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Being a TCK

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OrchidCarrie

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Orchid [awr-kid] any terrestrial or epiphytic plant of the family Orchidaceae, of temperate and tropical regions, grown in almost any condition

Whenever my family goes back to our home country(New Zealand) my mum likes to describe us as orchids. Being an TCK (Third Culture Kid) means we have to be flexible and able to work with change. Orchids unlike most flowers, can hang and be grown in all kinds of different temperatures. We are similar.

Third Culture Kid or TCK [thurd kul-chur kid] a young person having been born in one country, living in another country and merging the two countries’ cultures to create a unique one

Many books describe us as TCKs. As the definition above says, we have our own little culture. When I visit NZ every two I tend to have my own kwerky habits. Here in Thailand, if a car stops for you while you are crossing the zebra crossings(this almost never happens) you nod or wai in a thank you for not running you over. In NZ, cars always stop for you, so whenever this happened I nodded or waied. Most of the time the people looked at me in a weird way probably thinking, does she have a mental disability? Or most of the time if you see an Asian person here in Thailand they are Thai (on the rare occasion they are Japanese or Korean or Chinese) but I tend to forget that in NZ. So walking into the fish ‘n’ chip shop, which is run by a Chinese man, I wai in greeting (not to weird) but the I say Sawadee ka and start to order my meal in Thai. Suddenly, I realize that he isn’t Thai and I’m not in Thailand. YIKES!


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July 27, 2008 | Filed Under General Forum 

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2 Responses to “Being a TCK”

  1. 1
    Maria
    Maria Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm

    Oh! I also had a difficult time getting myself to stop wai-ing to everyone after I moved to the US. I’ve since learned to shorten it to a small nod and a thank you smile. I don’t much care if others think I’m weird — I just feel much better doing it out of a mixture of habit and respect. ^^;

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  2. 2
    mmmmmm
    mmmmmm Says:
    July 27th, 2008 at 6:47 pm

    i wai every1…LOL it’s hillarious i just love to do tat.

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