Just received a letter today from a fellow Third Culture Kid. Wow, did that bring back memories! What’s a Third Culture Kid? It’s those of us who lived outside our native countries when we were growing up. Our parents might have been in the military, or diplomats, sent by religious orders, or simply worked for multinational corporations. The things that united us, and continue to unite us in our adulthood, are the shared memories and values that are unique to having lived this life.  Just  ask a TCK where he or she comes from and you’ll get “the look” and then a rather lengthy explanation.  

While I can’t speak for each and every TCK, I think my experience is rather typical of most of us. The first overseas posting was the scariest. A new house, a new school, a new language, and a new set of rules that may or may not have anything in common with the culture just left behind. Back in the days before the Facebook, leaving friends meant cutting ties; . Learning a new culture meant diving in head first and hoping someone would be there on the other side to help guide us.  But after a period of time the new home became simply “home” and the new culture became as familiar and second nature as if one was born to it.  And each subsequent relocation became less scary and more of an adventure. 

The major upside to living a global, nomadic life would not reveal itself until we became adults. Coming in intimate contact with new cultures before prejudices and biases had taken any real hold allowed us to accept both fellow TCKs from all over the world and local children and to get to know them for who they were.  We were exposed to a plethora of cultures, foods, dress, rules, and languages. It meant that living in a multicultural world was normal. It taught us tolerance and acceptance; it taught us to judge others on their actions and not on how they looked.

 

Sure, there are those few who had this great experience but learned nothing from it. But on the whole, Third Culture Kids are some of the most curious, accepting, tolerant people I know. I think the best gift you can give your children is the experience of living in a culture other than their own.