Meet Isy, a Hong Kong-based online Mandarin/English tutor and mother of two who appears on the surface to be the classic poster child for being a "third culture kid." She was born and raised in Taiwan, moved to South Africa when she was 12 and lived there through her early 20s, moved to the Bay Area in California for a few years, and now is living in Hong Kong with her husband and kids for the foreseeable future. 

In this episode, we sought out to discuss the topic of being of this "third culture," typically discussed as a feeling of a "stuck between worlds" or mixing of identities, and yet, the more we talked to Isy about her experience growing up and living in these various places, the more we started to wonder if this constant identity crisis is mostly a US-centric way of thinking...?

We discuss a whole slew of new vocabulary words, including 種族 / 种族 zhǒng zú ("ethnic race"), 政治正確 / 政治正确 zhèng zhì zhèng què ("politically correct"), and 大英國協 / 大英国协 dà yīng guó xié ("the British Commonwealth").

If you like learning new vocabulary through this conversational format, try the free preview lesson of our course Real You Mandarin: Beginnings at https://www.realyoumandarin.com, and check out the full syllabus to see if the course format is right for you.

Follow Isy on Instagram at ⁠@isy1025 to connect with her and learn more about her online tutoring.

Follow us on Instagram at ⁠@realyoumandarin⁠ and on TikTok at ⁠@realyoumandarin