Provocative Question re: The Third Culture | TCKID 2.0

For New Version Of TCKID 2.0 Please go to http://www.tckid.com and sign up. But feel free to browse this site for the huge archive of valuable information. Read the Latest news

Provocative Question re: The Third Culture

When we teach cross-cultural communications to help prepare prospective exchange students and expats to cope with foreign cultures, we usually begin by comparing “culture” to an iceberg. 10% of a culture is “above the surface,” wrapped up in visible manifestations like mode of dress, language, dance, customary rituals, etc. These things are easily taught. The other 90% of the culture, however, is the key to truly understanding your host nationals. It is the set of hidden beliefs, assumptions, mores, taboos, etc. that define the shared “soul” of the people in that culture.

Most of the TCK research and discussion that I have seen serves the very necessary function of helping people identify people who may actually be TCKs, based on a shared life-experience, and trauma, to facilitate outreach, and enable the nurturing and ministry needed by so many young TCKs who are making that initial transition “home” to their passport culture, and realizing that they do not belong. Hey, it helped me immensely when I was going through it, and I don’t have anything against it.

However, definitions of “third culture” that are a procedural description of the life experience (intercultural mobility as a child) or the kinds of trauma (rootlessness, restlessness, loneliness), or the kinds of skills (linguistic ability, flexibility in the face of change) that many TCKs share, does nothing to help an outsider (or even our own community) understand what are the deeper, hidden aspects of our shared psyche that make us unique and different. What are the mores and taboos that we share, that are different from the mono-cultural norms, and that are unique to TCKs? What cultural beliefs and assumptions do we have, that both enable us to excel in some activities and relationships, but actually impede our ability to function in others?

What do you think are the defining cultural characteristics of the Third Culture?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Posted by Larisa at 11:07 am on September 22nd, 2008. Comments
Categories: General Forum.

  • Larisa,

    With regards to you pairings..I had a rather interesting conversation with a mono-cultural friend about this "cultural difference".

    We we talking about tourists. My friend said that tourists annoy her to a major degree. The language barriers irritate her, the fact that they don't know that you stand on the right side of the elevator or how to use the subway machines and so on.

    I reminded her that when she travels she's also a tourist and she said even them the language barriers irritate her and the fact that she doesn't know how to use anything. She likes to visit places that she knows.

    I was telling her that situations like that I enjoy. I like going somewhere not knowing anything and discovering what it has to offer. Instead of getting annoyed at language barriers, I enjoy finding other ways of communicating. Tourists don't annoy me. Actually I love them. I love walking around and hearing different languages. I have no problem waiting in line while someone figure out how to use the subway machine and I have no problem reaching out and helping them. This summer I think I became Starbucks's unoffical Frnech translator. lol

    I can't make a blanket statement but I've def noticed a difference between my mono-cultural friends and TCK friends in their attitudes no not only tourists but also immigrants.
  • Larisa
    Aradhana,

    That "relational" aspect of culture is exactly the kind of thing that I had been wondering about. Thanks for helping clarify. Your post also set my family up for a great dinner time brainstorming session. Here's a few monocultural vs. TCK culture pairings that we came up with. I'd be curious to know if any of these resonate with you, or any other visitors to this thread...

    MONO: "Don't talk to strangers."
    TCK: "Everyone's a stranger, initially."

    MONO: "Differences are anomalies."
    TCK: "Differences are the norm."

    MONO: "Misunderstanding is an accident."
    TCK: "Misunderstanding is the norm.

    MONO: "Intolerant of strangeness."
    TCK: "Intolerant of intolerance."

    MONO: "Foreign = Scary"
    TCK: "Foreign = Interesting"

    Thoughts? Opinions?
  • Cynthia, thank you for the definition.

    I think that there are two parts to culture the relational and the material. I think too often people focus on soley on the material- ie. dress, food, language, and forget about the relational - ie. rules of courtesy,interaction patters, and so on.


    I think that the TCK "culture" is predominantly relational. We share a certain culture of interacting with other cultures. I am going to make a geralization and say that TCKs are more accepting of differences, more open minded about hearing different perspectives, more confident when venturing into situations that are outside of their norm, are much better at adapting,are more trusting and patient with outsiders, and they tend not to "read books by their covers". And although the details of the material aspect may differ the general chractersitic is that it is a blended culture.

