About Crossroads and my life as an expatriate in Maastricht
April 12, 2007
For those of you who are desperate to know what I sound like, here’s the link to an interview that I gave on April 4 about Crossroads and my life as an expatriate in Maastricht for the website Maastricht Moet Je Horen (this is a tough one to translate, simply and literally ‘Maastricht You Must Hear’, which means something like: ‘Maastricht, a city to be experienced through the ears’, or ‘Hear what Maastricht sounds like’). The website features a large selection of audio interviews of local residents and covers a wide variety of themes, such as “Art and Literature”, “Film and Music”, “Science and Technology” etc. My interview is filed under “Mens en Samenleving” (or “People and Society”).
Arlo Wijnands, the initiator of the website, asked me all sorts of questions about my work as Crossroads’ editor, but also about the reasons why I came to live in Maastricht, how in my opinion the foreign community views the city and what life is like for expatriates here. Arlo was also intrigued about my family background and so we extensively talked about the feelings related to growing up in different places and not being able to identify oneself with only one nationality or culture.
The whole interview lasted more than an hour! It’s been edited down to a little over 50 minutes (I sure can talk!)… so please take a comfortable seat before clicking on the play button. The first 15 minutes are in Dutch and the rest is in English. It always feels strange to listen to oneself: I had never quite realised that I have such a strong French accent!
I enjoyed the interview and especially appreciated the fact that Arlo is genuinely keen on giving a voice to the local foreign community on his website. “You’re also part of the life of our city,” he said to me. In fact, he recently conducted two other interviews in English with foreign researchers currently based in Maastricht, which are also available online.
More information: Maastricht Moet Je Horen
Bravo Sueli, je suis sure que tu n’aurais jamais imagine ca, en partant en “tioul” avec celui qui devait devenir ton mari !!!!!!!!!
Je suis etonnee de voir que la communaute expatriee a Maastricht soit si importante, peut-etre a cause de l’Europe?
Bravo et bisous.
Very interesting interview. The editor of Crossroads surely ‘qualifies’ for more than one country or culture. She should have five or six passports instead of only two!
And I couldn’t agree more about the ’sillyness’ (my word) of the recent Dutch discussion regarding loyalty. According to the “Dikke van Dale” (authoritative Dutch dictionary) loyalty is no more than fidelity to the laws (loy > loi, law) of a given country. So every tourist who did not get a ticket nor ended up in prison, has been loyal to the visited country.
We imigrated to New Zealand in 1960.
The first rule that was given was “never ever open your mouth if it is not in English.”
Indeed I saw the population stare and freeze at the sound of a foreign tongue.
The archbishop of Wellington in 1980 made a speech.
“I have to begin with the confession that I was not aware of New Zealand as a multicultural society until I was forty years old. Looking back, I don’t know how I could have beeen so blind.”
We are talking about a priest. A profesional on matters of the soul. The identity of person is his/her soul, his or her culture.
All I like to say is that the isolation of this country was such that there was not the slightest inkling that the world was indeed round.
Most people from this isle come from England and Ireland.
Boy was that tough going.
Will Janssen