Hey, check this out guys (video): The Shan + Rozz Show: EP7 – The Singaporean White Boy

“Shan and Rozz meet a Caucasian kid who speaks perfect Singlish! To prove it, he faces-off with Shan in a Singlish showdown, and the results are HILARIOUS.”

Tyler is obviously a TCK. I wonder if Shan is also a TCK (considering how his Singlish is worse than mine.)

So, do any of you speak Singlish or any other accents or languages (that are not your parents’) like Tyler? How did people react to you?

Popularity: 7% [?]

(Hope this one hasn’t been done yet) Most people don’t like it… But I love in-flight food. Smoked salmon, vanilla pudding, fish steaks, desserts by the dozens, chicken strips with rice, mutton and parathas, sushi!, roast beef sandwiches. *drools*. I’ve never really had to use the sick bags they have on planes, because I actually look forward to eating AIRLINE MEALS. Mwahahahahaha.

One of the best meals I ever had was on Emirates: Lamb gravy with vegetable pulao, sauteed vegetables, double chocolate french pastries, and shrimp salad. The other was on Cathay Pacific: smoked salmon with capers and crostini, caesar salad, tiramisu, grilled chicken breasts with rice and vegetables. Yum. I’m not sure, but maybe it’s because I like to think of them as Bento lunches.

Anyone else with me on airline food, or would you rather stay a mile away from the stuff? If you like them, what’s the best meal you’ve ever had while traveling by plane?

Popularity: 7% [?]

Wow, has it been a year already?? Happy 64th birthday Ruth!! I’m going to keep this 2008 thread up to celebrate and remember last year’s birthday!

Listen to my audio message:

To celebrate Ruth’s birthday, I thought I would post a few pictures from recent TCKID meetups we had from our 8 local groups from Singapore to Sweden.

It has been an incredible journey for all of us who have volunteered and build this community from the bottom up … and together, we did it! We will continue to help TCKs meet others like themselves and find a sense of belonging online.. and offline.

Thank you Ruth for being part of the team and supporting the community in so many ways!

Make your Flickr pictures appear here by tagging them “tckid”

—–
Our friend and advisor, Ruth Van Reken, is 63 years old today!!! YAY! Happy birthday Ruth! Thank you so much for all the work you’ve done all these years for TCKs and CCKs everywhere.

Who is Ruth?
Ruth is TCKID’s advisor and the co-author of Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Amoung Worlds and author of Letters Never Sent, a chapter in Strangers at Home. You can read more about Ruth Van Reken here

Popularity: 7% [?]

I already have red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange, black, white, pink, brown, gray

lavender, gold, silver, navy, olive, transparent, burgundy, ivory, lime, tan, indigo

vermillion, maroon, ocher

I already have rhyming words with all of the above

Now I have some that don’t know how to rhyme with:

lilac, khaki (I already have quirky and wacky, but don’t like them), violet, scarlet, beige, turquoise……..

Please gime some words that rhyme with them!!

Also, name some more colours….

Peach… (Not so well, bc it is more a fruit (something else rather than it’s name ONLY FOR a “colour”)

And words that rhyme with them

Thank u guys SO MUCH!!!

Who knows linguistic here? Please check the phonetic symbols, bc some may sound “similar” but don’t actually rhyme…

For ex. age does NOT rhyme with beige… (it’s so hard… I already tried but thought of no words rhyming with “beige”@@ who can help!??! XD)

Merci beaucoup!!

—-
cyan
crimson
orchid
chartreuse
azure

rhyme??

(Double rhyme better!!)

Popularity: 3% [?]

http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html

This is so much fun guessing people’s accents!xD I could play this all day!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Where in the world would you feel the most “belonging”, and where would you be happiest?

Try this quiz http://www.globallyhip.com/personality.php

It attempts to measure your cultural profile and match you up to countries that might suit you, based on elements of your personality. So I took it and it suggested I’d “be happiest” or find some degree of belonging in the US (no surprises there), the UK, Portugal, Thailand, Israel, and Italy. I think I’d be happy anywhere, given the chance, but it’s nice to narrow the list down a bit

Popularity: 3% [?]

Hey guys! I’ve been absent from this site for a while (because of work and some other stuff), but I’m hoping to get back posting and commenting as of today (kind of a new year’s resolution maybe)!

