Monday, February 3, 2014

Dutch?

This is my first post again in a long time, mainly because of hectic University exam times and before that, the holidays. But I am back, and will be posting regularly again!

I have started a new module for my Journalism course this semester, and it is called "Global Journalism". In today's seminar, we were talking about whether we feel like a global citizen, and whether we live in a global society. Stemming from this discussion, one of my classmates asked me if I identified as a global citizen, or as Dutch. For most people in my class, such a question was easy to answer. They felt British, or Welsh, or English. For me however, it got me thinking, and I wasn't able to give a clear answer.

When people ask me where I am from, I say that I am Dutch. This is because I hold a Dutch passport, I was born in The Netherlands, and I have family living in The Netherlands. However, when I think about it, I don't know how Dutch I really feel. Sure, on Dutch national day I feel very patriotic, and when the Dutch team reached the last FIFA World Cup final, I was proudly cheering for them. However, I am not invested in Dutch politics, my knowledge of Dutch history is not up to par, and my Dutch language isn't the best. Do these things make me less Dutch?

I think a large aspect of feeling Dutch would be if I were to call The Netherlands home, which I do not. I talked about this in a previous post. I lived in China for the same length of time that I lived in The Netherlands, and thus have a deep connection to that country. I went through an intense High School diploma program in Vietnam (Hanoi), and graduated from there, and thus feel a part of that country as well. And right now my family lives in Singapore, and I call that my home now as well, and so that is yet another country that I feel a part of.

So do I feel Dutch? No, not really. I suppose you could say that I feel like a "global citizen", but that would imply that I feel like I belong to all countries of the world, and I don't really feel like that. So what do I feel like? I feel Dutch/Chinese/Vietnamese/Singaporean. These countries all have a very dear place in my heart, and they have all had influences on the person that I am today. 

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I'm Vietnamese and I have not ever been to abroad for long time like you. So I'm really only Vietnamese (lol). I think Globalization has been making people nearly, Geography distance has been "smaller and smaller". But we have mother tongue and private culture which defined Vietnamese :D.

    Thank you

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