Third-Culture Kids
We Third-Culture Kids (TCKs) are individuals who spent a significant part of our developmental years in a culture other than our parents’ home culture. Our experience is a blended “third culture” because we have been influenced by both our parents’ culture and the culture in which we were raised. TCKs sometimes tie our identity to people rather than places, and as a result often feel like an outsider no matter where we are.
Being a TCK
Benefits: TCKs typically have an expanded worldview and an ability to see things from different perspectives: to “think outside the box.” Because of our multi-cultural experiences, we tend to have a greater sensitivity to nuances and looking at life from a three-dimensional view. Because of this, we can usually function well in a wide variety of situations, being equally comfortable helping in a hospital x-ray room, chasing cows with slingshots, or hosting government officials. Our strengths typically include greater creativity and abilities for problem-solving.
Challenges: TCKs often struggle with a feeling of rootlessness, divided loyalties between places or cultures, and a sense of not belonging in some social settings. Many of us struggle in the transition to our parents’ culture as we return there as teens or young adults, usually because we are not familiar with the cultural norms. Often, we TCKs cannot answer the question, “where is home?”
Good books for TCKs!
Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds by Ruth Van Reken and David C. Pollock
An excellent book that explores the benefits and challenges that TCKs experience. It discusses the shared bonds of TCKs, regardless of their cultural upbringing.
Worlds Apart: A Third Culture Kid’s Journey by Marilyn Gardner
I have never been to Pakistan and know little about it, yet as a Third-Culture Kid, I can relate to Marilyn’s intriguing vignettes of her childhood there. A great read!
Websites (for great TCK resources!)
https://www.crossculturalkid.org/who-are-cross-cultural-kids/
(Ruth Van Reken)
https://communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/
(Marilyn Gardner)
Rendezvous is a focused 5-day event that assists Missionary Kids ages 14-18 whose parents currently serve as missionaries in the Church of the Nazarene.
Rendezvous Plus is for MK’s ages 17-26 (post high school). Through activities, teaching, group discussions, small groups and games MKs are given guidance as they prepare for culture re-entry and cultural transitions.
What is normal to global nomadic souls is often thought ‘exotic’ or ‘exceptional’ by more than a few; or even ‘rash’ by some. The truth is that we have experienced something extraordinary, and our narratives come from that reality. Telling our stories is a celebration of the worldwide family of Third-Culture Kids.
Third-Culture Kids live their whole lives with one foot in heritage-culture blue, the other foot in host-culture yellow. This creates a culturally-blended green that can make us unique, gifted, socially awkward, creative, lonely, exceptional, (add your characteristic here). If you have a longing for someone or someplace that always seems far away in time or distance, Diary of a Third-Culture Kid is the book you have been waiting for. Every tale springs from a heart that intimately identifies with that yearning. Each of us have had unique life experiences. Yet every one of us has a fierce desire for belonging, for relationships built on authenticity. Diary of a Third-Culture Kid highlights that we can love two places without being disloyal to either, and that it’s possible to flourish as Third-Culture Green. The occasional glimpse of the eternal in these stories is a poignant reminder that we are never alone on our pilgrimage for home.
A great read for any Third-Culture Kid!