I know this might be a little late, but I wanted to share a (very TCK-ish!) superstition I just did in this New Year passage (can be a suggestion for your next new year).

Some people here in Brazil put lentils (<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentil</a>) on their pockets at the turn of the year, to bring them money. Others believe in jumping 7 little waves on the beach to bring them good luck.

My French teacher told me that she once took a suitcase and ran around it 3 times, so that she’d travel on the next year (and it worked! she won a trip on a contest!). Being the TCK that I am, I thought that was the BEST superstition!

Yesterday night, though, when I remembered about it, it was a bit too late – and I must confess I got lazy, to get the suitcase from the upper shelf of the wardrobe. So I had an even BETTER idea than the suitcase:

I got my passport!!!!!

LOL! I watched the fireworks holding my passport!!!!

For the people who don’t know me, I did this because the thing I want the most this year is to get my Canadian visa. I took a good look at the empty page on my passport and thought “I want to see that visa stamped here”. And then held it while looking at the fireworks.

What about you? Have any of you done any superstitions? Any craaazy TCK superstitions?

Popularity: 3% [?]

there is a book with 500. I’m only posting the ones that I’ve experienced.

1. You can’t answer the question, “Where are you from?”
3. The vast majority of your clothes are hand-me-downs.
4. You speak 2 languages but can’t spell eaither one.
5. You flew before you could walk.
6. The U.S. is a foreign country to you.
7. You embarass your self by asking what swear words mean.
8. You have a passport but no drivers license
12. You consider a city 500 miles away to be “very close”
13. Your life story uses the phrase “Then we went to..” five times.
14. You prefer a land rover to a lamborghini
16. You think in grams, meters, and liters.
17. You speak with authority on the subject of air travel.
20. You worry about fitting in, yet wear a native wrap around the dorm
24.you don’t know hoe to use nintendo
26. strangers remember when you were “this tall…”
28. National geographics makes you homesick
30. You sort your friends by continent
33. The nationals say, “Oh, I knew an American once…” and then ask if you know them.
35. you are greatful for the speed and efficiency of the US postal service
36. you realize that furlough is not a vacation.
37. You’d rather never say hello then have to say good-bye.
38. you wince when people mispronounce foreign words
39. You’ve spoken in dozens of churches but aren’t a pastor.
40. Furlough means you are stuffed everynight and you have to eat it all to be polite.
47. Someone brings up the name of a team and you get the sport wrong.
49. you believe vehemently that foot ball is played with a round spotted ball.
51. You know there is no such thing as an international language.
52. you were scared at the time but now you tell the story as a great adventure.
55. You realize that is really is a small world after all
56. you never take “basic necessites” for granted
57. You feel a polka dotted passport would be appropriate.
58. You watch a movie set in a country, and you know what the nationals are REALLY saying into the camera
59. Rain on a tile patio or a corrugated metal roof is one of the most wonderful sounds in the world.
60. you know how to pack
62. a musical instrument can be made out of anything, even a tambourine made from bottle caps nailed to a board.
65. there’s always room for at least ONE more person in the car.
67. you haggle with the check out clerk for a lower price.
68. You own appliances with three types of plugs, know the difference between 110 & 220 volts, 50 & 60 cycle current, and realize that a transformer isn’t always enough to make your appliances work.
69. you fried a good number of appliances learning what you know in # 68.
72. You have about 50-60 “aunts” and “uncles” who are of no blood relation.
74. You get upset when people don’t finis their food and feel worse when they scrape it into the trash.
87. you feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
93. You marvel at the cleanliness of the gas station bathrooms.
94. you instinctivel start ripping the news paper when you run out of toilet paper
97. You feel like you need to move after you’ve lived in the same place for 2 months.
107. It scares you more to send your kids to public school then on an unescorted plane trip.
108. you think visa is a document stamped in your passport not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
113. someone asks where you enjoy hanging out and you immediately think of the many happy hours spent in international airports.
115. the best word you can find to describe the US is “fake”
117. you go to a church you have never been to before and your picture is on their bulletin board.
119. the sole finally comes off your favorite pair of shoes, so you go looking for the traveling shoe repair man who will fix ‘em better then new, right there on the sidewalk while you wait.
127. you automatically take your shoes off when you get home.
129. your living room looks like a little museum with all th “exotic” things you have around.
131. you consider a 3 year old piece of clothing to be practically brand new
133. you don’t know whether to write the date and month/day/year or day/month/year or some version thereof
