Name: Why Everyone Should Learn a Second Language | J Lou | TEDxHKU
Uploaded: 2024-12-10T06:08:18.000Z
Duration: 13 min 34 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Modal verbs - A2

By a show of hands, how many of you can answer this in under two words?

So for a lot of people, this could be a very simple, straightforward question, right?

Suddenly this question is complicated and can become the root of identity crisis.

So today I'm going to be talking about my journey as a third culture kid and how bilingualism affects the brain.

So about me, I'm a French Chinese content creator here in Hong Kong.

And I actually grew up in Hong Kong my whole life.

And we're going to have to go in a little bit about my background.

And I think I had a pretty unique upbringing.

I first went to local school from kindergarten.

So that means I was really immersed in the local scene, okay?

You know, the songs, the music, the shows.

When I was 12, my life changed overnight.

Suddenly I was speaking English every day, having friends who were Western, Westerner friends, and I had to change also and adapt what I liked to make friends.

Then university, I went to Hong Kong university.

So yeah, thrown right back into the local scene.

On the inside, though, I'm a Hong Konger.

I do practically all the Asian things you can think of.

On the other side, I mean, I'm also very white.

You know, I'm practically, I mean, you can probably think that if you hear what I sound like or see how I dress.

I don't feel exactly French, having never lived there.

But yeah, I am a Guanyin boy also, right?

So every time I get the question, where are you from, I feel like I always have to prove my origins and explain where I'm from.

And of course, this question is natural, very normal for people to be curious.

It's just the repetitiveness of it, having to prove your origins and explain where you're from, that bit can be exhausting, and I'm sure a lot of us here can relate to.

So, the first time that I felt different, I was in kindergarten.

I remember the bus mother had asked me, where are you from?

And I just knew that we spoke English at home.

So I said, it's hard to explain, but hard to translate, but I meant like, I'm an English speaking person, not English, but basically, I did not know who I was.

And that's when I knew, I'm different, and I don't know who I am.

In high school, I remember being told, you're not French, your hair is black.

You're not French, you speak better Chinese than French.

Then university, if you're a Rice fam, you would have already heard this story.

I was in year two, advanced law translation, and you would have had to take one year of law translation to be in this class.

And I was already different, because I was told, literally, by the dean of the university that I was an anomaly, because I was the first ever non-fully Chinese person to take this course, because it was translation and interpretation.

And so pretty much everybody were fluent Chinese, and I was the first one who actually was stronger in English than in Chinese.

So they had to kind of change the way they graded the papers, otherwise it wasn't fair for me.

Back to the class, it was in a massive auditorium, and the lecturer had pointed at me and said, are you in the wrong class?

But she pointed at the PowerPoint and said, then could you read the Chinese up there?

So I actually had to prove that I could read it, and I thought that would end, because it's a massive class, as you know.

And she continued to ask me questions like, why do you speak Cantonese, or where are you from?

And I was just really embarrassed, because I felt like we were wasting everybody's time.

But yeah, the question, where are you from, it's a natural question.

But when it's so, when people kind of tell you you are not what you are constantly, can you imagine what that does to someone's self-confidence over time, the emotional toll?

I felt like I was on a pendulum, you know, always just swinging, whichever way that person wanted me to be.

I felt lonely, you know, I just had to mold myself the way that person wanted me to be.

And I just had to nod and smile and get it over with.

In 2018, not that long ago, I came across the term third culture kid, and I was excited, you know, is this what could explain how I'm feeling?

Am I finally going to fit into a category?

So this term was coined by American sociologist Ruth Hill-Usim, who spent much of her life studying third culture kids.

And it refers to a child who spent their formative years, significant part of their formative years outside of their parents' culture, creating one of their own, a third culture.

Another quick survey, who here identifies as a third culture kid?

Hong Kong is a very international city, right?

There's a lot of expats, there's a lot of us who can feel the same, which is great, to feel like we're not alone.

And with that, we have to take an example.

Common traits of a TCK, yeah, the feeling, belonging, and clear definition of a home.

So oh, yes, oh, yeah, here are the examples.

Of two different individuals who have very different struggles as a third culture kid.

What a perfect photo for this demonstration.

He was terrified to be on that horse, by the way.

He couldn't trust how still it was being.

Okay, so as you know, I'm mixed, but I'm fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin.

And I feel like I'd perfectly fit in in the local crowd, but I'll never be considered, you know, like a local.

Then Dan, who is English, grew up in Hong Kong, can't speak the local language, because that's what happens when you go to an international school.

And yet when he goes to England, he'll always feel like an outsider.

One term, but still very different definitions for two people.

Can you split a person down in the middle and see two sides?

Me and you were made up of the same things.

More than that, we crave the same things.

And it was a long journey for me to get there, but the first step to feeling whole is to know that you are whole.

And that third culture kids, you know, us, we're not half anything.

The second step of feeling whole is to know that you are not alone.

I mean, it worked for me when I first started my hashtag JLoran series on Instagram years ago.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Everyone Should Learn a Second Language | J Lou | TEDxHKU

cognitive

massive

trait

empathy