When you grow up in several different countries, it impacts you differently than when you expatriate (move abroad) as an adult. Adults who expatriate already have an identity. They know where they’re from and because they’re adults, they know how things work in their country - what is appropriate, what people mean when they don’t say something straight, and what is right and wrong. But children are constantly learning how things work. They watch adults around them to learn from them. Who they will become is still open. When you move between countries as a child, you continue to learn from adults around you, regardless of the move. It’s just that when you move countries, the world seems to change overnight. Right and wrong changes. What is appropriate changes. What people mean when they don’t say something straight changes.
Because children are still learning about everything, including their culture, they cannot fall back on “their” culture when they move abroad. Adults can remember how everything works “at home”. Children cannot, because they have never known. So there is no choice but to continue to learn from adults around you, no matter where you are or where your parents are from. The result is that you learn some things from each country you have lived in. You learn several ways of being. It’s very difficult to separate the cultures you learn from completely in your mind, because you learned it as a single stream of knowledge. A bit here and there you can probably say is from one country or another. But experiencing the stream of different cultures teaching you about life cannot be analyzed and split neatly into boxes, each with part of a culture in it. The different cultures become one integrated point of view in you. You think about life differently from people who have only gotten one kind of cultural input. That way of experiencing life in several cultures at the same time, from memory and from current experience, is living in the third culture. Children who grow up in the third culture are called third culture kids.
I am a third culture kid, and this blog is written from my third culture perspective. I can’t say that I’m from anywhere. If I name a place, I feel like I’m lying, because there are other places that undeniably made me who I am today. However, I’m not allowed to name more than one place or answer “none”. You’re supposed to be from one single place, not three or four, let alone six or more, like some TCKs. Sometimes I feel like I’m not allowed to exist because I can’t name one place I’m truly from. Most people aren’t aware that children learn from their surroundings so intently, regardless of relationship between the country they’re in and their parents’ country/countries. It’s not something most people can relate to, and it’s not something most parents think about. The purpose of this blog is to create a space for me the way I am, with my undefinable mix of cultures and ideas, to let others see one example through the third culture kid looking glass of how the world can look if you’re lacking in a sense of home, but all the richer in feeling like a global citizen.
8 responses so far ↓
1 santi d // Feb 29, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Hi! Both my husband and I are ATCK. Glad to have found your blog.
2 globalistgirl // Mar 2, 2008 at 12:08 am
Glad to know someone enjoys reading it
I guess I’m becoming more of an ATCK myself, but I feel a little presumptuous calling myself that.
3 XXLKlintonLobby // Mar 19, 2008 at 7:51 pm
H. Klinton vs. Obama. How you consider, who will win elections in USA?
4 globalistgirl // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:32 am
I approach that question more as a scientist than as a third culture kid, although my ideas about U.S. foreign policy some from my TCK experience.
I do not presume to be able to predict the outcome of even the Democratic primary, especially after the last U. S. election when I didn’t seriously think that Bush could be re-elected and was obviously completely wrong. My American friends are, just like in Sweden and China, somewhat more cosmopolitan and open-minded than your average local, or they wouldn’t be friends with me. (Even though I look and talk like them, I have some (to locals) horribly radical opinions that tend to put some people off, I have snooty manners (like eating with both a knife and a fork) and I consistently fail to behave femininely enough.)
Other than that my experience samples a very not random sample of people, you can show that the correlations between expert predictions of election outcomes and the actual outcomes is very low. They don’t do much better than guessing, and neither (obivously, as per above) would I. Obama may be subject to a tendency white Americans have to say they’ll vote for a black candidate to seem “open-minded”, but in reality vote for a white candidate, but who knows how it will end up.
5 wtck // May 30, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I’ve been reading a couple of posts on your blog and it’s interesting stuff! Also thanks for ‘promoting’ my blog (wanderlusttck)
One other thing is that I noticed in your title image you have a picture of an apartment building… it’s been a while since I was there, but that’s not the Lido in Beijing, is it?? Cause I lived there between ‘94 and ‘97…
6 globalistgirl // Jun 1, 2008 at 7:19 pm
That is indeed the Lido, highrise apartment building 6. It’s a small world
7 amaspMimi // Jun 20, 2008 at 1:30 am
Why erectile dysfunction (ED) happens?
ED can be caused by things like stress or fatigue. But a lot of times, ED is not something that you can control. That’s because it’s often due to a physical problem that affects your blood flow.
When a man has ED, the nerves or blood vessels in the penis don’t work properly. This prevents blood from flowing to the penis. And that can prevent an erection.
Causes of ED.
ED is often related to other health issues that can affect the flow of blood to the penis. Issues such as
* High blood pressure
* High cholesterol
* Heart disease
* Diabetes
* Prostate problems
* Stress
* Depression
No matter what the cause, treatment with a product such as ERECTifix Rx is usually effective.
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS!
8 RhitleRer // Jul 28, 2008 at 6:46 pm
What is erectile dysfunction?
ED is when a man has problems getting or maintaining an erection long enough for sex. It happens when not enough blood flows to the penis.
ED isn’t the same for all men. Some men aren’t able to get an erection at all. Others can get one, but it’s not hard enough for sex. And others get a hard erection but lose it before or during sex.
ED is a medical condition. So in most cases, erections will not improve without treatment.
Treatment works.
It’s important to know that ED is a medical condition and not necessarily just part of getting older. The good news is that with treatments like ERECTifix Rx, men with ED can significantly improve their erections. And better erections can mean better sex.
Talk to you soon!
Leave a Comment