136. the best word for something is the word you learned first and you still use those words even if you now know what they are in english
137. the place you call home no longer exists.
139 you meclar (mix) you idiomas(languages) without even thinking about it
140 you embarrass yourself publicly by automatically picking up and using what turn out to be not so palatable expressions.
144. half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you
146. you wake up one day and realize you’re not a foreigner anymore
147. you wake up a different day and realize you really still are.
148. when travelling around the world you feel at home in countries you have never been in before.
151. your parents ask you what certain words mean.
152. your best friend lives thousands of miles away.
153. the first thing you ask your parents on the phone is “what time is it?”
154. you wash Ziplocs and refold tinfoil for future use
155. you enjoy speaking a foreign language with a bad accent when you are with your friends to mock the pronunciation of other foregners.
156. You want to write “MK” in the “other” box under ethnic origin.
160. you go into withdrawl because you don’t get time off for your “home” countries holidays.
164. you dream in a foreign language
165. you still hesitate before drinking water straight from the tap
166. you never know what to put for “permanent address”
170. you can quote your parents furlough sermons word for word.
171. you know they don’t speak mexican in mexico
175. your idea of good accomodations is motel 6 right off the interstate.
176. you’ve cried in a cyber/ computer lab
177. you measure dsitance in time and time in days
179. no matter where you are in the world you don’t feel as if you belong and vehemently defend the fact that you don’t
180. you occasionally feel a cultural barrier between you and those who raised you and have no idea what to do about it.
181. you’re sitting somewhere in the middle of middle class suburbia and a seemingly random word sets your mind off over time and space and leaves you devastated at the fac that you were where you were and that you could never go back to what you had.
183. you believe that your skin in impervious to sunburn and that your stomach can handle anything
186. getting mail is the highlight of your day.
189. your native friends know more english grammer then you but can’t understand and english conversation.
190. you ask santa for a butter finger but told your gramma you wanted band-aids and scotch tape for christmas
195. adults want to pay you to teach them english.
199. your native friends ask if you know Micheal Jordan.
207. you spend hours walking down aisles in grocery stores not buying anything.
209. you consider parasites and dysentery appropriate dinner conversation.
212. you tell people what certain hand gestures mean in different parts of the world.
213. you stop in the middle of an argumentto find the translation of a word you just used
215. you pronounce Z as ZED to irritate americans
219. every 3 years you get an irresistable urge to move to a different country
220. you thnk living in one place your whole life is exotic
222. you’re amazed at how empty US city buses are.
224. all of your clothes have name labels. Sometimes they even have your own name
230. you tell time by using a 24 hour clock
232. you know not to joke around at border crossings
235. you say something – not entirely devine – and your friend says “I thought you were a missionary kid.
239. you know your parents aren’t going to move for a while when they throw out the pakcing boxes
240. you still listen for a dial tone before you dial a number.
242. your amazement with the softness of american toilet papaer is second only to your amazment that is actually tears at the perforations.
247. you ask US Dollars? when someone in the US gives you a price.
250. your high school friends are all over the globe.
254. you eat with your fingers.
260. you slip into another language when you’re mad
262. you are skilled at pretending you know someone until you remember where they’re from
263. you believe that to be able to converse in several languages is valuable but to remember to hold your tongue in one is pricless.
270. you ask the check ou clerk at walmart how she is and her family and garden and cow and…
274. after you tell someone where you’re from they reply “my your english is very good” and you want to respond “why, thank you so is yours!”
277. you’ve never called an 1-800 number in your life.
278. you take if for granted that you get to go first in line at the missions conference potluck
280. you still occasionally miss the toys you had to get rid of when you moved.
283.you go to pick the beautiful flowers in the yard and someone tells you they’re weeds.
285. you mail people birthday cards 2 months before their birthday
286 you have ever seen an adult buy and eat a happy meal at McDonalds.
288. you’ve been excited to get 2 – year old reader’s digest.
289. you eat at someones house and don’t ask what was in it until after the meal.
293. you have gone to church sunday morning in one state and sunday evening in another
299. you go “home” on furlough and get homesick.
300. you’ve heard too many people ask “which do you like better, this country or that one?”
307. peopl often put your country of birth in the wrong continent.
