Introducing Peter (2 = the one started in class)

My identity in person 

Coffee with my sister.
Gay?

When I look at myself in photographs, I'm often surprised that I look so ... gay. I think of myself as masculine, but in a lot of photographs, my body language seems to me a bit gay. For example, the way I'm sitting in the photograph I posted with my sister on my last blog introductory blog post, or the new one to the right, which was also taken when my sister was visiting last week for New Year. I suspect that the way I move my hands around in class might also have confirmed this for you last Saturday. When I listen to recordings of my voice, that also used to make me wonder: "Is that really what I sound like?" At least I have a better idea of what I say, which I think shows me to be precise and logical. Is that what you thought after listening to me for four hours last Saturday? Sometimes this annoys my friends when we have arguments, which I love to do. I think it's fun talking about important issues, like politics, ethics, history, and so on, which is also part of how I display my identity in person. But I don't usually argue with my students the same way that I do with my friends.

I wrote this first section on Saturday, finsihing it the evning after our class.

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The top of my FB page now

My identity online 

My identity online is not very exciting. On my personal Facebook page, I only 25 friends, but they are all friends I meet in real life. About half are relatives in Australia, and the others are friends here in Thailand, both Thai and foreign, and the things I post I just details about my personal life that would not be interesting to people who don't know me, for example eating, walking around, grocery shopping, what I'm reading and so on. This lets my friends know what I like to read and watch, and we can share our ideas. And it's a nice record of my very ordinary daily life. For example, the photographs and short comments are from lunch I had with an old Thai friend and his son on Sunday, and a couple of photographs I took walking home in my soi. 

A little lower on
my FB page today

I also write a bit online, where I use a screen name that reflects my interests in philosophy, history and literature. As you might already have seen from my first introductory post, my online avatar is a cartoon character from my childhood, and my real face, but when I was much younger than today. 

And of course on Classroom you've seen a couple of other avatars that I use. They were both created by an app on my phone from a recent photograph of myself. I like those emoji creations because they do look like me, and the app created a whole set that I can use for different things, so I chose the one drinking coffee to show a more relaxed me. The one with the question mark tells you that I think it's really useful to question things and to ask questions, which is especially important in an EAP class. And I like the cartoon versions of me because they are clearer than photographs.  

And this section was written on Sunday.
 

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What Peter isn't

When I read it again a few minutes ago, section 3 of the reading "Social Identity" on page 11 of Skillful interested me. It was interesting because when I think of my identity, I don't usually think of what I'm not, but the ideas of tensions and other possible negative effects of how we define ourselves makes sense. I've chosen to live in Thailand for many years, which means I don't live in Australia, for example, and there are reasons why I do not live in Australia. These reasons include the weather in Thailand, which is always warm, unlike the cold weather that I hated when I lived in Sydney. But there are also consequences to my chosen identity as an expatriate in Bangkok, such as not seeing my family very often. I usually go back to visit them once a year, at Songkran. Songkran is a good time to visit Australia because the weather there is pleasantly cool but not cold, and it's very hot in Thailand, which is a good thing to escape for a short spell. 

Living in Thailand doesn't really cause much tension, but the example of arguments over "the best brands of laptop" in section 3 of the reading reminded me that I do have very heated debates with some of my friends: some of my oldest friends share my love of philosophy, especially moral and political philosophy, but whereas I favour human rights and duty based theories, my friends tend to support consequential theories of right and wrong, good and bad, and this sometimes leads to debates over meals that might seem like tense arguments, but actually, we are enjoying the fun of debating. But one of my oldest friends from Australia, who now also lives in Bangkok, refuses to eat with me and another friend together unless we promise not to talk about politics or social issues. I think that means his ascribed identity from his biological makeup that made his personality is very different to mine, but he's been a very good friend for more than thirty years. 

Finally, I came back to conclude with the third section on Tuesday evening. Splitting it up into three writing sessions worked well for me. I think it made them all stronger than if I had tried to do it all in one longer session.