For new community members or friends making new discoveries about their identities, it can be overwhelming to navigate all the different terms, phrases, and ideas that emerge from discussing the TCK experience. For others who are more familiar with talking about their experiences, it helps to be re-acquainted with these terms.

Here are a list of the Top 10 Third Culture Kid glossary terms to guide you through some of the basic words and concepts.

1) Third culture kid (TCK) – Dr. David Pollock, a sociologist and co-author of Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds, defines a TCK as “a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership of any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of a similar background.” This has traditionally included those who have grown up in more than one country.

Other terms for TCK include: global nomad; trans-culture kid; expat brat

Types of TCKs include:

a) Army/Military brats – A TCK with at least one parent working in his/her passport country’s military and who has moved lived in military bases.

b) Missionary Kids – A TCK with at least one parent working as a missionary for a religious institution and who has moved as part of missionary work.

c) Diplobrats – A TCK with at least one parent working in a diplomatic capacity, such as part of a government organization or embassy, and who has moved as part of diplomatic work.

d) Business brats – A TCK with at least one parent working in a multinational organization and who has moved as part of a business assignment.

2) Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK) – A TCK who is of adult age. An ATCK experiences adulthood with his/her TCK perspective.

3) Cross Cultural Kid (CCK) – Like TCKs, a CCK is a person who has spent a significant part of his/her developmental years outside of the parents’ cultures. CCKs include persons who have grown up in one country but within multiple cultural settings.

4) Unresolved grief – An emotional state felt as a reaction to loss of ties to a place or places where a TCK once lived. This feeling is exacerbated when the feelings of loss are not acknowledged or when there are no efforts toward reconnection, such as through communication or visits.

5) Itchy feet – The feeling characterized by restlessness and a desire to change locations. Many TCKs have expressed feeling this way after they have settled in one place.

6) Culture shock – An emotional state felt when reacting and adjusting to a new cultural setting. A person who moves to a new city or country may feel this after he or she first arrives.

7) Reverse culture shock – An emotional state felt when adjusting to a previously experienced cultural setting, which is often a person’s “home” culture.

Expatriate (also, Expat) – A person who resides in a place outside his/her usual place of residence or legal residence. A family who is sent on assignment away from its passport country are considered expatriates.

9) Repatriate – A person who returns to his/her usual place of residence or legal residence. A family who returns to its passport country after a foreign assignment are considered repatriates.

10) Global citizen – This is a term used by many TCKs who do not feel any affinity to any particular country or cultural setting, particularly in response to the question, “Where are you from?” Instead of using the citizenship listed in one’s passport, a TCK may just say that they are a global citizen.

Popularity: 29% [?]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/180207/page/1

Many of Obama’s top advisers, like an increasing number of Americans, have learned and lived abroad.

The fact that Valerie Jarrett spent her early childhood in Iran made it easier to bond with Barack Obama. … It’s a common point among Obama’s top aides, a surprising number of whom grew up in other countries—the insight they developed by seeing America from the outside in. The former expats include retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the incoming national-security adviser, who lived in France for most of his childhood; Timothy Geithner, the nominee for Treasury secretary, who grew up in Zimbabwe, India and Thailand; retired Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, a child of missionaries in Africa who is a leading contender to become the new NASA administrator; and Jarrett, a close personal friend of the Obamas’ who will serve as a top domestic-policy adviser.

GREAT article!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hi everyone. Im new to this. I am an MK living in Bulgaria and was wondering if any other MKs were out there in tckid land.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’ve yet to write my intro, so here goes. My name is Joy, I’m 27, I was born in the States (Indiana). At ten months old moved to England. Every summer we would go back to the States. We moved three times within England and I grew up going to british public schools but at the age of 13 I just felt it wasn’t for me and decided I wanted to go to an international boarding school in Germany (Black Forest) which is where I had some of the best years of my life with people like myself, TCKs, from everywhere and I loved it. I lived in Germany for three years when my parents then moved back to the States for a year and took me with them, I was 16/17, after a year we came back to England, my parents (& sister) to yet another UK location and myself back to boarding school where I graduated. After grad I went to the States (IN) for college… the thought of staying in one place for 4 yrs – no thanks! I left after a year and lived in three more places (MI) before settling in South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale/Boca) which was actually the first place I lived that I didn’t actually feel like I wanted to leave… Ironically for several reasons I ended up moving back to England. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to continue my nursing studies and it made sense at the time to do it in the UK. So thats what I did and thats where, 5 yrs later, I still am, in my ideal job in Accident & Emergency.. but not in my ideal location… problem is, I don’t know where my ideal location is, I just know that its not here.. Itchy feet, check. Restlessness, check. Wishing I could meet people like me who can share an understanding of cross cultural living, check. Loads of other TCK symptoms, check. But at least after discovering that I’m a TCK I realise why I am the way I am, which is a good starting point. I’m in Northampton, England right now studying for another degree and I can’t wait till i finish ’cause I can’t wait to move again. But I’m trying really hard to water the grass here. (I’m so restless, I liked the quote “the grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it”). So, anyways, any TCKs in the ‘England area’ get in touch!

Popularity: 1% [?]

So, I’ve been posting on here for a while, but I’ve never actually posted my introduction. Here goes. I was born in Chattanooga, TN. Though I didn’t know it at the time, that made me American by birth, and Southern by the grace of God. My family moved to Suriname when I was 4, and so that is where “home” was for a long time. Being an MK was a lot of fun and had a lot of challenges. My parents homeschooled all 4 of us kids, and since they were both former teachers it worked out well. (Because we lived on a river in a jungle, there weren’t many options.)

I left Suriname for college and spent 5 years there, managing to get a BA and start an MA. Since I’ve been planning to come to Turkey for a while, I decided to spend this year here instead of doing my MA straight through. I was hoping to get in some serious study while I was here, but that hasn’t panned out. Thus, I’m putting quite a bit of time into language study and finding that it’s not my strongest point academically.

I made my way to TCKid from the Facebook group and now spend too much time here. But it’s good therapy for the lonely, wandering soul…

Final comments, I loved being a TCK, (although I didn’t really understand the concept till I read through part of the TCK book in 2005.) I am quite aware of the negatives of being a TCK, but I think the vast majority of them have a balancing positive to go with them, so try to be happy, not sad.

- Your friends are scattered. You can travel see them!

- You don’t really relate to one culture. You can see truths and comforts from many cultures.

- You don’t know where Home is. You can be more at home anywhere than most people.

Popularity: 1% [?]