Greetings fellow TCKs and ATCKs,

Over the past many months, I’ve been developing the beginning of a very important project, and as of early this morning, just after midnight (Seattle Time), Interaction International’s International Therapist Directory was launched LIVE online. Check out the initial version here:

http://www.interactionintl.org/resourcesite.asp

And if you know of any qualified therapists who have a solid understanding of the TCK and expatriate experience, please forward them the link and my contact information (joshsandoz@interactionintl.org) to help us grow this site!!

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Hi Everyone!

I love this site and what Brice and the other leaders are doing! It is so awesome! TCKID is so important. When I graduated from international school in Japan and came to my passport country (USA) for college in 1979, we did not have this kind of network. I did meet some TCKs at college and felt a connection with them, but also had quite a cultural adjustment to life in the United States in a small Midwestern college town.

Living in Chicago after graduating from college was fun – there were a lot of other cultures represented there. And then I lived in Hawaii for many years – and felt very at home there because of the diversity.

However, 3 years ago, I moved to be near my parents who had retired from their work in Japan and were living in Indiana. Again, it has been quite the cultural adjustment! I love my parents and don’t regret moving here, but there is just not the diversity that I feel more comfortable with.

I stumbled onto this site after coming back from a high school reunion of my graduating class which was held in California in July this year. My brother (who lives and works in Malaysia) was visiting and I told him about how great it had been to get together with others who had so many of the same experiences and feelings as I had – unlike most of the rest of the people that I meet in my town in Indiana. Not to say that Fort Wayne, IN has unfriendly people – but just different backgrounds and outlook, etc – as you all know and understand so well.

My brother had been reading the book by David C. Pollock and Ruth Van Reken about Third Culture Kids and that got me looking on the internet about the topic and then I found this site!

Reading the posts has been so awesome! I’m so excited about TCKID! I’m not sure why, but some things I have read in the past about the TCK experience have tended to focus only on problems with “adjusting” to the passport culture- as if that was the final goal. We do need that forum- to talk about what we are experiencing – and we do need to be able to adjust well enough to interact with those around us positively. However, what I see that is different about this website is how it is encouraging us to talk about our strengths and what we can contribute as TCKs, as well – that who we already are is valid and important.

I’m now a high school teacher and I teach English as a Second Language to students who move to the US from all over the world. It is such a rich and wonderful job to have! And I try to not only help students to learn the English language and things about American culture (whatever that is!) – but try to help them to see what a gift they have been given to be a multilingual and multicultural person. And I learn so much from my students, too!

However, besides my job, there are not a lot of other avenues for interacting with other TCKs or ATCKs and so I hope that I can help to start a group here in Indiana. Anyone else out there in the area who is interested in this, please let me know!

Polly Taylor

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I am the Chameleon
And the ladybug is whichever maistream
I fool them around by changing my outside color
Letting them think I am one of them
They force me to change my outside color
Otherwise they wouldn’t consider me as one of them

The difference between the West and the East is this:
Easterners see my outside color and think I am one of them
Westerners see my shape and still see me as a foreigner

What about other chameleons, which I have met so many in my lifetime?
Well, we all decide to change into different colors
So, I am not like them
Either

—-
Author: Zoe Chen

This forum is taken from:

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/tck4ever

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i did not know what it was what i was missing in my life. then i found TCK and i understood that this was it. thx a lot 2 all of u!

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Hi everyone!

My name is Alicia and I am 22 years old so i guess that makes me an ATCK. Yay! I am a Graphic Design student in my final year, which means I have to create an amazing final project (eek no pressure!). I started my research with the question ‘what is Home?’ because, as you all are familiar with, when you move so often it is very hard to determine where you are ‘from’ and where your real ‘home’ is. It was through this research that I discovered I am a TCK! This discovery changed my world as I’m sure it did with you guys.

I now want to use my experiences to help others through design. My problem is that there is not enough awareness (yet) about TCKs…why did I not know I was one until now? So for my project I propose to create something that can be handed out to families as soon as they find out they are about to be posted to another country. It will be a sort of explaination, comfort guide and lead them to this website. I really want to create a visual identity for TCKs, something that represents our TCK culture visually that we can hang up in our houses and be reminded that we are who we are, and that we are not alone, we are united as a TCK culture.

I’m aiming this particular project at teenage TCKs, because from my understanding, moving through your teenage years is one of the hardest transitions. Adolescence is challenging enough as it is! I know from my experience, my family was not really given any support, we just had to deal with it ourselves and I felt like I was the only person in the world who didn’t really belong anywhere.

So what I am asking is if any TCK teenagers are interested in helping me figure out what is ‘cool’ to them and what they can identify with would be soooooo helpful! Email or PM me! Also if I post designs on here would you guys give me feedback? It would be much appreciated! Now I just have to figure out how to post pictures on this thing (am a bit useless at forums hehehe)

Peace, love and music to you guys!