317. you ask your host if they “flush after every use?”
318. you leave a store at noon expecting it will close for lunch and a nap.
321. someone mentions Rogue’s Gallery and you ask who Rogue is and what kind of art he collected.
331. you can come up with a substitute for any or all ingedients in a recipe.
332. people assume you live in contant danger, surrounded by savage, naked cannibals on a desert island, where you lived in a mud hut and rode a donkey to school.
333. you have this built in ability to create what you need from what you already have
335. you tell the clerk at the shoe store you wear a size 38 and have no idea why he laughed so much.
338. you consider furniture purchases based on how sturdy, movable or easily dismantled they are.
343. “going home” means one thing and an entirely different thing to your parents.
347. you pull into a gas station expecting someone to run out yelling ‘welcome’
351. you hear “love offering” and dream of how you’ll spend it
356. in the US you get a strange feeling because no one is walking down the street.
358. people say “say something” but it isn’t because you fainted. It’s because they want to hear you speak.
360. you say sorry for everything weather it was your fault or not.
361. people don’t understand that you could be from africa and still be whit
362. you don’t know how to make hungry jack pancakes and you wish you could just make them from scratch
365. you can’t find all the letters and symbols you need on your keyboard
366. you get lost in wal-mart
370. you claim no place as home but you do homeschooling
371. your grandparents actually wish you were around more.
375. you are anxious for furlough to be over so that life can get back to “normal”
377. you really do believe in miracles.
382. you tell someone where you’re from and you have to explain for the next 1/2 hour.
390. the concept of dying for your faith is much easier to grasp then beng ridiculed about your clothes
393. you get marriage proposals from nationals who view you as a walking green card.
396. you’ve never seen starwars
403. you can convince your friends that you speak 5 languages when you really only know 3.
404 you realice that they will believe just about anything you say as long as it’s weird enough
410. you can’t understand why people are mad at you for being 15 minutes late
411. you try to sack your own groceries at the store.
416. your host in your passport country catches you admiring the way the salt flows freely from the shaker.
417. you eat to live instead of live to eat.
418. you gain 10 pounds evertime you go back to the states.
422. you shudder at the amount of make-up worn by high school girls
424. you laugh at the different hairstyles around.
430. you really know what “roughing it” means
434. in the US on furlough you accidently speak to darked skinned americans in your other language
436. you take a secret delight in seeing the US get trampled in world competitions by 3rd world countries
446. Everytime you smell clorox you think of fresh vegetables.
450. you describe americans as though you are not one
459. Nationals think your dad works for the CIA
464. all your life you have been identified by your parents professions and now you want one of your own.
469. you think that motorcycles and mopeds are practical year round transportation for the whole family
476. you argue at length about whether or not to cross your sevens
479. americans consider your home town a tourist spot.
480. you talk in your sleep but not in english.
482. you sweep the carpet floor with a broom
487. people simply don’t understand
489. you are singled out in sunday school to share about “your country”
492. you pretend not to know your “other language” when convenient.
494. your puns cross 3 languages
498. you know it’s possible to laugh and cry at the same time.
499. the most prescious friend you have is the one who promises yo never leave you or forsake you
500. Heaven is the only place you can call home.

Popularity: 3% [?]

I’ve been kinda hooked on TCKid this past few weeks reading about ppl living elsewhere all the time. And also emailing my friend in the UK madly about TCK stuff. So much so that the other night I was watching the news, and it started off with Obama, and something about the UK. Then it did a string of stories on Australia. After about the third story on Australia, I started to wonder – gee, that’s a lot on Australia. How come they’re doing so many stories on Australia? Why Australia?… It literally took about 60 seconds before I realized that I only had access to Australian channels, and that I was living in Australia…DOH!

The scariest part is that I’ve been living here for 5 years already!…. I was pretty dumbfounded at myself. I blame it on tckid. :p

Anything similar happen to anyone else?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Here are some ideas for comic strips/cartoons if anyone wants to contribute or even draw them.

Scenario 1: A restaraunt scene in paris with tower in background. A TCK is ordering from the menu… “I will have my white ants lightly fried with a pinch of salt. My will have hers rare.”

Scenario 2: a TCK translating between 2 languages… Ideas suggestions?

Scenario 3: 2 pictures side by side “you turn left at the King and Crown Pub…” and the second “you fly firstly to Amsterdam and take the connecting flight…”

Popularity: 4% [?]