From Yvelines to Singapore | Here To Stay - video Dailymotion

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“You cannot say you're a Singaporean if you don't embrace that multiracial and multicultural [aspect].” Cyril, 38, a Frenchman of Portuguese roots, left France for Singapore’s tropical heat. Now raising a multicultural family, he reflects on how the move redefined his identity and purpose.   Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video

Transcript

00:00My love for Singapore grew. So you have a mix of cultures. Everybody seems to live in harmony.

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00:28I'm 38 years old.

00:29I'm French of Portuguese origins.

00:32So as I grew up in France, my parents, after they immigrated to France, we were the first

00:38generation to were born in France.

00:41Our life in France was very interesting because we were always in touch with different cultures.

00:48My parents were very particular, very enthusiastic with sharing our Portuguese roots.

00:54So from an early age, they taught us the language, me and my sister.

00:58We were going to a local school, only learning French, and then our parents were applying

01:04to this international school, which is called the Lycée Internationale de Saint-Germain-Olé.

01:09So I remember my mom stopping work during lunchtime, and she was picking me up at the French

01:14school and driving me to the international school.

01:18Every year, we used to drive for summer holidays to Portugal.

01:22We did this for 18 years.

01:24We had really nice moments with my family there at the beach.

01:29It was good, and we could speak the language as well.

01:31So we were very fortunate to bask in this kind of multicultural environment.

01:38While I was working in France as a junior consultant in supply chain, I wanted to have

01:43an experience overseas.

01:46So I started to look for jobs.

01:47I was kind of fortunate and lucky enough to secure a job here in Singapore.

01:53The first few weeks, first few months was really hard.

01:56I was away from home.

01:58The weather also was a bit of a shock.

02:01In France, you have seasons, and here I arrived, it was super hot.

02:06So I didn't really like it at first.

02:08It was hard.

02:09I was also jet-lagged, and I arrived on a Sunday, and the next Monday I had to work.

02:13So after my two years contract, I wanted to stay to continue my career.

02:19At that time, Singapore offered a lot of opportunities, and you had more job opportunities here than

02:24in France, actually.

02:26So I decided to continue and to look for a better prospect, and I wanted to renew myself.

02:32I wanted to do something different.

02:34So long story short, I decided to completely stop and find something different.

02:39And at that time, my life in Singapore was heavily influenced by my practice of karate.

02:46So I've practiced karate now for 13 years, and I had the chance to lead some classes for

02:52kids.

02:53But I was doing this after work, and then the passion grew up little by little.

02:57I kind of like, oh, maybe there's something I could explore.

03:00I was receiving some good feedbacks from parents and friends.

03:04And at some point, I decided to take a leap of faith.

03:07And yeah, and I stayed here.

03:08I've continued in this area, I've created my own school, karate nation.

03:13I met my soulmate as well, which was my wife.

03:16We got married here.

03:17My love for Singapore grew.

03:19I started to learn about the country, learn about the culture.

03:22So you have a mix of cultures, but everybody seemed to live in harmony.

03:28So you don't see that everybody is kind of like different.

03:31Even though they speak some different languages, even different religions as well, everyone

03:36seemed to respect and mingle together.

03:40That was something I was really happy to see.

03:44I was already here for many years, and I felt more Singaporean than French or Portuguese.

03:49I always felt that Singapore was telling me, you're welcome here.

03:53There was always something that made us feel welcome here.

03:57And then we got married, I had my son, he's now in a local school.

04:02All these little things put together made me realize that this is home.

04:07So right now, I'm very busy raising my child.

04:11On top of that, I'm also managing my karate school.

04:14I've recently taken up a few courses to increase my knowledge.

04:19So I went back to school, actually, to have the proper qualifications, basically, because

04:24I want the best for my students.

04:25And it's important that you have to keep up your skills also with the market and with

04:29also the good practices.

04:31Why I'm so interested in karate?

04:33It's because I feel this martial art instill more than just the physical.

04:38It's more about the values, the discipline, you know, how to be a better person, not only

04:43inside during the training, but outside.

04:47The spiritual values are very important to me.

04:49I feel I'm on a mission to share this to the younger generation because they are full of

04:54potential.

04:55And it's good that they have the right mindset to become successful in life.

05:00So in 2017, my sensei asked me to represent Singapore in the JK World Championship.

05:07When my sensei asked me to represent Singapore, I was first very surprised, but I also felt

05:12honoured.

05:13I felt it was my duty to put on the hard work, train very seriously to represent Singapore.

05:19And I still remember when he passed me the Singapore flag, it's a Velcro that you have

05:25to put on your chest.

05:27I felt really, really proud and I still have the uniform, you know, with the logo is there.

05:31I was also stressed on like, oh, am I going to be strong enough to compete at this level?

05:37And I learned a lot from this experience, but I was really happy to carry the flag.

05:42You practice, you compete against the best fighters in the world.

05:46And it was nice to see such a small country of Singapore being represented.

05:53To be able to represent Singapore, to me, felt as important as representing my own country.

06:00To me, it didn't really matter actually the flag that was on my chest.

06:05I did it as I was born, born here.

06:08So that was as important as representing France or Portugal, maybe even more because I've been

06:14here for so many years.

06:17So I felt truly Singaporean when I was there.

06:22So at home, we have many different cultures present.

06:25We have French, Portuguese, English, because that's the main language in Singapore.

06:30And we have also Tagalog.

06:31How do we navigate this is very simple.

06:34Each parent for my wife and myself, we have different roles.

06:37I will share a lot about France and Portugal to my son.

06:42And my wife will share more in the English and the Tagalog side.

06:46I only speak French to my son for the moment.

06:50So he knows that this is the language that he can interact with his dad.

06:55Even if he talks to me in English, I pretend I don't understand.

06:58So at least he will try and learn the language.

07:01In five years, I'd love to have maybe more students.

07:05My dream now is to have athletes at the competition level.

07:10I always see kids as diamonds.

07:13And a diamond, you know, when you find it in nature, it's rough, you know, it's not polished.

07:18I want them to be the best and to succeed in everything they do.

07:22I would love to have a proper place where I can, you know, my flagship, that would be nice,

07:26and maybe own a house.

07:28I think that that's everybody's dream in Singapore.

07:33To me, what it means to be Singaporean is to be a child of culture.

07:38You cannot say you're Singaporean if you don't embrace that multi-racial, multi-culture.

07:43Being Singaporean means also to be resilient and always try to reinvent yourself.

07:50Dear Singaporean, when I arrived here, I thought it would be only a step in my career, a few years

07:58and then go back.

07:59But you surprised me.

08:00Here I met my sister, here is born my son.

08:03Here is born my son.

08:05You have become the place where my family has taken root of, and this is not worth it.

08:10Through you, I learned the discipline of another way, the humility in front of the differences

08:15and the courage to follow my dreams.

08:17It was here that I created Karate Nation and through Karate I found a community, a true

08:23family of my heart family that welcomed me with open arms.

08:27Today, I can say that I'm not only a foreigner from the passage.

08:31You are part of my identity, of my history and of my future.

08:36Thank you Singapore, thank you for giving me a home, a family and an infinite inspiration.

08:42With gratitude, Cyril.

From Yvelines to Singapore | Here To Stay

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