Third Culture Kids | Hai Nhu Pham | TEDxEcublens

Third culture kids; as individuals who were mainly raised in a different cultural setting than their parents’; embody a blend of two cultural legacies, yet they seem to struggle to identify themselves with a given community and to experience what is commonly known as a sense of belonging. To solve this issue, we will discover a new definition of self-identity and connectedness: the sense of belonging is not limited to a place, nor a country, nor a nationality, but it extends to a global community, to civilizations and people who share the same experience and background as ourselves. "In 2005, I was a six-year-old Vietnamese girl who, for the first time in her life, was leaving her native country to live in Switzerland, to learn foreign languages, to meet new people from an entirely different culture. Thus, very early on, I was exposed to the cultural divergences between East and West, to the effects of the culture shock deployed by this drastic experience. I was constantly living in a cultural opposition. Between the Swiss part of my identity which I acquired at school, and the Vietnamese part of me which remained from my upbringing, I no longer knew in which world I belonged: they were parallel universes – polar but complementary at the same time.
Now, as a 23-year-old Master’s student who has spent half of her life in Switzerland, I have solved this riddle. By sharing my experience with other individuals who have the same background, who have lived through the same dilemma as me, I was able to find solace in my sense of rootlessness, to appreciate it and let it blossom into a sense of belonging. Hence, my purpose is to share this process with other people who may be fighting the same battle, in order to help them find their own global identity." - Hai Nhu Pham This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx