“I don’t think I’m a TCK, but…”
I was sitting with a friend earlier this evening when conversation eventually led to funny little cultural differences. We ended up talking about how situation affects your language, and that your method of communication just varies according to where you are. His experience was that he moved from Hong Kong to England to attend secondary school for 3-4 years. He learned English in Hong Kong… but only insofar as many people from Hong Kong learn English. It’s not the same. But when he went to England, he went without the expectation of learning English, just that he knew that just by living his life, it would get better.
When I first met him when he started studying here in Switzerland, he had this strong, southern English accent. Over time here at this college though, it’s filtered out into something he doesn’t even know. He has influences from Hong Kong, from England, from his Korean girlfriend, from working in the French part of Switzerland, and from living in the German part now. And that’s all affected again by studying here in this school where everyone is from everywhere, and he constantly meets people who have a mess of a background. He says when he speaks English now, he sometimes has to stop and think about how he wants to pronounce it.
I’d lent the TCK book to another friend, but he’d had a look at it and said “I know I don’t count because both my parents are from Hong Kong…” And I told him it was a load of BS, because both my parents are Vietnamese. Nevertheless, I still wonder if he counts…
I’m writing a TCK research paper soon, and some of my research dug up the tidbit that TCK gurus think that when a TCK moves, it’s important that his/her parents move with them. Just going for a foreign study or exchange doesn’t quite count… Yet in his case it seemed to. He gained (as far as I see, because I don’t know him *that* well) at least some of the psychological effects of a mobile, multicultural life during his developmental years, but without actually building a Third Culture with others who lived that same life until he came here to Switzerland.
And I have to say that the environment I’m in now has, in some cases, created some level of a Third Culture. It’s just as much an international environment as any international school in any foreign country. People come from around the world to study here for a few days. While in many cases they bring their institutional and cultural baggage with them, in some cases they’re either immature or simply young enough to still be impressionable in how they live their lives and interact culturally.
This is an “I don’t know, what do you think?” post. So feel free, go nuts.
Daniel Nguyen-Phuoc
Vietnamese in ethnicity, born in Houston, Texas. Lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for 14 years while going to a British International School to finish with the International Baccalaureate. Survived only two years in the University of Michigan before ending up in Switzerland. Graduated from an international (and that's meant in every word) hospitality college. Interesting life, to be sure. But not the only one.Related Posts
7 Comments to ““I don’t think I’m a TCK, but…””
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Daniel, yeah, I agree. He may not exactly fit the “TCK” description, but he does fit the profile and is definitely a cross cultural kid.
Here’s what I don’t understand.
Why would he believe he’s not one because his parents are from Hong Kong? … I don’t get it!
Maybe the problem with the definition is this:
“[TCKs] are Children who accompany their parents into another culture [usually for a parent’s career choice.]” —Dr. Ruth Hill Useem, Sociologist, Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, Originator of the term
But you’re right, he does have a cultural baggage and he must be a CCK.
Here’s the CCK definition, from this source : http://www.crossculturalkid.org/cck.htm
” Due to all these changes, there are more children than ever who can rightfully be called Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs)—
A Cross-Cultural Kid ( CCK) is a person who has lived in—or meaningfully interacted with—two or more cultural environments for a significant period of time during developmental years.”
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Traditional TCKs –Children who move into another culture with parents due to a parent’s career choice
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Bi/multi-cultural/ and/or bi/multi-racial children —Children born to parents from at least two cultures or races
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Children of immigrants —Children whose parents have made a permanent move to a new country where they were not originally citizens
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Children of refugees —Children whose parents are living outside their original country or place due to unchosen circumstances such as war, violence, famine, other natural disasters
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Children of minorities —Children whose parents are from a racial or ethnic group which is not part of the majority race or ethnicity of the country in which they live.
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International adoptees —Children adopted by parents from another country other than the one of that child’s birth
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“Domestic” TCKs —Children whose parents have moved in or among various subcultures within that child’s home country.
o Special note: Children are often in more than one of these circles at the same time. (e.g. A traditional TCK who is also from a minority group; a child of immigrants whose parents are from two different cultures, etc.) This helps us understand the growing complexity of the issues we face in our changing world .
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November 22nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Ahhh, that’s useful to have. More categories and definitions.
But really, that’s useful. I was seriously wondering where to slot a lot of people, because while they didn’t have that special… whatever it is, that makes TCKs what they are, they nevertheless have relatively mobile, cross-cultural lifestyles.
I mean, there are thousands of Chinese Indonesian teenagers who get sent to Singapore for their high school, and then on to Australia or the US for university. It’s still movement, and it’s still crossing culture, however much they decide to interact with the local lifestyle. Having met many of them, I’m just still not sure I’m ready to call them TCKs. Some yes, because they gained that something out of it, but in a great many… they don’t have that spark.
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November 22nd, 2007 at 6:46 pm
hhahahahhahahahahaha! elitists!
