Hi All!

I am new I guess – I actually signed up for an account more than a year ago (I think?) – and then never used it. I am 29, married and living in Japan. My passport is from the US. I was born in the US and lived in Ghana and then in Mexico. Came back to the States for college. Graduated, with an MA eventually. From there I proceeded to wander……I taught English in China, studied in Thailand taught in Cambodia and explored much of Southeast Asia.

The Cultural Identity questions surfaced in China. Unbelievably, I had never really thought about my life as being out of the ordinary before then. When another US teacher started correcting our shared students about my misinforming them about the US culture and customs, (Oooops!) I realized I wasn’t as American as I thought I was. Then the questions began to get harder to answer – why did the “American” girl speak Chinese with a Spanish accent? Then I realized I didn’t really understand the other Americans there – why were little things such a big deal? What were they expecting when they came to China anyway? Why was it such a shock to them – and not for me (also American??? I was beginning to wonder now). For the first time I began to realize that my cultural identity wasn’t what I thought it was.

Right now, I teach English and study Japanese in Japan. The wandering “itch” has been a constant source of – I don’t fully understand it. I have had trouble fully committing to things – friendships, past relationships, etc. because of fear of being held back and tied to something. Sounds like from all the reading I’ve been doing – that is perfectly normal. I used to have nightmares about meeting someone and falling in love with someone that was from small-town Kansas and getting “stuck.” I remembering waking up in a panic because of dreams about cow pastures in Kansas. (No offense intended towards anyone from Kansas!) Thank God, that didn’t happen. My husband is a wonderful CCK, who loves traveling as much as I do.

I hate answering “Where are you from” and usually just say “its complicated.” If I could answer as I wanted, I would say Starbucks because its the one place that is always familar sounding and smelling no matter where you are – the sound of the coffee grinders and the smell of the beans. I wish I could say “home is the local Starbucks” but people would think that was really strange. So anyway – here I am.

Popularity: 3% [?]

It’s called Zoe’s EPPLEL Profile

(To remember this acronym, just memorize APPLE, change the first “A” to an “E” and then add an “L” at the end)

E stands for Ethnic(s) /History of your ancestors. Your genes
P stands for Passport(s) /Lawfully. Officially
P stands for Parent(s) /Nurture at home
L stands for Lived in (places) /Personal history. Timeline of your life
E stands for Education(s) /Philosophy
L stands for Language(s) /Emmotional and Intellectual Connection and Communication

Let’s take Zoe myself as an example:

E (ethnic)- Chinese (Half Hakka, half Anhuei. If you know Taiwan well enough, ???+?????)
P (passport)- R.O.C. (Republic of China=Taiwan)
P (parents)- Typical Taiwaneses
L (lived in)- Born in Taiwan > Expatriation I to Uruguay and then Paraguay > Repatriation I > Expatriation II to Nicaragua > Repatriation II
E (education)- Hispanic private school, Taiwanese public schools, American school in Latin America, with the last that shaped me the most. And my philosophy is mostly a western one.
L (languages)- Mandarin Chinese is my Mother Tongue. Spanish is my Spiritual Mother Tongue (In other words, I feel closest to God with Spanish. Btw, I’m a Christian). English is the language which my High School level up knowledge is based on.

I am trilingual. But I enjoy learning German, Japanese and French…

VOILA! This, is who (where) I am (from)!!!

So, are YOU ready to answer that ultimate TCK question? ^^
Use YOUR EPPLEL Profile!

—-
The forum above is taken from:
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/tck4ever

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Well, I’ve finally done it. I’ve returned to Ghana after not having been there in 18 years, and not having lived there in 24 years. (I’m 25.) It was completely unplanned, but I was unable to get my visa renewed in China and was given a day to get out of the country. I was incredibly stressed out and panicked, but now I’m back, and can’t complain….yet. (Give me time, I can always find something.) I’ll most likely only be here for a month, and I’m definitely way way way out of my adolescence, but does this count as repatriation? I know I don’t have the experience like a lot of other TCK’s do when they return to their home country during junior high or high school and have to struggle with being an outsider in their own land, because I’m 25 now, but I still feel like an outsider. I mean, a few seconds ago some guy saw me on the street and called me a white person. (What the hell?????)

Repatriation or not?

P.S. Anyone in Accra want to meet up?

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The Jiao Tong University(Shanghai) 2009 International Summer Camp provides an ideal platform for your children.

They can learn elementary Chinese, or improve the Chinese language proficiency.

Also, they can acquire new skills, practices their decision making

And manage their own affairs efficiently.

