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Interview Nathalie Pham: „Life just happened, and this is where it is at.” (Part 2)
Reto Stuber interviews people, who made their way to the US. Today: Nathalie Pham, startup founder and artist.
Did you have the chance to gain some US-related experience before the move?
I did have the experience and my only access were the horror stories of a dear friend who just visited the California a few weeks before I had to leave. Given my age it was a very scary experience: I left a cultural and political rich life in the town surrounded by the beautiful black forest to move to the desert with no cultural programming and no public transportation. I was land looked and had no cultural access. Scottsdale has changed much in the last years, but there was no contemporary art when I went to High School.
How did your friends react that you were about to leave Germany?
My friends were shocked and I think many did not know what to say. I think deep down we all knew that this would be the last time I could see them again for a very long time. If I had been older, it would have been different.
With 16, I could make the math that I would not have the income to visit Germany soon. In Germany I earned 27 DM/per hour at my first job (lucky draw) – and in Scottsdale, I made $5.25/per hour and a plane ticket was about $800-$1000 at that point.
It would take me about 5-6 years to return back to Germany for the first time, and by then I lost contact with many of my friends because we lived such different lives.
Do you still have connections to your old hometown?
I still have two close friends in Germany – one childhood friend, Anika, – and Moni who I met in Pforzheim on a trip to Italy. I travel to Germany all two years on my way to Venice to see the Venice Biennale.
It is tough for me to travel to Germany because I miss it and I have a very hard time leaving it. My life is here in New York, but I always wonder how my life would have played if I would have stayed. I thought previously many times of moving back, but my boy friend is from Latin America. I think he would have a hard time in Germany, because it is a difficult place if you do not speak fluent German (outside of Berlin) and are not blood German. We would both deal with some aspect of discrimination, but I think he would have a tougher time since he does not speak the language. Germans accept me as German because I speak it without an accent and certainly know all the local expressions.
What is the role of your Vietnamese heritage in your present life?
Now-in the US it does not matter as much. When I was living in Germany, it was a bit tougher, because my sister and I were the only Asians in the Gymnasium in Lampertheim. It was hard for me to realize that I was not a part of the crowd.
In the last part of this Interview, Nathalie will talk about the nationalities she represents – Vietnamese, German and American.
Tags: Interview
Mein Name ist Reto Stuber, ich bin 1978 in der Schweiz geboren und lebe heute in New York. Ich hatte das große Glück, eine Greencard zu gewinnen und bin dadurch meinen "American Dream" auf die Spur gekommen. Mein Motto lautet: „Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a thing to be achieved.“ –
„Das Schicksal ist nicht eine Sache des Zufalls, es ist eine Sache, die erreicht werden kann.“
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925)
