Bienvenue! Bienvenido! Bem-Vindo!
Welcome to my blog, a place where I would like to share my musings and learnings on everything about culture and connectivity. “What kind of culture?”, you might ask. Great question! The word “culture” brings up very personal meanings and can vary situation to situation. In this case, I am going to focus primarily on national, ethnic, and perhaps, some regional culture, but not to be too limiting, may weave in pieces of the arts as well, especially where there is a connection, which there most often is!
So who am I and why would I have anything to say about this subject? My name is Beth Barich, and I like to consider myself an “interculturalist”. As you may have noticed from the welcome above, I love foreign languages and use any opportunity to speak or write using them. The order I chose to write them is of significance to me – let me elaborate.
The first is French or “Français” which is the language in which I first began to explore cultures outside of my own American, primarily Midwestern, upbringing. As a child growing up in Indiana and Tennessee, I loved the way the French language sounded and could not wait until I could officially begin studying it in school. It proved to be well worth the wait, and I continued studying it through high school and university.
I wasn’t satisfied by speaking, reading and writing French in a classroom – no, I had to experience it in connection with the French people. So, instead of spending my first few months of legal drinking age at college bars in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana, I went to France to drink wine, eat cheese and croissants, and experience “la vie française”.
Wow, was it an experience! In addition to getting a world class study abroad education in international business and French at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce - Rouen (now NEOMA Business School), I found myself living in a laboratory of cross-cultural communication, nuances and managed chaos. I lived in a dormitory with not only French university students, but other exchange students from Spain, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, the UK and about 10 other countries. We spoke multiple languages, usually united either in French, English or sometimes “Franglais”, and learned to share space, meals, conversation and often drinks together. I was not with Spaniards, Brits, Mexicans and Germans, but other twenty-something students who dreamed of, worried about, and longed for the same things I did. We were all just kids, all of our cultures neither wrong nor right, just different. I LOVED it and never felt more at home and like myself in my whole life. I was hooked! Cross-cultural chaos…SIGN ME UP! It was there, in the autumn of 1996 in Pavillon Ango in Rouen, France, that an interculturist and cross-cultural communicator was born. I had the fever, and I had it bad.
Since then, I’ve had numerous other significant intercultural, experiences in my personal and professional life. I would like to some of share those and what they’ve taught me with you, those who are interested in learning and sharing and connecting about culture. I would be honored to spend time with you here, musing and gazing at culture through multiple lenses.
Thank you, or "merci", for visiting, and I hope you will join me back here to find out why “Bienvenue” led to “Bienvenido”.
A bientôt! Until we meet again!
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