The following activities are under the careful tutelage of experienced child-instructors and teachers:

Leadership Development

Organizational Training

Logic Thinking

Independence Training

Intensive Chinese Language

Arts, Crafts

Model building, Martial arts

Robot Design, Electronics

2 weeks (Monday- Friday) summer camp from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Info: http://www.educationshanghai.com/02co/LeaChin.htm

Tel: 021-50813383(24hrs) or 021-64481768

Email:china-studies@hotmail.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Hey guys I just found out about this place a few hours ago. A little background: I was born in Colombia and I lived there for 12 years. My father’s company offered him a position in the US and being 12 years old when I was asked if I wanted to go there I of course said yes thinking of food fights and snow fights. Unfortunately I moved to North Carolina where it rarely snows enough to make a decent snowman and where I found out the US school system is far more strict than movies had led me to believe. I’ve been living there for 10 years now and I’m currently studying Economics and International Studies doing my year abroad in Beijing. I speak fluent Spanish and English and I’m currently working on my Chinese.

The funny thing is that I did not have trouble fitting in and to this day I don’t have trouble fitting in. I’ve been a geeky kid since first grade reading Tin Tin and Asterix instead of playing soccer. I’ve been playing video games, D&D, and Magic for a while now and although many of you may find it absurd (internationals are not ones for those kinds of activities) I feel more of a geek than Colombian or American. Hence no matter if I am in the states playing TF2 or with my friends in Colombia playing D&D or here in China playing Magic I have a group of people I belong with. My brother has the same kind of thing with skateboarding but we don’t know many other TCKs (I only found out about the concept today) so we don’t know if this is very rare or common or what. Also, does internet culture count as a culture? (I haven’t come to terms with this myself)

Popularity: 1% [?]

As of now, I live in CA, going to university there

Seriously, I’m starting to get serious itch to get out of

States and live somewhere else in Asia, probably in

Korea/China/Taiwan/HK/Thailand…name it

Anyways, I don’t feel like I fit with West Coast

and even though I know that ppl who grew up

in Asia all their life see me more as an American,

they are more willing to explore other culture

and get out of their home countries (that’s how

I see it at least)

Anyways, I feel more home at Asia to the point

that I get big urge to return there every few years

at the most even just for a visit, especially to South Korea

Other reason is that I am fed up with most CA

people around me, especially the ones who never

left CA (let alone U.S.) all their lives

With my legal status in U.S., I really wanted to go

study abroad in Taiwan, but I couldn’t

There are bunch of ppl around me who have nothing

to stop them from studying abroad, but they

don’t take it because they are happy with their comfort

zone way too much and they are so scared to get out lol

It makes me angry that they take this opportunity granted

I am frustrated to the point that I want to scream

and looking forward to graduate in 2 years so that

I can get out of States and go to Asia to see the world,

since I know that U.S. is not the only place I have to

live to make me happy

It’s reaching to the point that living in CA is going to

make me miserable, but I have to stick with CA

I do regret a decision to not apply to schools in

other states or even in foreign countries, but then

I do think that it was a best choice I could make

because having to pay for 2 kids who are paying

International Student fees all four years will be

big burden to my parents (My older brother is

going to university in Canada; he is not in school

now though due to military service obligation

for all Korean men)

until I graduate from university

Somebody please give me a word of wisdom…

Thankyou for reading my rantings ^_^

Popularity: 1% [?]

TCKID has released its first annual list of the top 10 cities in the world in which TCKs live, ranking them by popularity based on its membership of 21,458 Cross Cultural people. (This is not a poll or a survey. It’s the location of our members based on their I.P addresses as given to us by Facebook.)

The table below lists the largest 20 cities in the world based on population for the year of 2009 of people who identity themselves as “Cross Cultural” and/or “Third Culture”.

The most popular city is New York!

Top 10 Cities

1. New York 474
2. Bangkok 381
3. Singapore 306
4. Hong Kong 290
5. Washington 279
6. London 274
7. Sydney 259
8. Los Angeles 222
9. Makati 213
10. Jakarta 210

Other Cities

Toronto 210
Seoul 204
Dubai 202
Chicago 197
Kuala Lumpur 177
Seattle 166
Melbourne 163
Atlanta 157
Houston 157
Oslo 148

Learn more the TCKID New York City group.