    I think monocltural "culture" = "conforming the status quo"

    but
    TCK "culture" = "difference is the status quo"
  • Ayako
    I read somewhere that the only person or people a TCK is likely to have the same culture with is usually his/her own siblings. This is because the TCK's 'culture' is a combination of his/her own experiences in different cultures and the particular blend depends on where (this would be plural) they lived when growing up.
  • I looked up "culture" in wikipedia and here is what I got:

    Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate")[1] generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"[2]

    Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society."[3] As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, norms of behavior such as law and morality, and systems of belief as well as the art.

    Cultural anthropologists most commonly use the term "culture" to refer to the universal human capacity and activities to classify, codify and communicate their experiences materially and symbolically. Scholars have long viewed this capacity as a defining feature of humans (although some primatologists have identified aspects of culture such as learned tool making and use among humankind's closest relatives in the animal kingdom).[4]

    ====

    In response to your question regarding what is it that we share as TCKs in the Third Culture? I believe it's nothing that we share that makes us this culture. And I agree with Greeneaglz that it is the emotional experience that is what we share.

    If you notice other groups of "mono-cultural" societies you see that they share the same emotional experience that we as TCKs will never get but at the same time as TCKs we have our own emotional experience that we can relate to other people within our "culture" but that the monocultural people will never get.
  • Larisa
    Joanna Maria said:

    "...we know there is no one correct way to do things that is right for everybody..."

    Isn't this a cultural assumption, in and of itself?

    My husband assures me that most "normal" (read: monocultural) people DO NOT believe that this is true. In fact, he regularly points out that this is part of what makes me and others of my "tribe" peculiar and unpredictable to him -- and to all his other, highly educated, well-traveled, liberal-minded friends. He argues that I regularly shock people in his circle by behaving as if that statement was true.
  • Larisa
    Ah good point. Thanks for the clarification!
  • Greeneaglz
    Hi Larisa, I believe it is more the emotional experiences that we tend to share. Often we only understand what others feel and are going through if we have gone through similar experiences. So it is more on the emotional side that we share a similar culture. We feel at ease and "feel" we are understood, often with very different cultural backgrounds. Where a culture is very different can make it more difficult for us to relate to people from that culture unless they have gone through similar experiences to us and therefore can emotionally relate to us.
  • Larisa
    Thanks for your response, Greeneaglz. I'm curious, however, to have you elaborate on this part of your answer:

    "The more similar your life experiences are to someone else, the more of a culture you share."

    What is it, exactly, that you believe you share? Similar values? Similar conclusions about your experience? Similar emotional responses to the experience? Say, for example, I am a TCK with an American passport, and childhood homes in Venezuela, Iran, and Israel, and you are a TCK with a different passport country, as well as a completely different set of childhood homes. What kind of culture do you think we share? Or do you actually believe that we only share the factoid of having moved around a number of times?
  • Greeneaglz
    I believe the so called "third culture" that we often speak of does not necessarily exist as a culture. Rather it is more the area of relationships that we mean when we talk about a third culture. We feel more at home with those who have had similar life experiences than those whose life experiences are virtually the opposite. Where a culture is opposite to what we are used to, it is harder for us to feel at home there. Where a TCK feels most at home is in a situation where there are multiple cultures as people in such a situation are either disarmed from following their cultural norms and having to experience what TCK's do or have gone through the experiences of moving.

    So for me I see the Third Culture more in the light of relationships and the ability to relate to others. The more similar your life experiences are to someone else, the more of a culture you share.

    I for instance have a deaf child and as a parent of a deaf child i relate well with other parents of deaf children because we have something in common.
  • Joanna Maria
    Do you think that the "3rd Culture" could be said to have defined "mores" or "taboos", same as a "real," "actual" or "authentic" culture does? We can talk about the "Native American culture" or the "French culture" but I do not think that the "3rd Culture" is a culture in that sense. We have shared life experiences and maybe talents (loss, linguistic sensitivity or aptitude, etc.) but mores or taboos are elements that one acquires by learning to live in a particular culture of which they are a part. The third culture of every third culture individual is unique, because it is the result of the mixing of the "real-world" cultures that one has been exposed to during his or her development. That said, I do think it would make sense if it was determined in a study that TCKs are generally more open and less conservative on matters that are strictly defined or may be taboo in some cultures, concerning sex, gender or religion for example, simply because we know there is no one correct way to do things that is right for everybody, because we have been exposed to various ways of life, and are forced to reconcile them in our own lives. And that is I think the essence and the challenge of being a TCK: having to discover one's own way and one's own values in a world where other people (the non-TCKs) have adopted a set of values passed down to them by their parents, and then further reinforced by the society in which they grew up.
  • Isa
    What a great topic, Larisa! I will come back to it later, once i have thought about it, lol.
blog comments powered by Disqus