be the traditions customs and values of
a place and its people to be cultural
runs alongside with geographical
differences the only differentiating
factor between two places culture was
the religion the language to cuisine the
movies songs the life and soul of the
place and of its people
and it still is but I don’t think it’s
the only definition anymore as I grew up
and had the opportunities to travel and
discover the places my understanding of
the world started to broaden and deepen
I associated the history I learned the
spice I saw the people I’d met with my
own memories of each place I saw the
world through my own lens as everyone
does my name is Alice bonus thanks Beth
and as you may have gathered today I’m
here to talk to you about culture but
first I’d like to bring to light this
question my mother was born and raised
in France my father was born into juris
brainís between its capital Tegucigalpa
and here in Geneva Switzerland
I was born in France raised in seven
different countries on four different
continents now with that information
what do you think my culture is do I
adhere to a French culture because
that’s where I go on I read holiday am I
only latina because some Europeans think
I’m just
all year round my perk Korean because
even though I’ve never been in there for
three years with my closest friends was
South Korean and be sure to on shows
every day for and my split because I
spent the last four years here and I
feel somewhat at Hope which I’ll come
back to in a moment
we received by births one for several
nationalities but our culture is not
necessarily summed up just by
nationality in fact as a Franco Honduran
and you know particularly identify with
most people of either of those two
countries but if I were to ask someone
with their cultures there’s a good
chance to give an answer starting with
something like well I was running this
place from these people etc etc it’s not
uncommon to get a short summary of
someone’s ancestry when asking
acquaintances more about themselves oh
excuse us like I’m trying to get into
art school in shorts
they’d state their origins which is only
the cultures that they inherited what if
there was more to it than that doesn’t
it all feel a bit contradictory to
recognize that the general meaning of
culture is so best enriched you lose
much of that when speaking of ourselves
I believe that we’re all worth being
spoken about with as much admiration and
fascination as when speaking of a place
that we hope with respect culture is not
tied down to what place to people who
grew up in the same country cities
school speaking the same language will
never have exactly the same culture
because culture occurs in two ways there
is the personal culture in that of
community so culture is defined by many
as a feeling of belonging to two sharing
ideas thought processes and values if
the shared rituals such as having
of to our lunch break and France or
eating corn to see us with ready and the
drifts but it defined in this way wilt
receive in time be the state with no
space for overlapping or sharing of
ideas cultures are not so impermeable
they can grow together apart or within
each other’s cultures from one area
expect to another to enrich it just need
to contain for that other area in fact
cultures are like the people that they
occur in they interact on top of all
this being from a country does not imply
it that you have to feel it strongly to
it although I am from Madras my visits
to my country are a few far between my
Spanish is quite imperfect and I look
completely different life to most people
in the dress however I still love this
country that I know less well and it
will always be a part of my culture now
from this idea of the long game and I’d
like to talk to you about the concept of
home please take a moment and think up
what home means to you is it the house
that you grew up in is it where you keep
your pajamas as I thought for so many
years or is it where your mother is as a
suggested by a tattoo on an old teacher
of mine true story a few months ago my
brother who studies journalism had a
friend send out questionnaires to third
culture kids meaning people with parents
of two different countries living in a
third country at expatriates my brother
and I are both third culture kids and
constantly I think a few of you here
today might be third culture kids or
adults so anyway this friend of my
brother who also studied journalism
about push America the part that stood
out most to me was the one about hope
this was my answer
for many years home to me was where my
pajamas were kept where I would be
sleeping that night
whether that be a hotel’s room a
relative’s house secondary residence or
the house that I lived in for years at a
time although this is still a very
strong feeling thinny
in recent times I started adopting the
idea that home can also be a person or
group of people sometimes I could be
hanging out at friends house to feel
more at home than the home I returned
through that evening right to be riding
the bus listening to a favorite song is
get a very homely feeling home is a
complex word to me and I hope to get to
a point of personal growth where I can
say that home is very much within myself
I think the home to me is more of a
feeling than the location so home is not
summed up by just where your parents are
from where you live to me it’s ready to
feel at ease truly this would all be
fine and dandy but as it turns out your
personal culture has huge impacts on
where you consider your home or homes to
be a few weeks ago I was talking with a
friend about family and holidays he said
all of his family was from the US that
both his parents were from there but
that he didn’t consider it to be his
home because he never lived or had a
house there I found that quite
understandable but what surprised me the
most is that he said his home was Geneva
I guess he was born to be a stitching
about but he feels he does not
assimilate entirely the locals perhaps
this is due to his slightly hesitant
French or the fact that he attends an
international school in English with
mostly other expatriates he is a
foreigner of sorts in America and a
foreigner of sorts here perhaps some
people like this friend are the perfect
proof that culture is not tied down to
where your family comes
from a regular live or any place that
all the different elements of people and
places that you keep within yourself so
the culture of community is taken into
the personal culture in fact the
personal culture is a sort of cottage of
different unique community cultures it’s
your favorite song dish please book
phrase outfit which is why it’s
perfectly unique different elements are
are of different
importances and origins depending on the
person and your home or homes are a part
of that all of these different cultural
elements are what weave together the
fabric of youth personal culture it is
also made of an area of components
whether the external exceptions the
excellence from your family your
religion your school or work or whether
they are internal such as your
personality the way you responded
emotionally to things or your personal
experiences in history your culture is
also made up of your repeated actions
and ceremonials whether they are as
light hearted its family inside jokes or
in significance and profound is praying
my my daily cups of tea every morning
and every afternoon are part of my
rituals just as yours may be a call to
your mother but write a playlist on your
daily commute or AUV trip to the sea or
the mountains so to resume we do not
belong to just one culture and our
culture is not summed up by our
nationality even if you think you do
have one culture it’s very much a
multi-faceted the different elements
like the influences from your family
your school your fare your song or piece
of literature all of these elements are
working together to form you and your
culture now have some pieces there
already but you can also
we decide to include others by
discovering new people places and ways
of thinking so I invite each and every
one of you to ask yourselves and each
other of these questions what has helped
to me and just as equally what builds up
my culture thank you [Applause]