion, even silence. As Korean-Brazilians, we often grew up feeling too Brazilian for Korea and too Korean for Brazil. Whenever we are in Korea, our Brazilian directness can appear excessive, emotionally loud or insufficiently restrained. In Brazil, our reservation arising from our Korean identities may be interpreted as coldness, distance or social awkwardness. Now, as more experienced and mature adults, we realize that neither perception is entirely wrong, they are both just incomplete. It seems that the difficulty we faced and continue to face as third-culture individuals lies not in cultural differenc
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