third culture kid?
i hardly know if i can call myself a third culture kid but i definitely know i don’t feel as though i belong anywhere. i was born in Singapore. my dad went to study in Australia when i was 3 and we tagged along. he finished his masters and we returned home in time for me to start grade 1. i don’t think i ever really assimilated back home because i sounded different and i struggled with the second language requirements. i had always thought i was going back to australia because i thought i really fit in there but as it turns out, my parents decided i should complete highschool in canada. which is where i am right now.
i can’t figure out where i really belong because my accent gives me away everytime. apparently, i sound almost British, Australian and a mixture of something else. its great because i always have a conversation starter with a single word. however, it sometimes gets old really quickly. what makes it better is that i don’t even look like i should so i get mistaken for being of many different ethnicities. its great.
i sound different and i look different and i’m a foreigner in all the countries i’ve lived in.
I've never lived in a really cool/awesome place but i know the feeling of never really fitting in.. ever.. I've spent most of my life not fitting into my birth country (singapore), thinking i would fit into one that i spent 3 idyllic years in (Australia) and finishing high school and going to university in another (Canada).
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4 Comments to “third culture kid?”
January 31st, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Your story is really similar to mine. I’ve been a hidden immigrant for quite a bit and expatriated for the first time when you did
You don’t have to have lived in 20 countries to be a TCK. Welcome *^^
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February 1st, 2008 at 10:46 am
You’re definitely a TCK
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February 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sounds like you tick all the boxes on the TCK check list….
And using the accent as a pick up.. nice haha…. I would try that.. but my accent changes depending on who i’m talking to.. as soon as i start talking to singaporeans it’s “daammnnn cold today man… Should have worn a tickerr jumpeerr laahhh” hahaha.. or when i talk to my now “australian” brother “G’day, hows it gaoowin mate? Aww not bad not bad.. Farking weather is rediculous… hows Straylia?” hahaha… or the best one, when i’m around real londoners “Yeah bruv the weather is shit innit?” haha..
oh and WELCOME!
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February 2nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
You belong in the elite group of traveled, or if you will, travelled, multi-culturalists who have accents from who-knows-where and like to eat things no one around them has ever heard of
You do belong somewhere, it’s just hard to find that when you’re around people with one culture, because you have more than one. So you will fit in where there are people who also have accents, who have lived in at least two countries in their lifetime, and who understand that there’s more than one way of doing–or saying–things 
Just wanted to let you know I understand!
My mixed accent has always gotten people’s attention and I also have mixed feelings about it because while it’s nice to get to talk to people I’d otherwise never meet, it does get tiring sometimes.
Wish I could pick up the Australian part to add to my accent. Right now it’s a British-American-mixture
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