[Applause]
good afternoon my name is Yan hee Jenny
King and I have no idea where I’m from
where are you from it’s a question
that’s bound to come up in introductions
when you first meet someone you say
something along the lines of hello Jenny
it’s nice to meet you
where are you from now although this
question used to be fairly easy to
answer in the past when there was less
mobility today we live in a globalized
world where change is the only constant
and where this question becomes
increasingly difficult to answer for
more and more people I am one of those
people I could respond by saying that I
was born in Seoul South Korea or I could
tell you that I grew up in various US
states or I could tell you that Spain is
now my home but there is an internal
confusion of identity there my password
tells me that I’m South Korean but
that’s not who I am
sometimes I feel like I embody the
cultures of the United States and Spain
more than that of Korea so where is home
for me where am i from I guess I just
have to say that I’m kind of culturally
homeless but while I can’t tell you
where I’m from I can’t tell you what I
am I am a third culture kid before I
talk about their culture children I want
to look at the word culture itself there
are many definitions of culture but I
define culture as something that is both
shared and lived it’s a set of
experiences identities and beliefs that
are shared by a group of people it’s
basically a set of concepts and ideals
that serves to shape our everyday
behavior so what then is a third culture
kid st. Louis University Madrid is the
home to 806 students 806 students that
represent 67 different nationalities and
speak over 50 languages as you can
imagine many of them are third culture
kids and some of them are
including me in this photo behind me
third culture kids are those individuals
who have spent the majority of their
developmental years outside of their
parents culture there are those
individuals that embody their parents
culture the culture in which they reside
in which sometimes can be more than one
and a third culture which is an
amalgamation of the two in my case this
third news would consist of the cultures
of Spain the United States and Korea a
third culture children we build
relationships with all of the cultures
that we assimilate to and yet we
simultaneously lack full identification
or belonging to any one of them we are
independent
we’re cosmopolitan but we have a serious
issue with our identity formation we
have a lot of troubles finding out who
we are and really having a solid sense
of self or a oneness to any one culture
or place so how do these individuals
come to be my parents were just an
average married couple who decided to
emigrate to the United States in the
1990s they were not missionaries nor
were they part of the military nor were
they diplomats they just wanted to give
their daughter me an opportunity at an
education in English a language that
they believed would be beneficial for me
when I grew older now what they
definitely did not plan on was me moving
around so much in the United States with
them due to their jobs moving back to
Korea to finish my high school education
and ending up moving to Spain where I
earn two bachelor’s degrees in Spanish
and psychology all of this culminated in
me completely losing myself I had no
idea where I was from and I had no idea
who I was now you can see the problem
with identity formation because I’m
going to go back to the definition of a
third culture kid I specified
developmental years as being the primary
focal point of the definition itself
this coincidentally happens to be the
same time in our lives when individuals
get a pretty clear grasp of who they are
they solidify their identity
psychologically so for third culture
kids if we’re busy moving around all the
time
how can we possibly know who we are and
if we don’t have a solid sense of
identity how can we belong anywhere
Who am I when I have been exposed to all
these different places cultures and
people which one of them am i as third
culture kids our identity development is
set aside because we have a more
pressing issue the need to be able to
adapt to all the places that were
exposed to who was I as a child in the
United States I was a foreigner and by a
foreigner I mean I didn’t look like them
and nor did I think like them when I
went back to Korea who was I I was a
hidden immigrant of sorts I looked like
them but I didn’t think like them due to
the fact that I embodied both the
American and Korean identities and when
I moved here to Spain Who am I now I am
a foreigner all over again I do not look
like them nor do I think like them
because now I have a third nests that
amalgamation of the three cultures that
I mentioned before I have no idea who I
am
basically I’m a foreigner everywhere I’m
not fully accepted by any place or any
culture this is something that I like to
call cultural loneliness it’s belonging
everywhere but nowhere all at once it’s
because you embody a call third ‘no
status distinctly your own and you feel
isolated as a result of it just as being
hungry is associated with the need to
eat
feeling lonely is associated with the
need to belong
naturally humans are very social
creatures evolutionarily being social
was favored because being in tribes and
pacts meant that you’re increased
chances of survival were very favorable
favorable but now while there are no
woolly mammoths running around to
encourage us to socialize with each
other today we just do it because it
feels nice to be accepted and to belong
so for us their culture kids then
cultural loneliness stems from a sense
of lacking belonging we feel like we’re
left out we don’t sense a oneness with
any culture or place we feel like we’re
misunderstood and we’re not completely
understood by anyone we don’t really fit
in anywhere if you think about it it
makes sense in ancient Rome
exile was a punishment designed to
punish you by stripping you of your
roots it effectively the place displaced
you from your culture
and from your people and made sure that
you never had a home again Cicero the
famous Roman philosopher and politician
was temporarily placed in exile and
during his time he wrote a myriad of
letters to his friends and family he
said that because of the exile he had
fallen to a very deep depression he felt
like he had nothing left to live for
that he was shattered and that he was
broken as their culture kids we can
always feel slightly exiled in a sense