*small joke*
i hear you though. i mean i went to boarding school outside my passport country and i count it as having lived outside my country, mainly because i DID! for 6 years! and also because i never fit in after repatriation (from ethiopia, before boarding school) so when i’d go “home” for holidays i wouldn’t do anything. i had no friends in botswana (save 2 tcks down the road), i was just this dork who you could always find in front of the tv. when i was in swaziland at school, i was the life of the party, had tonnes of friends and really felt like i fit in because my school was majority tck.
but living in sd, i learned a lot about the culture, picked up some of the language, know the customs and music etc, it wasn’t surface.
there was a guy at my school that came from hungary. and he would fly in to swaziland from hungary every term, his parents didn’t live in sd. so i am thinking, does he count? and i would say yes, so i guess your friend counts too.
but then again, i know a lot of people from botswana who went to boarding school in south africa or zimbabwe and stayed relatively the same and had no idea what i was talking about when i would speak of feeling “different”. granted, i grew up in ethiopia as well, so i have that difference.
ugh. its all so complex. now i read the list of definitions and realise i am also cck, because my mom is zulu and my entire maternal side lives in south africa and we went there A LOT as kids and til today. in fact, the last 5 years that i lived in botswana, if i were to be honest, about half the time was spent in S.A. my mom has a lot of stories about when she first moved to botswana and what that was like for her, not speaking the language and not knowing the cultures and all that…
ok, now i’m just rambling.
d’oh! i didn’t want to post anymore because i now have the most posts and am coming off as a no good tck slacker who talks WAY too much. ah well, if the shoe fits…
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November 26th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Warona: you’re not a tck ’slacker; i enjoy reading your posts! I have never, malheureusement, been to SA or any other countries in Africa. So i ‘count upon’ you to inform me of what you know so that when i eventually do go there i can have some general knowledge so that i don’t feel stupid and like a tourist (which i hate, but what i will be for the beginning at least).
PS. i heart your ducky!
A slight off topic que: i hate the label/word ‘tourist’… i hate being one, i hate appearing to be one, and when i travel/eventually move away it will be for a long time or a period of months.
When we travel, it is for a long time, we settle in and live there for a period of months to years, so what are we then? Not quite tourist and not quite locals… migrants perhaps?
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November 26th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Hey Isa! Saluuut, where have you been ? : )
You have a cute ducky too .. hehe
Actually, I’m responsible for Waron’s makeover. Everyone who hasn’t uploaded a profile picture gets a ducky by default. I thought it’d look better than the mysterious looking man with the interrogation mark… everyone looked scary and mysterious. Now you all look cute.
The tourist thing.. yeah, I prefer saying I’m here for work. Or I’m here on vacation.. or visiting family, or whatever the reason happen to be.
For the frenchies, “Je suis en passage” sounds much better than “je suis un tourist”…
Yeah warona, we love all your posts!
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January 30th, 2008 at 6:54 am
I like that, about the word “tourist.” I absolutely hate sticking out and feeling like a tourist, esp. since it feels like the world is my home
(what country exactly can I call home? it’s more a nebulous “where I’m at is home”).
That’s why I learned some Chinese before going to China for 4 months to teach English. I was determined to fit in as much as possible, and it was really rewarding to be able to shop on my own after a few days of being there. Of course I knew hardly any Chinese, but what I did learn and the research I had done beforehand about China really helped me fit in faster. I enjoyed that.
On my way over there I visited Hong Kong (HK) and was soo thankful to have a friend who knew all the local restaurants and hang-outs and I felt like part of the crowd, even though I knew I still stuck out, but at least I wasn’t wandering around looking lost and fumbling with my money and camera and huge map
I hate that!
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January 30th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
When I was in Korea everyone thought I was Korean and started speaking to me in that language. I guess it was because I was alone and appeared to look like a local. Tourists usually come in groups and well, quite obvious to pick out LOL But in a way it’s kind of interesting
And even though I was only there for 4 days I felt like I was already a part of the culture (having had Korean friends helped me as well). When I left Korea it felt like I was leaving a place I have lived for a while LOL Strange…
Anyways, back to topic. As I have mentioned many times TCK/CCK and whatnot are extremely vague in definition. But one thing I do believe is the affect being in another culture has on kids in their developmental years. A person (with parents or not) living in another country not similar to their parent country when they are over 18 years of age vs. someone who is under 18 years of age have different experiences.
I personally think that when a kid moves with his parents to another place he will be exposed to both parent and host cultures but if he moves to another country by himself he might “forget” his parent culture and completely blend into the foreign culture. I’ve had friends who left Taiwan as a teen and went to high school in the States (what many Asians parents will do - send their kids overseas before they graduate from high school). And here is the tricky part: it depends on how they socialize in the host culture. They can choose to socialize within their home culture (Taiwanese) or choose to socialize with their host culture (American). Those that choose to socialize with their home culture will somehow maintain that part of their parent culture in them and may forever be their identity. Those that do accept the host culture may feel they will eventually become detached from their parent culture. But then you also get those who can go either way.
I see that a lot amongst Taiwanese in foreign countries and you can clearly see their Taiwanese identity despite being in a different culture. It’s quite interesting really and for that reason I can never fit in with them.
So do I think your friend is a TCK? Looking at his experience, yes. He didn’t need to be with his parents in order to be one. And he probably didn’t completely understand what TCK means. And honestly, we all know that TCK is just a friggin’ label LOL If his experience, his lifestyle, his thinking matches with TCK characteristics then damn yea he is one!
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