Join a local TCKID group (over 50 cities)

Top Countries

United States 8,549
United Kingdom 1,829
Canada 1,003
Australia 841
China 453
Thailand 387
Germany 348
France 342
Netherlands 313
Japan 311
Philippines 308
Hong Kong 302
Singapore 299
Indonesia 274
India 259
South Korea 221
Norway 218
Malaysia 215
United Arab Emirates 206
Switzerland 202

Where to meet TCKs?

Want to meet TCKs in your area? Join a local group and meet other TCKs from 50 locations.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Hi all! I know it’s been forever and a day since I’ve made a post, but I’m curious as to what you guys think.

Alright, this requires some background info: My parents (and a very small Laura, heh) moved from Finland to Germany when I was 1 year old. Then we moved to the US where we’ve been for 19 years now, and now my dad works in China.*back to point*

So one day I was talking to my dad about what it’s like to be a TCK, since they’ve never heard the term before I used it, heh. I mentioned how hard it is for me to answer the *dreaded* “Where are you from?” question, and my dad said “Yeah, it’s hard for me too!”
“Why, Dad?”
“Because I’ve lived abroad for so long, it’s hard for me to answer it.”

This got me to thinking. I know the “official definition” of a TCK is someone who has spent a significant part of their developmental years outside of their parent’s culture, but what about those PARENTS? My mom may very well never return to Finland, even though that ‘s where she grew up. My parents have lived outside of their parents’ culture, but it wasn’t during their developmental years.

Like I said, I’m curious to hear what you guys think. Can adults who have moved abroad during their adulthood become Third Culture Adults/Cross Culture Adults? (rather than ATCKs) Do you think it’s just as difficult for them as it is for us kids (some of us kids at heart, haha)?

Popularity: 3% [?]

For an English essay, I wrote about my experiences repatriating into Canada. The paper is a little choppy and their some errors since I lost my “final” draft. Anyways i thought I’d share an older draft with y’all. I had my sis proof read, and she said she like the paper but complained from my tone of voice it sounds like I’m full of myself. That was not intent-It’s just my writing style. Also, I apologize for my bad pinyin, originally I planned to write in characters, but decided it would be a bad idea since my teacher wouldn’t be able to read Chinese. Anyways, here’s my paper, feedback is welcomed!

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Hidden Immigrant

By “Senlando”

Today I woke up looked out the window and screamed ‘oh sh*t!’ My brother hearing me also proceeded to look out the window and screamed the same thing; this was a typical day in my new life for my first winter living in Canada. The first words out of my mouth, although crude, reflected my mixture of surprise and anger at realizing it had snowed the night before without warning (I never paid attention to the weather report on the news). This means that today, it would be too dangerous to ride to school on our bicycles since it’s really hard to see black ice when it’s covered by a few inches of snow, so we would probably have to walk to school and end up being 20 minutes late for class because we didn’t anticipate having to wake up 20 earlier than usual to get there.

Luckily, our teacher was also a “Third Culture Kid” (a person who spent much of their childhood in a culture other than that of their parents) who grew up in British Hong Kong. She understood the transition my brother and I were going through, and gave us a lot of slake and support, while most other teachers would have just reprimanded us for not preparing for the unpredictable weather. When most Canadians observe me, they hear no accent and see no difference in physical appearance that could mark me as a recently arrived immigrant or as a member of a minority group; they just see me as a typical Canadian. They don’t realize I’m from a country where the weather tends to be unchangeable from one day to the next, and therefore, I am not used to paying attention to the weather forecast.

After arriving I decide to find a seat in my classroom, for some reason it seems that gravity pulls me away from the table with all the Canada born students, and I end up sitting at the table along with the minorities and the students who only immigrated to Canada a few years ago from the Czech Republic.

At my new work place, I always find myself preferring to chat with the recent arrivals and taking my lunch break with other immigrants. Gradually I got tired of having to work on the sales floor and being exposed to so many mono-cultural customers and sales associates so I asked to be transferred to the truck unloading and receiving department, where almost all the workers had only lived in Canada for less than two years. We quickly overcame the languages barriers by coming up with a Creole mixed with English, Brazilian Portuguese, and some Kiswahili slang. We quickly got used to each others’ different accents and I became the de facto lead un-loader since I was the only person who both the management and the un-loaders could understand.

After living in Canada for a year this is where I felt most comfortable and built my strongest friendships. I did make a few “Canadian friends” but our friendship were based mostly on comradeship from being suppressed by the evils in upper management, and therefore our friendships were formed more out of necessity than out of actually having anything in common or being able to relate to one another.