that we don’t feel like we fit in
anywhere now let me explain what this
term is
cultural code-switching code-switching
by itself in the field of linguistics is
when a speaker alternates between two or
more languages within one single
conversation Spanglish is a great
example of this and I use it all of the
time my friends on this campus and I
when I speak it kind of slips our minds
we say something like a curative I sell
your house or when I go into Gaza it
just slips out of us and what cultural
code-switching is is when speakers
code-switch not just languages but their
cultural identities and behaviors as
well let me give you an example
my parents are Korean and when I speak
to them sometimes I mix Korean and
English when I speak to them in Korean I
express a more demure self spoken and
respectful more polite manner than when
I speak in English with them I’m much
more straightforward I’m slightly more
aggressive and I’m definitely more
assertive this all happens in the same
conversation so this kind of made me
think is it because I’m switching
languages or is it because I’m switching
my identity well I think those two are
the exact same thing languages can’t be
separated from what we perceive think
and feel so what happens is these dual
selves start to come out myself in
English myself in Spanish myself in
Korean and when I switch languages what
happens is this cultural code-switching
my cultural identity and my behaviors
change as well so why do we do this I
think that for third culture kids we
want to rid ourselves of other nests and
by other nasai anything that’s foreign
to you humans want to avoid other nests
they don’t like anything that’s out of
their
comfort zones anything that they don’t
relate to this goes back to our needs to
belong and to be accepted it’s natural
for us to avoid something that we’re not
familiar with this is why we call recode
switch culturally because we want to be
able to communicate with someone to
identify that speaker and communicate
with them without them feeling like
we’re different from them how else this
language affects us language affects how
we think how we feel how we perceive
things it’s very complicated for third
culture kids because many of us speak
more than two languages now language is
interesting because grammar can shape
how we think as well let’s take Japanese
for an example in the Japanese language
there exists a passive form for
causality what that means is that the
speaker which would commit an action
purposefully in English is caused to
take the same action in Japanese so
let’s say for example you have an older
sister and she’s very particular about
her things you go into her room when
she’s not home to look for something and
in the meanwhile you break her favorite
possession what would you say in English
if my older sister finds out I don’t
know what she’ll do to me she’s going to
do something to me I know that she’s
going to do it it’s going to be to me
and it’s not going to be good but what
would the sentence look like if we
formatted it with Japanese grammar if my
older sister finds out I don’t know what
will be done to me something will be
done to me I still have no idea what it
is and probably my older sister is going
to do it to me
but in this sentence structure what’s
different is that she’s caused to take
the action making her not responsible
for the act nor the outcome this can
possibly explain why in the field of
psychology which is what I study here in
st. Louis many psychologists might cite
Japanese individuals as having an
external attribution of responsibility
and this holds many clinical
implications for us it tells us what we
can and can’t do what we should and
shouldn’t do and what kind of treatments
will and won’t work with those kind of
patients honorifics is another part of
grammar that I want to talk about
honorifics are huge in Japanese and
Korean languages now honorifics also
exists in Spanish just as in Korean we
have a different way of conjugating
verbs to express respect in Spanish we
have the usted form of conjugation the
difference between Spanish and Korean is
that in Korean there is a specific set
of verbs nouns and conjugations that you
reserved for people who are in a higher
position than you or who are older than
you but and many times in Korean culture
it equates to being the exact same thing
this might explain why Japanese and
Korean societies have such a high
preoccupation for hierarchy because
maybe our grammar changes the way we
think and perceive things and that’s why
we put such a strong emphasis on it now
I know I made it sound like being a
third culture kid is absolutely horrible
I mean what did our parents do to us I’m
lost in the world I have no home I don’t
even know who I am what did my parents
do to me I definitely did not sign up
for any of this but I guarantee you that
there are benefits that come with
growing as a third culture kid some of
the benefits are competence third
cultured individuals are very competent
we survive and thrive pretty much
anywhere we go although we can’t fully
adjust and assimilate to one single
culture and ground ourselves in it we
can still get along pretty well well
enough that were pretty accepted
socially we’re competent socially we’re
competent culturally and we’re great at
picking up on social cues and signals
without being happy without being told
to do so another benefit is broader
perspective because we’ve been exposed
to different thoughts different
languages different cultures different
people were accustomed to looking at
situations for more than one manner so
we’re great at looking at things from a
different perspective this helps us to
be much more empathetic and
understanding of different cultures of
different people and of different ideas
we’re much more open-minded at times why
does any of this matter for all of you
who aren’t third culture kids well
although third culture kids and non
third culture kids may not be able to
understand each other fully the
important thing is that we can learn
from
each other differences make room for
dialogue and discussion and from
dialogue and discussion we can learn how
to better communicate with each other
and understand each other it’s time to
get rid of those antiquity cookie cutter
concepts of an individual being from one
single place or culture we shouldn’t ask
each other where we’re from we should
ask each other who we are
Who am I I am young hey Johnny King I am
me and I am not defined by where I’m from thank you