ENGLISH TRANSITIONING FROM TAIWAN

By John Liang

For Ian Contival, growing up as a Missionary Kid in Taipei, Taiwan from ages 2 to 17 meant that he was immersed in two cultures.

Contival’s parents, who work for an interdenominational Christian missionary organization called Youth with a Mission (YWAM), enrolled him into a local Taiwanese preschool, so while he spoke English with his parents and three younger siblings at home, his elementary school education was in Mandarin Chinese.

“I think that they [his parents] were there to stay, and they were also trying to just like immerse us in the culture,” he says.

“So by sending even their kids [to a local school], it’s kind of signifying ‘Yes, we are here for the long term,’” according to Contival. “We are trying to be a part of this and not forcing something from the outside.”

Switching From Chinese To English

Switching to an Englishlanguage, U.S. curriculum after sixth grade was “interesting,” he says. Contival attended high school at Morrison Academy in Taipei.

“I remember going to bed at like 8:00 at night because I was so tired from completely swapping how I thought, at least in school life because at one point, when I was in sixth grade, I was at my peak in my Chinese writing and reading,” he says, adding that to this day he still does arithmetic in Chinese in his head.

Switching grammatical systems from Chinese to English was also a challenge for him, especially writing.

“What you’ve learned for a long time was all in Chinese,” he says. “I could speak [in English] with proper grammar most of the time. But there’s certain things that, when it came to writing, I had no clue. Commas are different and where you put a period is different. So it was a lot of transitioning.”

Even though he was a Missionary Kid, Contival’s parents “didn’t try and mix us with what they were doing that much. For me, I pretty much only got the perks of it because I had friends. A lot of my close friends were also kids who were missionaries. So we all were going through the same thing. A lot of us went to local school.”

Commas are different and where you put a period is different. So it was a lot of transitioning.

And it wasn’t just U.S. Missionary Kids that Contival hung out with.

“It was Missionary Kids from all around the world,” he says. “I had some friends that were mixed like Taiwanese and English, I think.”

There was even a Brazilian Missionary Kid Contival made friends with where the two spoke in Chinese instead of English or Portuguese.

“That was fun,” he says. “So it was pretty cool.”

He also had local Taiwanese friends, though: “We would just play badminton or whatever in the alley.”

Unique Upbringing

While Contival didn’t become aware of the term Third Culture Kid (TCK) until high school, he was still aware that his upbringing was unique.

“You kind of, you know that you’re a foreigner, but then at the same time, you know you’re a special kind of foreigner,” he says. “I knew I was a Third Culture Kid, I think because I knew American culture-ish a little bit and then I knew Taiwanese culture pretty well and especially with the language thing, I’m so thankful that I did local school because I got to be able to speak Chinese fluently, without an accent.”

Being a white kid who spoke Chinese like a local was fun for Contival.

“You know that you’re a foreigner, but then at the same time, you know you’re a special kind of foreigner.”

“I mean, I had it good because I’m obviously a foreigner in Taiwan,” he says. “But I sounded Taiwanese. So they would be really nervous when I first approached them and I’d just like, blah, I speak Chinese. And they’re like, they’re always shocked most of the time, especially when I first got there, like when we were first there.”

While living in Taiwan, Contival and his family would visit the United States about every two years “to see family, eat American food and buy a ton of clothes and candy,” he says with a laugh.

Moving back “home” to the U.S. at age 19 (his parents and three younger siblings are still in Taiwan) was something of a shock for Contival, who now lives in Fort Collins, Colo., where he works as a barista and attends community college.

“I was pretty fortunate with my transition because I came here during January of 2020, and so COVID happened like two months afterwards, like the shutdown and whatnot,” he says. “So I think my culture shock was also mixed with just general shock for everybody. It was kind of like camouflaged a little bit.”

“I’m pretty sure I had it [culture shock] good,” he continues. “I definitely think I’ve realized there were certain things like the fluff that people do sometimes when it comes to communicating here, I wasn’t used to that.”

One thing Contival — who works in the service industry — noticed was how people in the U.S. interact when shopping in stores or coffee shops:

“People in stores in Taiwan just kind of like greet them, do business and then like, ‘Thanks for coming.’ In the States you’re like, ‘Oh, how’s it going,’ stuff like that. And at first, I don’t know, in my head I’m like, ‘With that question, you’re not actually trying to know how I’m doing.’ It’s just formalities and I didn’t like that. It’s little things like that I realized that were my difference in culture that I just didn’t really connect with. So I was just kind of like a little bit pissed off at everybody while I was [manning the cash] register.”

Learning U.S. pop culture references are also something Contival has had to deal with.

“It’s like, yeah, there’s certain things I’m just not gonna get. If there’s pop culture references, old movies, those are all things that I’m like, yeah, you’re probably gonna have to fill me in on that one,” he says with a laugh.

Career Goals

Growing up abroad has led Contival to want to pursue a master’s degree in counseling.

“At first, I wanted to do some stuff in music and I realized it probably could just be a hobby rather than like a career, because I wasn’t really taking it that seriously. And then counseling was brought up and I was like, well there’s something in my heart that kinda clicked,” he says.

“I think the more I’ve interacted with people, the more I’m like, yeah, this could be something I could do,” he adds. “And I definitely think people who have grown up third culture, like as Third Culture Kids definitely, there’s certain things you just kind of bypass sometimes, and you can just connect. Especially when it comes to moving and there’s certain things I know I can connect to people with, even if it’s not necessarily in the same, exact same way.”

Learning

COLLECTIVE VS. INDIVIDUAL

Moving back to the U.S. after living in Taiwan for 17 years also helped Contival note the differences in cultures between the two countries.

“I’ve become more of an individual person, like individual versus collective culture, like Taiwan’s,” he says. In Taiwan, “we’re a collective unit, you work within that. And then the States is definitely more individualized.”

“And so, you’re learning how to be your own person,” he continues. “I got the collective aspect down because that’s where I grew up, and now I’m learning how to become my own person, thinking for myself and things like that.”

On Strengthening His Faith

That dichotomy between the collective and the individual has helped Contival strengthen his own personal faith.

“You’re learning how to be your own person,” he says.

“With that all meshed together in like a spiritual sense, it’s just really helped me know more about myself and with that, connect to the Lord because of that,” he says.

‘MASSIVE TRANSITION’

For a grown-up Missionary Kid, moving back to the U.S. “was a massive transition,” Contival says, where for some it can be the cause of a loss of faith. Not for him, though.

“Moving to the States, that’s kind of what happened to me,” he says. “I’ve been holding on to

[my faith] because it is something that’s constant and if you do have a relationship with the Lord, you see Him help you through life stages. So yeah, that’s definitely been something I’ve held onto. And I think moving here, it’s you either go one of two ways: You choose to either continue to try and follow Him or not, and you have to make a separation. You can’t be lukewarm, especially when it’s massive transitions.”

“So moving to the States was a massive transition, and so I chose to continue with the Lord,” he says.

When asked what is a lesson he learned as a Missionary Kid when coming back to his “home” country and adapting to U.S. culture, Contival says there is value in every culture.

“Go into it looking like that and then things become a lot more appealing and easier,” he says. “And if you’re choosing to move somewhere, you are going to be letting go of certain aspects of yourself.”

Being OK with that and learning to be OK with bringing in things that you might not necessarily like at first “because it’s just how you were brought up, but you can learn to like it if you choose to” is also important, he adds.