French | Mauritian

My Mum is from a small town in France called Perpignan and my Dad is from Port Louis the capital of Mauritius. I think it was important for my parents to ensure that both languages were spoken to me at a young age. I learnt English at school so everything I knew of was in a foreign language! I think it helped that my Mum was full immersed in the Mauritian culture, she always cooked Mauritian food and spoke creole too. However, I did spend every Christmas and Summer at my Grand-parent’s house in France throughout my childhood so my French roots never felt lost. When it comes to Asians, family is everything, so I was super close to my Mauritian side of the family. My love of food came from a young age. Both sides of the family love to cook and are great cooks. So I was used to a range of foods growing up which in turn has led me to become more curious to try other foods. I think my environment is more to play in this. Being trilingual, languages has always been easy for me however it has affected in terms of me wanting to learn a new language. I am wired to speak French and Creole however it annoys me that I can’t speak Spanish fluently because I haven’t had to learn the other two languages, so I don’t put as much effort into trying to learn a new language even though I would love to. When I was younger I wasn’t allowed to wear anything too revealing. Having an Asian Dad who will constantly have a beady eye on how you leave the house certainly has an effect. Now I think I always have his words behind my head which has slowly engrained in me! I LOVE being mixed-race. I am so proud of my roots, people seem to always be interested about where I’m from considering I don’t look Mauritian or French. It’s quite fun, people play and lose the guessing game all the time. I think a positive experience is that now I am able to do something with it. If I had the opportunity to be reborn there is nothing I would change. Probably everyone says this, but I am now forever more grateful, proud and honoured to be Mauritian / French mixed-race.

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