While eating spaghetti with chopsticks in the staffroom, a few Canadian born coworkers politely came up to me and marvelled at my chopstick dexterity. They were polite and asked me why I choose to use chopsticks while eating spaghetti (a clearly western dish). I stated that I often choose to use chopsticks especially when eating noodle based foods and that for me chopsticks were the most practical set of utensils for the majority of foods. A coworkers who recently emigrated from China sits down and greets me with “Ni hao (hello)!”, and I greet her back with “Hen hao (I’m very good)! Ni chi bao le mei (Have you eaten yet?-the Chinese equivalent to How’s the weather?)? At this the Canadians who I was just chatting with, are hit with a wave of shock and ask, “Where are you from?” To that my reply is “Taiwan”. This really throws them off since I’m Caucasian and don’t look at all like an Asian.

This is a really strange phenomenon for me. After spending my whole life as a foreigner in my home country, I now have to live as a native in a foreign country. I don’t think I really understand this new culture I’m in and many times I wish I looked physically different than the majority and that I had a foreign accent, that way my ignorance would be excusable, and people would forgive my lack of knowledge instead of thinking I’m some strange loner.

Many of my new Canadian friends think I’m shy. What they don’t realize is that in my home country I’m usually the life of the party, and that the only reason I’m shy in Canada is because I’m observing and studying the people around me, as to make sure I don’t do or say anything stupid.

It has been about four years since I first arrived in Canada. I still feel like a foreigner, but I feel a little less naïve. I have learned much of the slang from my generation, although I’m still trying to catch up, and I’ve completely given up on trying to know how a Canadian is supposed to dress. I guess it just depends on how cool you are so that you can pull something off. I no longer work where I used to work, and most of my friends have moved back to their home countries (since they where migrant workers). So in many ways it seems like I have to start all over again. Perhaps I’m ready to make friends with the locals? Maybe I can hide my true identity long enough in order for people to get to know me as a person and not as some curious cultural mutt.

I really don’t know what I am nor what I’m supposed to be, but in truth I don’t really care anymore, I no longer feel the need to always have to identify or categorize myself. Whatever I am, I know what it feels like being a Hidden Immigrant.

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btw, anyone else find this website imposibly hard to navigate? Took me about half an hour to figure out how to Post in a form, and I’m still not sure if it’ll work! anyways, even though I’m complaining, I’m really thankful for this website and I thank everyone involved in brining us tcks together.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We had already spent a day in the Wine country. We went to as many tastings as possible. I actually found a wine that was sweet enough for me. Of course it was a dessert wine. I didn’t care. I was going to drink it whenever I wanted to.

It had been a perfect trip. As usual, Fred, travel agent extraordinaire had planned a reasonable trip. We were en route to Hawaii. We could save hundreds of dollars by laying over in San Francisco. This would add the opportunity to visit with friends and family on the way. My dad’s youngest sister, his mother and one of my college friends lived in the Bay area.

We decided to go to the Wine country. Since my mother was looking for a tablecloth or something of that nature she asked us to go to Chinatown too. I was looking forward to eating Dim Sam. I also wanted to try a new tea.

The tea shop was quaint. I couldn’t read anything in the shop, nor could I speak the language. All I knew was my love for tea. I was one when we left Asia so I don’t think the love for tea developed back then. My dad used to drink tea before he made the coffee switch. Perhaps it was the visits to Chinatown and the Japan Center. Who knows?

No matter what city I am in, if there is a tea shop, I am there. I love all types of tea. There were some people sitting at the counter sipping tea. I decided to join them. The shop owner brought several teas for us to taste. There was a tea that I will never forget. A few seconds after drinking the tea, there was a sensation like a sweet, flowery burst of perfume in your mouth. I was in heaven.

Eventually, the shop owner wrapped up the tea. He said, “Mr. (Can’t remember the man’s name) would like to thank you for sharing his tea.” The man and his family looked at me and gave me a reverse whatssup. You know when someone kinda leans their head back to say whassup? Theirs was the opposite and quickly bowed their heads. They left with their tea in tow. I was a bit confused. I think instead of sampling tea for sale, I was drinking a tea that a man had purchased and was enjoying it with his family.

Instead of saying, “Don’t you see I am sitting here with my family enjoying tea until you brought your ignorant butt up here and started drinking with us.” He allowed me to save face and just gave me a cup. When I asked to purchase the tea with the powerful aftertaste, I found out that an ounce which is smaller than a box of Bigelow teas from the grocery store was worth about $ 120.00 in the early ’90′s. Needless to say, I left Chinatown with only the memory of the heavenly tea.

From: http://80salumna.wordpress.com

Popularity: 1% [?]