1.1. I am multi-local


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Watch and listen to the video from the beginning to minute 6:06 and write from one to three words in each gap. 

Last year, I went on my first book tour. In 13 months, I flew to 14 countries and gave some hundred talks. Every talk in every country began with an introduction, and every introduction began, , with a lie: "Taiye Selasi comes from Ghana and Nigeria," or "Taiye Selasi comes from England and the States." Whenever I heard this opening sentence, no matter the country that concluded it -- England, America, Ghana, Nigeria -- I thought, "But that's not true." Yes, I was born in England and grew up in the United States. My mum, born in England, and raised in Nigeria, currently lives in Ghana. My father was born in Gold Coast, , raised in Ghana, and has lived for over 30 years in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. For this reason, my introducers also called me "multinational." "But Nike is multinational," I thought, "I'm a human being."


Then, one fine day, , I went to Louisiana, a museum in Denmark where I shared the stage with the writer Colum McCann. We were discussing the role of locality in writing, when suddenly . I'm not multinational. I'm not a national at all. How could I come from a nation? How can a human being come from a concept? It's a question that had been bothering me for going on two decades. From newspapers, textbooks, conversations, I had learned to speak of countries as if they were eternal, singular, naturally occurring things, but I wondered: to say that I came from a country suggested that the country was an absolute, in place in time, a constant thing, but was it? In my lifetime, countries had disappeared -- Czechoslovakia; appeared -- Timor-Leste; failed -- Somalia. My parents came from countries that didn't exist when they were born. To me, a country -- this thing that could be born, die, , contract -- hardly seemed the basis for understanding a human being.


And so it came as a huge relief to discover the sovereign state. What we call countries are actually various expressions of , an idea that came into fashion only 400 years ago. When I learned this, beginning my masters degree in international relations, I felt a sort of surge of relief. It was as I had suspected. History was real, cultures were real, but countries were invented. For the next 10 years, I to re- or un-define myself, my world, my work, my experience, beyond the logic of the state.


In 2005, I wrote an essay, "What is an Afropolitan," an identity that privileged culture over country. It was thrilling how many people could relate to my experience, and instructional how many others didn't buy my sense of self. "How can Selasi claim to come from Ghana," one such critic asked, "when she's never known the of traveling abroad on a Ghanaian passport?"


Now, if I'm honest, I knew just what she meant. I've got a friend named Layla who was born and raised in Ghana. Her parents are third-generation Ghanaians of Lebanese descent. Layla, who speaks fluent Twi, knows Accra like the back of her hand, but when we first met years ago, I thought, "She's not from Ghana." In my mind, she came from Lebanon, despite the fact that all her formative experience took place in suburban Accra. I, like my critics, was imagining some Ghana where all Ghanaians had brown skin or none held U.K. passports. I'd fallen into the limiting trap that the language of coming from countries sets -- the privileging of a fiction, the singular country, over reality: human experience. Speaking with Colum McCann that day, the . "All experience is local," he said. "All identity is experience," I thought. "I'm not a national," I proclaimed onstage. "I'm a local. I'm multi-local."


See, "Taiye Selasi comes from the United States," isn't the truth. I have no relationship with the United States, all 50 of them, not really. My relationship is with Brookline, the town where I grew up; with New York City, where I started work; with Lawrenceville, where I spend Thanksgiving. What makes America home for me is not my passport or accent, but these very particular experiences and the places they occur. Despite my pride in Ewe culture, the Black Stars, and my love of Ghanaian food, I've never had a relationship with the Republic of Ghana, . My relationship is with Accra, where my mother lives, where I go each year, with the little garden in Dzorwulu where my father and I talk for hours. These are the places that shape my experience. My experience is where I'm from.

Adapted from: https://www.ted.com/talks/taiye_selasi_don_t_ask_where_i_m_from_ask_where_i_m_a_local/transcript?referrer=playlist-talks_for_the_thoughtful_trave

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Pregunta Verdadero-Falso

Watch and listen to the video from minute 6:06 to minute 11:08 and decide if the following sentences are True or False

Pregunta 1

1. The speaker says that our experience comes from the country we are from.

Pregunta 2

2. When she was a child she was inexorably polite with the elder. 

Pregunta 3

3. The speaker says that "R" number two is for people you are in touch with on a daily basis. 

Pregunta 4

4. Restrictions are the conditions that shaped us as children in the past.

Pregunta 5

5. Olu doesn't go to Nigeria as much as he should because of the political corruption.

Pregunta 6

6. Udo is a local of Spain, Argentina and Germany. That's his story.

Pregunta 7

7. Because of his accent, we could claim Olu is not really Nigerian. However, he has always felt accepted in Lagos. 

Pregunta 8

8. Even if Olu and Udo feel restricted in their parent's countries most of their rituals come from there as well.

Watch and listen to the video from minute 11:08 to the end and choose the correct answer for each statement. 

Pregunta de Selección Múltiple

Pregunta

1. The speaker says that if we replace the language of nationality with the language of locality...

Respuestas

we think of how to make the answer more specific. 

we pay attention to where real life happens.

we waste time by zooming in and mentioning different places. 

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

2. She truly believes we should...

Respuestas

get rid of countries to focus on places.

know something else apart from where the person comes from to really discover a person's origin. 

discover where a person comes from to discover their power. 

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

3. When we ask the question "where are you from?" or "where are you really from?" we're actually...

Respuestas

asking why the person is in a particular country.

showing interest to discover more about that person.

ignoring the fact that they are world citizens.

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

4. Nationalities ignore...

Respuestas

the fact that those people may have parents who have the same type of jobs.

the fact that their economic situation also matters.

the fact that those people may come from the same social environment.

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

5. The speaker biggest problem with coming from countries is...

Respuestas

the illusion of going back to them.

not having been raised there. 

that countries disappear. 

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

6. The speaker says that we get confused and believe...

Respuestas

it's not necessary to focus on experiences. 

we belong to a limited category while, in fact, we are much more complex. 

national identity bespeaks humanity.

Retroalimentación