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

where are you from by a show of hands how many of you can answer this in under two words okay so for a lot of people this could be a very simple straightforward question right insert third culture kids 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 H little meme so about me um I'm a French Chinese content creator here in Hong Kong and I actually grew up in Hong Kong my

whole life I've never lived anywhere else 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 um so that means I was really immersed in the local scene okay I spoke Cantonese every day everything I liked had to be very local you know the songs the music the shows when I was 12 my life changed overnight I was sent to an international school suddenly I was speaking English every day um having friends who are Western

um West Wester friends and I had to change also and adapt what I liked to make friends Western shows western songs then University I went to Hong Kong univers not this one I went to University in Hong Kong so yeah thrown right back into the local scene on the inside though oh Ian right I just love favorite food Chinese food I wear slippers at home 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 guu also right that's me 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 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 too 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 I'm 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 got to figure that out 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 a rice fam you would have already heard this story story I was in year 2 Advanced law translation and you would have had to take one year of law translation to be in this class um 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 fly Chinese person to take this course because it was law and not law 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 an a massive Auditorium and the lecturer had pointed at me and said are you in the wrong class and I said back in Cantonese Maya and I thought it would just end there but she pointed at the PowerPoint and said then could you read the the Chinese up there so I

actually had to prove that I could read it and I thought that would end cuz there's a massive classes you know and um 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 feel 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 and I was excited you know is this what could explain how I'm feeling am I finally going to you know fit in into a category so this term was coined by American

sociologist Ruth Hill usim who spent much of her life um studying third culture kids and it refers to a child who spent their formative um 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 okay a lot of you and that's not surprising Hong Kong is a very um International city right there's a lot of xack 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 or look at these example first common traits of a tck yeah with 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 my husband and me 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 cantones and Mandarin and I feel

like I'm 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 so third culture kid one term but still very different different definitions for two people consider this is anyone ever half anything is anyone H is anyone half flesh half blood 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 to be loved to be accepted to belong 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 different yes but never incomplete the second step of feeling whole is to know that you are not alone because sometimes that's just enough I mean it for me when I first started My hhj

Lan series on Instagram years ago and I was actually hesitant to post these because I was like maybe not many people could relate to these cultural experiences that I was feeling but to my surprise the series had garnered millions millions of people who had come together in agreement laughing and crying with me and it was just so powerful to feel like I was finally part of a community that I wasn't alone and how cool is it that we're practically born bilingual I'll tell you how cool through Science Now science was never in my strong suit

okay I did not qualify to apply for this University or other many other universities but we're going to talk science and specifically how multilingualism affects the brain Now language is a window to different cultures right but actually it it extends further than just knowing different sentences and different metaphors let's take a look at this study by Dr Thomas Buck where he tested 853 participants in 1947 when they were all 11 years old they were retested in 63 years later when they were all in their early' 70s they were tested on their attention tests and their

concentrations because he found that bilingual students seemed to perform better so he wanted to get to know it more and the results were astonishing people who picked up a new language or were bilingual were seen to have positive effects mostly in general intelligence and reading and it was also seen that adults who picked up a second language in their adulthood also had positive effects so it's never too late to pick up a second language you can always do it and it will actually have the same cognitive benefits um to your brain uh when you learn

a second language no spoiler Al it but I felt that what was most fascinating apart from this was that those individuals were found to have improved thinking skills and memory abilities and the reason for that is okay our brain is very complicated but what happens when you learn a second language is the language centers of your brain actually creates new areas in your mind and that strengthens your brain's natural ability to focus you know gray matter is denser and all of that but that was something I never knew before other than that they were also

found to be more creative but the most fascinating but the most fascinating part for me oh yeah and it's also like a workout for your mind we have to show my little brain dude um let's go to the next one but the most fascinating part that I found was that those who were bilingual or spoke more languages were found to have more empathy empathy this trait stands alone right I mean this is a personality trait that can't be learned but when you're aware of more than just one culture more than just yourself you naturally become

more sensitive to different layers of humanity you are more accepting you're more open to people's points of view so if people if there were more bilingual people in the world could it be a Kinder place so if my journey of healing didn't help I hope that science talk did because I just told you your brain was really cool um and if you're struggling with your identity please know this no one is half anything you cannot split a person down the middle and see two sides you are loved accepted and you belong I'm standing here proof

to you that what you're feeling what you're experiencing is valid and I hope that validates your pain and comforts you in the roller coaster journey of self-discovery and the next time someone asks me where I'm from I'm going to answer it with pride I hope you can too thank you