This week, we are joined by a special guest Peter, who has heard this question far too often: where are you FROM? Imagine you are raised straddling two totally opposite cultures, and decide to embrace one of them. But whenever you tell people that’s who you are, they don’t believe you. Peter was born in London, into a proud Egyptian family, and these two strong cultural backgrounds made him into the man he is today. However, as he was born and raised in the UK, he identifies as an Englishman. That’s why, when people see his darker features and ask about his heritage, he gets frustrated with their lack of willingness to accept him for who he says he is. We listen to Peter’s story and talk about when it’s acceptable to talk to people about their cultural backgrounds (hint: it’s not as soon as you meet them). We also look at the ways Brazilian perceptions of race are totally different from that in the US. Read more about that here from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/looking-in-the-cultural-mirror/201112/what-does-the-brazilian-census-tell-us-about-race

In Language News, it turns out we don’t express gratitude as often as we think we do. In fact, in 8 very different languages studied, people expressed gratitude with a “thanks!” “great!” or something along those lines in only 1 of 20 casual interactions. In fact, some languages (like Dothraki, but also some real languages) don’t even HAVE a word for “thank you!” How crazy is that??? Read more about it from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/arts/23thank-you.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FLanguage%20and%20Languages&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection

What do you think? Have you experienced something like what Peter has? Let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear from you, or even interview you for another segment on this theme. Also, please send your lost in translation voice memos to: languagenerdsdoearth@gmail.com, or go record it right now in our contact section!

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