According to Ruth Van Reken, the sociologist who coined the term, “Third Culture Kid”:
“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.”
Many readers of the Burton Wire are third culture kids, children of ex-pats or multiracial families raised outside of either home countries or even third culture in terms of bi-racial (from the same country) or multi-religious families, having created an identity that encompasses both groups, yet speaks to their unique life experiences and existences.
Buzzfeed put together a list of 31 indicators that you’re a third culture kid. Are you a third culture kid? If so, tell us how so in the comments section and why this matters.
1. You can curse convincingly in five different languages.
2. To everyone’s confusion, your accent changes depending on who you’re talking to.
3. You often slip foreign slang into your English by mistake, which makes you unintelligible to most people.
4. You’re really good at calculating time differences because you have to do it every time you call your parents.
5. But you also have your computer programmed to help you out when your math fails.
Read the list in its entirety at Buzzfeed. Let us know what they left off in the comments section.
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