WHERE DO YOU
BELONG NOW?
Essays for the culturally displaced — filed from the in-between.
Mia Tanaka-Hollis
Trailing spouse · 4 years in Shibuya
Defining Moment
The chopsticks splitting apart over a konbini bento at 11pm, and the sudden, irrational grief of not knowing which end to hold.
"Fluency isn't vocabulary. It's knowing which silence means yes and which means the conversation is already over."— from "What the Silence Means"
Recurring Themes
Most-Read Essays
Chukwuemeka Adeyemi
Corporate transferee · returning after 11 years abroad
Defining Moment
The particular heat that hits when the plane door unseals at Murtala Muhammed — thick, familiar, and somehow accusatory. The air asking: where have you been?
"I came back speaking Yoruba with an apology in my throat. The city heard it. Lagos is not forgiving of hesitation."— from "The City You Left"
Recurring Themes
Most-Read Essays
Sofía Vargem-Brandt
Digital nomad · NIF renewed three times
Defining Moment
The third visit to Finanças for the NIF, the clerk finally recognising her face, nodding — and the small, startling warmth of being known by a bureaucracy.
"The visa is a permission slip. The neighbourhood is where you earn the right to call it home. Those are two very different forms."— from "The Bureaucracy of Belonging"
Recurring Themes
Most-Read Essays
James Kwon-MacAllister
Third-culture kid · raised in three countries, fluent in none
Defining Moment
His daughter saying "아빠" — appa — in her sleep, in a language he had almost decided to let go. He didn't sleep again that night.
"She doesn't know she's Korean-Scottish-American. She just knows which grandmother makes the better soup. That's enough. That might be everything."— from "Two Grandmothers"
Recurring Themes
Most-Read Essays
Editor's Selection
"The foreign city stops feeling foreign not with a ceremony, not with a document — but on an ordinary Tuesday when you forget to notice the language."
From the Archive
Most-Read Essays
The Language My Daughter Chose
She doesn't know she's Korean-Scottish-American. She just knows which grandmother makes the better soup.
James Kwon-MacAllister
The NIF Trilogy
The third visit to Finanças. The clerk nodded. The small, startling warmth of being known by a bureaucracy.
Sofía Vargem-Brandt
The Accent That Betrayed Me
I came back speaking Yoruba with an apology in my throat. The city heard it immediately.
Chukwuemeka Adeyemi
The Konbini at Midnight
The chopsticks splitting apart. The irrational grief of not knowing which end to hold.
Mia Tanaka-Hollis
Third Mainland at 6am
The bridge before rush hour. The city still deciding what kind of day it wants to be.
Chukwuemeka Adeyemi