The TCK

Hey guys! I haven't posted on the blog yet, but I wanted to share my personal experience as a Third Culture Kid.

I am incredibly interested in the phenomenon of a Third Culture Kid. From what I have seen, the Third Culture Kid is the interesting by-product of an increasingly globalised world. We at the Elliott School often see globalisation as the death, or at least alienation, of culture. Westernisation, if you will.

The TCK phenomenon not only proves the relevance of culture in contemporary society, but it also strengthens the emergence of a new, global culture, one that is not inherently western but is, truly, a global culture. Although it takes from other cultures, the TCK culture is something completely new. You know how two people from China will automatically have that cultural connection simply because they're Chinese? TCKs do that too. And we find each other, somehow, and there's always this instant connection. After all, I ended up finding and dating one. It's culture that transcends skin colour, religion, and language. Interestingly, when a friend of mine came over to GWU, my roommate commented that we had the same accent. The only thing we had in common in terms of upbringing was our school--we were from completely different countries and had a different group of friends, but our accent was somehow the same.

I had the pleasure of studying in an international school, and while the strict definition of a TCK is someone who grew up in a different culture than their parents, the term applies to many different kinds of people who grew up in mixed cultures. I grew up in one country most of my life, but I can barely relate to being Filipino; after all, I didn't watch Filipino movies, I didn't attend a Filipino school, didn't have Filipino friends, I didn't even know Filipino slang. At first I thought that since I spoke perfect English, had good grammar, and watched American movies, I was culturally American. All I had to do was learn the Star Spangled Banner, how baseball was played, and get used to the over 21 drinking age and I was all set to be a perfect American college student.

Wrong.

To my surprise, it was even harder to be American than it was to be Filipino. I understood less American slang than I did Filipino slang. "Legit?" "Out of left field?" "Burgy?" "Baller?" Where in the world did these come from? And when people ask me how I am, they don't actually want to know how I am? And what in the world is Fahrenheit? Isn't football played with a black and white ball like in the World Cup? And why are people asking me why I "speak English so good?" (yes, "good") Aren't biscuits supposed to be flat and crunchy? Why is a nickel bigger than a dime? Why can't you just put the values on the coins instead of the unidentifiable faces to make things just a little easier? Oh, and for those of you taking History/International Affairs: How is American history supposed to be relevant/interesting?

Just because there's someone in ISO that speaks perfect English doesn't mean he or she will have an easier adjustment period than the rest of the kids who don't speak the language. Just because the person is white doesn't mean he will fit in America any more than a local Chinese would. In fact, many TCKs experience what it means to be the "invisible foreigner". When someone looks foreign and clearly has an accent, a group of people from the same culture, in this case, America, will often be polite and make accommodations for this person, teaching them more about the culture they are now living. Now, when you look American and speak English well, many Americans will assume you grew up in an American culture and will not make said accommodations, and embarrassment ensues if you do not pick up on their cultural cues. The invisible foreigner then shies away, afraid to interact with this new culture because he sees it as hostile and austere. TCKs are largely present in GWU. The point of this post is that the language barrier is not the only cultural barrier that ISO kids have to cross, and we need to be aware of that. Whether the new student is Chinese, Indian, Greek, or Canadian, whether he speaks English as a first, second, or third language, the average amount of time it takes people to adjust to a new culture is six months to a year. Hopefully we can make this adjustment easier.

Additionally, it's not only the people who attend ISO who are Third Culture Kids. When someone looks different but thinks alike, said accommodations are made by those from the host culture, and this accommodation is oftentimes seen as insulting. This phenomenon is especially true with Asian-Americans, who are often asked cultural questions about Asia when they may not know their parents' language, or may have never been to their parents' country at all. Get a TCK like this and mix him in with a few culturally insensitive, not-so-sober people and you get quite an aggravating situation.

Incidentally, there exists a long list of "you know you're a TCK when..." jokes. Here are a couple of my favourites that relate to me and a lot of my friends. They're pretty funny, so check them out:

• You flew before you could walk.
• 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 don't know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof
• 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 three types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 voltes, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realise that a transformer isn't always enough to make your appliances work. You have also fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
• It doesn't matter how long you live in the US. You will *never* learn to think in Fahrenheit.
• 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 the urge to move to a new country every couple of years
• You see old friends at airports.
• 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 sort your friends by continent.
• Before buying something, you convert the cost to at least two different currencie

Marice Sy, ESIA 2013