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Having discovered this website several months ago I think it’s about time I introduced myself.

I’m 25 and still follow my parents wherever they go, so technically I’m not a TCAdult yet. I still depend on my parents for pocket money, education and most importantly: if they leave, I have to leave.

I’m currently based in Seoul, South Korea. I adapted fairly well, speaking Korean, eating all Korean food, hanging out with Koreans, having conversation about typical Korean things. It was pretty much the same everywhere else I lived: learn the language, hang out with locals and act like local people do. I’m pretty much like Zelig in the Woody Allen comedy – except that I don’t change physically when I interact with locals -.

And then of course, there’s leaving. I don’t have a passport of every country I lived in, I only have one passport, an Algerian passport. That passport has been a curse in many ways. African but White, Middle Eastern but Berber, Muslim but Atheist, Arab speaking country but speaks French at home. It’s hard enough to explain to our friends that we’re TCKs and sort of different. But it’s even harder telling our employers that we grew up in exceptional circumstances. The result is that I can’t teach English in Korea cause I’m not a native speaker (I was born in New York, I thought native meant born in) but I can’t teach French either because it’s not my mother tongue (which I still speak with my mother)

To me, my identity makes sense. I never tried hard to explain people who I was. After all, the world evolves, and in 100 years no one will speak the languages I speak, countries will have different names, cultures and religions will evolve, so why bother…?

Anyways I think it’s about time I became an independent TCAdult. Where I go doesn’t matter, as long as my house has a clean bathroom, no power or water shortages, the city has nightlife and I get a job making real money without having to kiss anyone’s ass. I can handle the rest. Is that asking too much?

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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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POEM #1: Never Been

As a Foreigner, you always have your privileges.
As a Hidden Immigrant, you also have your rights.
As an Adopted, you’d have to show it to the world.
As a Mirrow, what are their challenges?
I have no idea since I have virtually never been.

POEM #2: Broken Mirrow, Broken Me

The mirrow broke
When I was three
Through the broken mirrow
I see a broken me

—-
Author: Zoe Chen
Note: “Mirrow” is the term used in the TCKid Book to describe those who both look and think alike as the local people of the certain place they are in.

More great TCKish Poems here!!~~

http://www.wretch.cc/blog/tck4ever&category_id=13634301

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I’m trying to compile a list of books (fiction/biography/autobiography) that have global nomads or third culture kids as the main character. I have started with

“Camel Rider”

“The Secret Garden”

“Octagon Magic”

Can you please recommend others?

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Greetings to all. As a little background info, let me mention that I am beginning my 2nd year in university while pregnant for the first time. Me and the father to be have been to together for about 7 months, so it wasn’t exctly planned, but I’m extatic none the less. Also, because we study in different cities, we are 3 hours away from each other. Oh, and we live in Finland.

So basically I am concerned about the following:

1. The longest I’ve lived anywhere is 6 years. My parents are from different continents, and I’ve spent my life on the Europe-Africa axis. On the other hand, the father to be has spent his life in the same city – and most of it in the same house. When I told him that I plan to be on the move ASAP, he just said I can’t take the kid too far from him for long… not that he’d come along. I’m only at 10 weeks, and it’s not like I’ll be leaving in a hurry, but I’ll definitely be traveling for sure. I have no intention of living in Finland my whole life, nor do I want to raise my child in this cold environment. How do I go about planning this with him? I know it’s a bit soon, but I’d like to cusion him into it. What do I do?

2. I live in Finland. Now I don’t know how many of you have wondered up here, but it can get a little strange for any foreigner. If your African or look it, you’re instantly classified as an immigrant out here to abuse the welfare system and live the easy life. Then again, there is a whole generation of white washed mixed kids who are Finnish as the Finns. I was born here, but am not really from here, so am neither. I don’t really relate to the Finns, the foreigners or the ones in between. So, in teaching my child about my culture, my heritage, what on earth will I say? “Mummy lived here, and there, but isn’t from anywhere… yet.”

3. I was always in international schools, with international friends. I remember being happy as a child, and have many fond memories – even of traveling. But as the years pass, it get’s harder. And oh god, being a teenager was dreadful. (Now, whether the traveling made it more dreadful, who knows.) I would like to offer my child a type of consistency I didn’t have, but like I said, I cannot see myself integrated in Finnish society, with a child out of touch with it’s roots and the rest of the globe.

4. My dad wasn’t around as much as I’d hoped, and I promised myself I wouldn’t let that pass on to the next generation. However, with regards to the current situation, who knows right? I’m 21, he’ll be 21 in November, and I have told him that I don’t want to force him into anything…. it’s not like we’re not getting along well, I’m just used to relationships being rather temporary and volatile. Is it simply a matter of knowing whether or not it will last, or of chosing if it will or not? And if the latter, is it really best to stay together just for the kid?

Serious stuff, I know. All opinions, advice and experiences are welcome!!!

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