the "where are you from" question there (at least according to the way my university teaches it) is "where is your family."
Ahah, I'd forgotten that! But it does explain why friends from the PRC were quite happy to roll out info on where they grew up, what their parents did, their siblings, their siblings' spouses and kids and aunts and uncles.
One thing I do know about giving details that I didn't think to mention in the post -- if there's a part you don't want to go into, put it first. People are more likely to ask questions about the last thing they've heard, so if you switch so the bit about your father comes first, and then jump to your mother... It's sort of like burying the lede. Uhm, wait, leading with the lede and then distracting them with fancy hand-waves? Or just put on an air of regret, "my father's family is from Chicago, but he didn't keep in touch with them..." as though, sheesh, Dad's the reason I don't know anything about them, but here's what's on the other side.
Lazy non-contact parent, maybe we should list that with house fires, remarriage, war, and immigration?
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Date: 4 Apr 2011 02:07 am (UTC)Ahah, I'd forgotten that! But it does explain why friends from the PRC were quite happy to roll out info on where they grew up, what their parents did, their siblings, their siblings' spouses and kids and aunts and uncles.
One thing I do know about giving details that I didn't think to mention in the post -- if there's a part you don't want to go into, put it first. People are more likely to ask questions about the last thing they've heard, so if you switch so the bit about your father comes first, and then jump to your mother... It's sort of like burying the lede. Uhm, wait, leading with the lede and then distracting them with fancy hand-waves? Or just put on an air of regret, "my father's family is from Chicago, but he didn't keep in touch with them..." as though, sheesh, Dad's the reason I don't know anything about them, but here's what's on the other side.
Lazy non-contact parent, maybe we should list that with house fires, remarriage, war, and immigration?