You know you’re a TCK when…
Buy Elimite Online Prevacid Without Prescription Ultram No Prescription Prevacid For Sale Ultram Generic Buy Prednisone Online Toprol XL Without Prescription Amoxil No Prescription Elimite For Sale Cipro GenericI’m not sure if this was posted here before but here goes…
You know you’re a TCK when:
- You’ve heard this ‘textbook’ definition of a TCK before: “A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background, other TCKs.”
- “Where are you from?” has more than one reasonable answer.
- You’ve said that you’re from foreign country X, and your audience has asked you which US state X is in.
- You flew before you could walk.
- You speak two languages, but can’t spell in either.
- You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
- You have three passports.
- You have a passport but no driver’s license.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your “home” country.
- Your life story uses the phrase “Then we moved to…” three (or four, or five…) times.
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You don’t know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof.
- The best word for something is the word you learned first, regardless of the language.
- You get confused because US money isn’t colour-coded.
- You think VISA is a document that’s stamped in your passport, not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
- You own personal appliances with 3 types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 volts, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realize that a trasnsformer isn’t always enough to make your appliances work.
- You fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
- You think the Pledge of Allegiance might possibly begin with “Four-score and seven years ago….”
- Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.
- You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
- You consider a city 500 miles away “very close.”
- You get homesick reading National Geographic.
- You cruise the Internet looking for fonts that can support foreign alphabets.
- You think in the metric system and Celsius.
- You may have learned to think in feet and miles as well, after a few years of living (and driving) in the US. (But not Fahrenheit. You will *never* learn to think in Fahrenheit).
- You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- When asked a question in a certain language, you’ve absentmindedly respond in a different one.
- You miss the subtitles when you see the latest movie.
- You’ve gotten out of school because of monsoons, bomb threats, and/or popular demonstrations.
- You speak with authority on the subject of airline travel.
- You have frequent flyer accounts on multiple airlines.
- You constantly want to use said frequent flyer accounts to travel to new places.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- The thought of sending your (hypothetical) kids to public school scares you, while the thought of letting them fly alone doesn’t at all.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You have friends from 29 different countries.
- You sort your friends by continent.
- You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
you become jealous when a foreigner likes your home country more than yourself!!
(Is this spam?)
April 15th, 2009 at 1:09 am
-When you get homesick and culture shock everywhere you go,
including your passport country
-When you wish you could be fluent in at least one more language
and envy ppl who speak 3+ languages
-When you hate all those government bureaucracies about visas
-When your relatives are amazed at the fact about how scattered
your family members are at the globe (my relatives [99%
of them r still at Korea] gave that comment to my brother and
I few yrs ago when my dad was living at Korea, my brother
was at Canada for his undergrad studies-he’s at Korea right now, n me n my mom were living at states lol)
living at
(Is this spam?)
April 26th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
-when you cringe at such a term like TCK because it works to label you as part of a culture just like any other (when you know you’re not).
After all, it was not a “kid” that coined this term. It was the sociologist mother of apparent TCKs that did.
Here’s a thought, think of it as the anti-culture. I pledge allegiance to NO FLAG, no country, no nationality, no race. I am HUMAN, and this is what I love about myself and the way I was brought up. Home is the planet we love and grew up in.
In a global system intent on free trade, movement of resources and capital why is there still need for VISAs? Western citizens can travel freely to third world countries and are called expats, living the good life with drivers and maids and their children with western educations. Third world peoples that finally make it to the shores of a western country, are called immigrants, doing the menial jobs that westerners no longer wish to fill. It’s ironic, but it’s reality.
An interesting sociological research can look into the thoughts of your so called TCKs on such subject matter.
(Is this spam?)
April 26th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
After all, are the children of supposed immigrants to western countries not TCKs as well?
(Is this spam?)
April 27th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I can’t agree with you, Mark. The term TCK has been a great help for so many of us. It’s like a flag that we can rally around to give each other hope and strength.
It’s really hard for us to justify our social identity in today’s world order, which expects everybody to belong to nation, at least at a very basic level. What you propose, namely to be content with being a homo sapiens, is not a particularly strong front when we deal with people in every day life.
The problem is, that the majority of the world’s population, which identifies with some particular nation, sees nationality as being something “more” or “better”. I think you can call it a caste system. Someone of a particular nationality sees themself as Human + [insert Nationality], and if you tell them that you feel Human - they interpret “You are ONLY Human”, giving them a reason to look down upon you (hence also rivalry between nations).
One of our greatest challenges is to learn to deal with the existing (sociopolitical-) Systems, and Anarchy(NO allegiances except to yourself) doesn’t help to achieve most existing goals.
I recommend you to read the following post: Hello, I’m Nika
It has some very good stories about the experience of finding out you’re a TCK. In particular, comment 19 really reflects the inclusive spirit of ‘TCK culture’:
“… I am able to comfortably and securely say that I belong somewhere. Notice how none of us felt the need to qualify our identities nor did any of us question anyone else’s story. (Sigh of relief) We are our own culture, welcome!”
TCK is about bringing people together; and not keeping certain people out. I cringe when I hear someone use the term TCK as a reason to belittle other people, but from my experience, that only occurs marginally in our internet community. Therefore, my heart warms up every time I think of TCK ‘culture’.
(Is this spam?)
April 27th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I have to agree with rafael, the “label” TCK makes me feel like I belong to something that I actually fit into. Calling me an “American” doesn’t work because I don’t totally feel American. Calling me “human” is ok, but what kind of human am I? Our TCK experiences have shaped us in unique ways, yet TCK’s share those unique ways and in our feelings of other-ness and isolation, we need a group that understands US. That’s why being a TCK is such a positive thing.
(Is this spam?)
May 5th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
when you walk into burger king and ask where the chili sauce is
(Is this spam?)
June 27th, 2009 at 1:33 am
When your friends at school ask you what your favourite band is and you reply with a random 70’s band.
When you can make a game out of anything.
When you can recognise China on a world map before you can recognise England.
When Mcdonalds seems like heaven on earth.
When your biggest nightmare is your flight being cancelled.
(Is this spam?)