Cultureshock

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Video transcript

Born in August 1996 at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, this is Ruairidh preparing his story for the Culture Shock workshop.

He is now a black belt in martial arts and an all round great guy.His first real outing after he was born was with his parents, Martin and Dianna to Longsands in Tynemouth. The purpose was to be baptised as a Geordie by the sea water.

Martin, his father, was born in Wallsend in November 1960 and Dianna, his mother, also born in November 1960 comes from a bit further east. She was born in Slovakia. They both had different backgrounds growing up but there are some similarities.

Martin was a happy lad, easy going with a huge smile, even with a bad haircut. He is still easy going and a smile is more of a happy grin and he is best pal ever to Ruairidh.

Dianna is studious and hopeful to go to university and so serious with her weird hair as well. At the end she did go to university and she still has weird hair.

Martin grew up with two brothers, David and Russell, and was termed the hoyback because of his ginger hair.

Dianna also has two siblings, her sisters are twins called Jeanetta and Frederica. Nobody was able to tell which one was which and I bet Dianna didn’t know herself at the time.

Ruairidh’s British grandparent, Ronny and Pauline, brought up the lads in Newcastle upon Tyne whilst at the same time his continental grandparents, William and Helena, raised the three girls in Czechoslovakia.

As you guessed, Ruairidh is a product of different cultures and backgrounds. He has British heritage with a good dose of multiculturalism.

Ronny, the British grandpa, was a real  and a charmer. He used to enjoy his life. He did National Service in the RAF and later trained as an electrician for his career. Pauline is the best grandma of all grandmas who has a smile for everybody and is generally a nice person. She qualified as a state registered nurse and she really suited her uniform.

The Slovak grandpa called William was a bit of a character and an adventurer. He used to fight against the Nazis in Slovakia during the war and later he fought in the middle east. Later he settled down and led a quieter life as a mechanic. He even wrote a book about his life. His wife, grandma Helena, was Czech, born in what is now known as the Ukraine but during the war it was Hungary. A bit confusing and complicated and it gets even more complicated when it comes to her ancestors. She worked as a genetic researcher and she was also a really nice person but Ruairidh never knew her.

And this just goes to show that families from different cultures can be quite similar. What a small world!