it's recording? okay go.

alright

how's it going

huh

how's it going

oh man it's going good man. very very very good.

what's your name

Ebrima Nyassi

Where are you from

I'm from Gambia

it's located in West Africa

when did you come to Taiwan

I came last year

2013... 2012

September 14

so you've been here for

a year

one year

a year and a month

I'm at National Taipei University of Technology

so I applied for a scholarship cause

my country and

Taiwan has a very good relationship so almost

every young person in my country is advised is convinced

to choose Taiwan for annual scholarship application

my family actually I was raised by my mom

my dad has been abroad for a while

I was raised by my mom and

through my time with her

I just learned from her

my art started like I said through my moms help because I loved drawing

and when I drew anything but I always like drawing physical muscular guys

so when I draw it I'll just show it to my mom and she'll be like okay

it's good but it's not good here

she's not good at art but she says I know when it is nice

when I see something good I know it so do it this way

and come back what i'm trying to explain if you're a good artist so she tries to force me to be a good artist

by telling me if you are a good artist you will see what I'm telling you

just go do it that way

haircuts is another art

different from drawing on paper

haircuts I've never done any special training on it

nobody would never start in this world and say

he has trained me to be a barber

I learned through observation

I gotta say this is probably one of the strangest places I've gotten a haircut

I've never really

gotten a haircut outside of a buillding

it's pretty liberating

I'm also defined partially by

my society because in my

society everything that is taught in the house

goes back to the society because

my country you don't have that freedom as a young

as a child to do whatever you want when there is somebody observing you to see

that this is right

and this is wrong

society contributes a lot in developing a child

cause we have a proverb that says

it takes a parent

to grow the child

but it takes a society

to get to discipline the child

so it always goes back to the society

so my society really

defines me as a person

isn't my grandma gonna like this?

and also the culture

the people

the socialism

amongst the people is one thing every Gambian is proud of because you can see

every Gambian is interrelated because the south of the country is very

important like when you see

the Gambia almost everybody knows

each other almost everybody if I didn't know you as a young person

our grandparents might know each other

those are the kind of things that link us

we easily don't

cause violence or anything in the country

it's actually the thing everyone is proud of in my country

family

oh food

Taiwanese people are very proud of their food

when I came here my Taiwanese teacher actually asked me

have you tried our food

does it taste good

is it nice do you feel it good

as a first experience obviously a new experience for the first it's good

and also let's say social life

Gambians have that interaction amongst ourselves

you know

it's like more

common to see boys grouping

in one place talking about anything any general topic any burning issue

so you always had that interaction when you grew up so

through that exchange of ideas we grew up to be wise

we grew up to be current

so yeah it's like that so you have lot of things

like that that wisens up almost

all young people in my country

voila

sweet

thank you

how does it look guys

good