Culture Shock

When I was 10 years old my mother met a man who was a soldier in the Black Watch Army. He was on leave at the time spending time with his family. He and my mother met on a night out and after a few weeks of dating he asked her to marry him the reason being was because he was being sent to Hong Kong and he wanted us to go with him. My mum to my astonishment agreed, I was not ready to be uprooted to another house never mind country. Two weeks after the wedding we were standing at the train station with my grandparents saying our goodbyes and waiting for the train that would take us to the airport.

I am not going to lie I was in a fowl mood as I didn't want to go and leave my family, easpecially not to a Country I had no idea about. It was daunting to say the least.

The flight was over 10 hours long, we eventually landed in Hong Kong and I remember as we walked off the plane the heat and humidity was immense, it really hit you in the face. It was very different from Scotland back in the UK and something that took time to get ucustomed to.

Once off the plain and back in the air port we were told to make our way over to a group of people holding up signs, we saw a Chinese man with a sign saying Private Johnson on it... That was us, the man didn't know much English but by his body language we could see he wanted us to follow him.

He led us to a van, we got in and off we were to Stanley Fort Barracks to start our new life, to say we stuck out like a sore thumb would be an understatement as we were the only whight people we saw all the way until we got to the barracks. The barracks was 2-3 hours away from the airport.

The traffic was horrendous pair that with bad driving and you have a trip from hell, very different from the UK thats for sure. Eight lanes of traffic with cars and vans whizzing past at super speed I was scared!

Once at the barracks we went to the NAAFI which stands for the Navy, Army and Airforce Institutes. We were signd in and then taken to our flat. The buildings were high rise flats with 12 floors on each side, we were B2 Dorchester (all flats were named). It was a big flat inside with tiled floors and 3 bedrooms. It was our home for the time being.

Once settled in I was enrolled in the school all army kids attended, it was an hour and a half away from the barracks. The school was called St Goerge's School and it was situated in Kowloon.

My first day at school arrived and I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, I was the only kid who spoke broad Scottish especially being from the region of Fife which has its own accent, no one could understand what I was saying. All the other kids either spoke in Chinese or had a broad English or American accent. If I could think of a time I struggled to fit in it was during this time, our uniform was a blue and grey checkered tunic that came to just above the knee. I hated my uniform very different from school back home.

School dinners were awesome though chinese buffet every day with a choice of four meals, food was fresh and made on the spot I enjoyed it but it made chinese food back home taste artificial.

If I had a penny for everytime a student came up to me and asked what the hell I was saying I'd be rich. It was super stressful not having anyone understand what I was saying so I used to sit alone most of the time just watching the other students go about their business.

I really stood out and I felt so out of place it was daunting, I got used to it though I had to! and after 6 months my language began to change and I adapted people started understanding me better eventually!!

Army life was all we knew for the next 2 years until it was time to return to Scotland. I have lived in Scotland my entire life but once home people there could'nt understand what I was saying either due to the change in accent, its funny how we can change our accent just by being around other people who talk in different. My cousin gave me a dead arm the first time I spoke to him he said "stop talking like that your Scottish no English".

So thats my tale of the time I felt I trully didn't fit in with the people or country I lived in. Hong Kong is a lovely country but I prefer being home in Scotland where I feel I fit in better.... over there I felt like a fart in a space suit no joke!