The TCKness Test
Hahaha! Made you look!
No, there’s really no scientific test, of course, but a colleague of mine put together this “test” for his high school students (in an International School in China) to raise awareness of what it means to be a TCK/Global Nomad & their own backgrounds. I thought it was a fun idea & edited a bit, however if you all would like to add your ten cents I’d be interested in feedback. Any questions you’d add?! How do you score?! I’m over 60 
Are your parents of the same nationality? Score 1 for No and 0 for Yes
Do you have other immediate family members with different nationalities?
Score 0 for No and 1 for Yes
Were you born in your passport country(ies)? Score 0 for Yes, 1 for No
How many different towns/cities have you lived in? ½ point each
How many different countries have you lived in? 1 points each
How many different continents have you lived in? 2 points each
How many different languages can you speak fluently (very well) 2 point each
How many different languages can you speak a little of? ½ point each
How many different alphabets can you read? 1 point each
How many years have you spent outside of your passport country(ies)?
How many passports do you have? 1 point for each passport, but the first
If you have never lived in your passport country give yourself a bonus of 2 points
If your passport country is not the same as your parents’, give yourself 2 points
What is the longest you have lived in one house/apartment?
>10 years 0 points
5- 9 years ½ point
3-4 years 1 point
2 years 2 points
< 2 years 3 points
TOTAL
…I hope the format works!!! Otherwise this might look like a big mess!!
February 27th, 2008 at 6:28 am
This is fun! I scored 491/2. What is the cut off? ha ha.
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February 27th, 2008 at 6:49 am
You might add cultural factors like eating diffrent types of food at home.
My parents were both Japanese but we ate different kinds of food since I was little - and I didn’t realize that in many families - people weren’t doing this!
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February 27th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hahaha
I think I got 36. -.- Makes me feel less of a TCK, haha, but it’s okelah. I just haven’t moved as much as other people.
You might want to add how many points per year-outside-passport-country. I counted those, so if it doesn’t count I’m down quite a lot, haha.
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February 27th, 2008 at 7:08 am
The other thing is that question about being born in your passport country…
I was born in Japan but I left when I was 2 years old. Some TCKs leave when they’re under 12 months and I don’t think there’s any difference with being born outside your passport country if you’re this young!
There were some other things like languages which I don’t think correlate to TCKness at all because I know a lot of non-TCKs who speak more languages than me. They’re just better at learning new languages!
Oh well - the test is just for fun and it’s not serious so don’t listen to my blather! lol
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February 27th, 2008 at 7:16 am
lol i lost track of what i got. I’ll Do this again when i’m more awake.. Anyways, i think what ayako suggested would be good, about the food..
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February 27th, 2008 at 8:09 am
only 36-_- I knew I need more experience.
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February 27th, 2008 at 8:11 am
i’m 42. what deos that mean? is higher better? i don’t get it.
yeah, certain aspects are hard to judge. like language. i have found that tcks are usually split down the midle of those that speak 100 languages and those who only speak english (and not any of thisr ‘mother tongues’ and/r the languages of the countries they lived in). i feel like both are heavy tck traits.
also, how many towns i lived in, spent 9 months travelling to 25 different states. what does that mean?
its a fun test, and i enjoyed doing it and seeing others results. but i am a little scared aboutt he whole ‘quantifying’ the tck exprience. i have seen folks who only lived outside their passport countries a few short years, but have typical tck issues. and then on the flip side, those who lived abroad for longer but somehow manage to comfortably repatriate. sometimes quantifying feels like we are trying to exclude even other tcks, and/or see who is ‘more’ tck than who. something i think is impossible. (stef, i know this is not what you are trying to do, you just posted a fun little test! but i just had to put that in there.)
but a fun test none the less….
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February 27th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Hmmm… 12.5. Is this thing graded on a curve?
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February 27th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Well what if you lived in countries at different points, but then the country split up… Also how long does one have to have lived in a city to get points, since I’ve lived in several cities for just a short time. Or moved to neighbor cities in the same area. Or what about living in the same country, but at different non-subsequent times… Hehe…i tend to complicate everything…
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February 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I scored 39.
It’s a fun test, although I don’t think a higher or lower score makes you more or less of a TCK. It would be great for raising awareness though, or maybe even for an ice-breaker at a TCK get-together?
The question about being born outside of your passport country didn’t make a lot of sense to me as many countries give you a passport for being born there. That’s how I got to be a double-citizen. However I did count it as being born outside of my passport country as that is not the passport that I use.
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