I wanted to share some interesting information about Third Culture Kids (TCKs). "Third Culture Kids" (TCKs) describe kids who have spent a majority of their developmental years outside their passport country. TCKs integrate aspects of their birth culture (the first culture/passport country) and the new culture (the second culture), creating a unique "third culture."
Missionary Kids (MKs) typically spend the most time overseas in one country. 85% of MKs spend more than 10 years in foreign countries and 72% have lived in only one foreign country. MKs generally have the most interaction with the local populace, integrating themselves into the local culture; and the least interaction with people from their passport country. This makes it much harder for them to return to their passport country for college, a job, etc.
There are different characteristics that impact the typical Third Culture Kid:
- Teenage TCKs are more mature than non-TCKs, but ironically take longer to "grow up" in their 20s.
- 90% feel "out of sync" with their peers.
- Lack a sense of "where home is" but often nationalistic.
- Depression and suicide are more prominent among TCK's.
- Some studies show a desire to "settle down" others a "restlessness to move".
- TCKs are 4 times as likely as non-TCKs to earn a bachelor's degree (81% vs 21%)
- 40% earn an advanced degree (as compared to 5% of the non-TCK population.)
- 45% of TCKs attended 3 universities before earning a degree.
- Educators, medicine, professional positions, and self employment are the most common professions for TCKs.
- 90% report feeling as if they understand other cultures/peoples better than the average American.
You know you are a Third Culture Kid (TCK) when:
- "Where are you from?" has more than one reasonable answer.
- You've said that you're from foreign country X, and (if you live in America) your audience has asked you which US state X is in.
- You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
- You have a passport but no driver's license.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your "home" country.
- 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..."
- You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.
- You get homesick reading National Geographic.
- 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.
- 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 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.
Information resourced from : http://www.tckidnow.com/whats-a-tckid/