Chehak Dass, grade 9: I am from India. I have lived in four countries throughout my life so far. I was born in Syria and from there I moved to India with my family. After that we went to DR Congo, and later back to India. After that, my family moved to Berlin. Finally, we are relocating to Egypt. I speak four languages, two of which I speak fluently- English and Hindi. I am still working on my French and German. I am also able to understand a few other dialects of India.
The reason for my stay at an international school is my father’s work for the embassy which transfers him from country to country. I have learned about new and different cultures but have also found some similar to mine, even though they are from countries across the world. The international environment has allowed me to become more inclusive.
I define identity as a representation of who a person is and their beliefs or culture. When I think of identity, I think of categories or words that people can relate to through their experience, regardless of where they are from.
The international environment has affected my understanding of identity in a way that I can now understand the different perspectives and be open minded towards unfamiliar situations. It allowed me to understand that people have similar experiences no matter where they are from. It is important for us to support others and and show empathy.
Amit Geron, grade 10: “Being at BBIS is not my first time in a multicultural community. I was at the International School of Frankfurt starting from the age of 12 years. Before that I had always been in a community in Israel with people that speak my mother tongue. I think identity is … complicated! It’s the beliefs that you acquire when growing up, it’s how you see the world, it’s your personality, it’s how you express your opinion and it’s your behavior. I definitely experienced a change moving into this international environment. It was strange at first, I had never experienced something like that before, everything seemed so foreign. Everyone spoke and acted differently, but I was really drawn to that. I had American, British, and Korean friends. We were a group of girls with different backgrounds, but our common ground was English that we spoke to each other for practice. I used to be shy and not be confident, but this allowed me to speak up, because back home we only learned the language through paperwork. What also kept me shy in my country of origin were the societal expectations, but here we don’t have a predefined culture. We create a new norm and atmosphere together. I think that humans have something in common that goes beyond ethnicity and nationality. We are all looking for peace, happiness, a place of comfort where we feel safe. And when we’re new to an environment, it makes each of us vulnerable and fragile again.”
Ms. Robichaud, Biology and Chemistry teacher: “The people living east of Quebec are called the Acadians. We are a French-Canadian minority, and our flag is the French one with a yellow star in the top left corner. French is thus my first language.
In fact I was one of the first in my area to graduate the fully French program.
I’ve been living in Germany for five years now. I would
define identity as who I am and by what surrounds me. I believe that my environment made me who I am. I am thankful for being multi-cultural, because speaking more than one language has helped me, for instance in the process of learning German. I think that it keeps doors open. W
orking in a diverse community like BBIS also pushes my limits, which is what I enjoy about my work, otherwise I wouldn’t be teaching.”
Louis Liu, grade 12: “How I became interested in music? That’s a funny story. I took Music in 9th grade, and by the end of the year I ended up with a lot of friends who either played guitar or who were starting to play guitar, so I thought why not join them?
I had a background in playing violin for about 9 years beforehand, so I guess I’ve always been pretty interested in music. I got back to China, and I picked up a guitar because I wanted to start playing. I was drawn to the guitar over other instruments, because at the time I was into the acoustic-pop kind of genre. I don’t really know where my love for music will take me in the future. A career in music is sort of based around this whole gig-business; either you have a gig and you make money, or you can’t find a gig and you don’t make any money. I might not even do anything related to music itself. What I’m planning on studying is audio engineering, so I can be a part of the music world but still have a stable life. I don’t want anything that’s too far out there career-wise.”
Anna, grade 11: “I was born in Moscow, Russia, where my dad is also from. My mom is half Russian and half Bulgarian.
I lived in Russia and then moved to Germany.
So I speak Russian, German, English. For me, identity is the concept you develop about yourself that evolves over the course of your life. Being at BBIS did not specifically affect me in a cultural way, however, I learned a lot about other cultures.”
The Paw Print 