Who is a Third Culture Kid?

One of the new ventures we're looking forward to here on MemCare by Radio is spending some time concentrating on our children. As a result we have brought on a specialist as part of our team, Jo Clifford. This is your first interview!

 

It is indeed.

 

You will be hearing more from Jo as Jo develops our Third Culture Kid programming. Now Jo, before we jump too far into this, who is a TCK?

 

Well, that's a good question. A TCK is an acronym for Third Culture Kid. What on earth is a Third Culture Kid? It's a term that originates from a lady called Dr. Ruth Useem who did a study on children growing up abroad with their families. Later the definition of Third Culture Kid was expanded upon by Dave Pollock.

 

So a lot of us have heard of Dave Pollock, but what is Dave's definition of the Third Culture Kid?

 

Well, his definition is as follows: A Third Culture Kid, a TCK, is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' cultures. Although elements of each culture are assimilated into the TCKs' life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.

 

Now that sounds wonderful. Let's see if we can break this down into a couple sections. So the first section is – a Third Culture Kid, or a TCK, is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her development years outside of the parents' culture. What does that mean?

 

The first thing I'd like to emphasize in this definition is that it talks about Third Culture Kids being first and foremost people, a person. A person created by God and created in His image. Sometimes we tend to talk about Third Culture Kid as a specimen to be studied and I'd like us to remember, all of us who work with Third Culture Kids, that actually they are first and foremost people made in the image of God.

 

Next, it talks about the Third Culture Kid being a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. So what are the developmental years? Usually they are defined as the years of the person between the ages of 0 and 18, so the time when they are growing up.

 

Okay, so now we have a lot of Third Culture Kids who are born on the field, so that's the 0 part. We're also saying any person arriving on the field between the age of 0 and 18 and they spend a significant amount of time, they're a Third Culture Kid.

 

That's right.

 

Now what is the definition of a significant amount of time?

 

This is a very interesting question. Some people would argue that the significant amount of time might be as little as 6 months and others might say it's a minimum of 2 years. Again, I think the jury is still out on that one. What one can't deny is the years of living abroad often will impact a child quite significantly. One needs to ask that person how much it has impacted them.

 

Let's ask a person who IS a Third Culture Kid. Jo, now you are a Third Culture Kid. So in a quick brush, as you know every Third Culture Kid has their story, what is your significant growing up overseas?

 

My significant time of growing up overseas was from 0 to 19. I was born in Chad, grew up in Tanzania and I returned to the U.K. when I was 19. My parents returned to the U.K. when I was 19.

 

So you were born in Chad, your parents are...

 

British.

 

So that is what we would classify as your passport country.

 

That's right.

 

So you returned back to the U.K. What about schooling?

 

Yes, schooling was rather interesting. At one point we lived at a German mission station in Tanzania so all my primary education was actually in German. I did extra English at home to make sure I didn't lose my English and then later I moved to an international school which was in English.

 

One of the things that's important, just through your definition, is that there is no common standard. You yourself did German school. Other people have done boarding school. Other people have done homeschool...national school...so there are all kinds of spices or varieties of all of those.

 

Absolutely.

 

As we build up this definition, what's a passport culture or passport country?

 

The definition of a passport culture is usually the culture which your parents come from or maybe where your passport is held. Your country of citizenship.

 

Now just to add an extra twist to the Third Culture Kid definition, some people have 2 passport countries.

 

That's right. That makes life even more interesting, to identify what is your passport culture. That's another twist in the tail.

 

So the first section is, the Third Culture Kid is a person, a child of God created in God's image. Then, it says a person who has spent a significant part of his or her development years outside of the parents' culture. The next part is, 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 similar background. What does that mean?

 

What Dave Pollock is saying here is that wherever the Third Culture Kid grows up and whatever their passport culture is, they will usually merge the cultures that they are exposed to. They will assimilate elements from each culture. For example myself, in the foods that I eat. I love Marmite therefore that must be the British side of me. I love ugali, which is a Tanzania food, like a thick maize porridge. However, my German side also is there as well. I love the German food and the sausage and cheese for breakfast. So, all 3 cultures have been assimilated into my life. If you come to me for breakfast you'll have an interesting variety of food.

 

For a lot of Third Culture Kids, they may spend significant time in more than one country. They are bringing a multiple of country identities to your example of the dinner table. Some of those things are not as easily identifiable as food. What are some of the other cultural identities that may be there in a Third Culture Kid?

 

One of the biggest things that we don't obviously think about straight away but trip over regularly is values. When you grow up in a variety of cultures, you absorb some of the values from those cultures. These are not visible things. For example, when I first returned to the U.K. I always wondered why everybody was rushing around so much and always in a hurry to go somewhere. Then I realized that I had absorbed the value in Africa of people being more important than time and therefore wasn't generally in a hurry. What I realized in the U.K. is that time is important. Time is money. Therefore people were rushing, or what I thought was rushing, while they thought they were being efficient and economic with time.

 

Now does a Third Culture Kid only bring the good from a country or from a culture?

 

Not necessarily, not at all. You can also bring in the negative values or some of the negative things from the culture. It's very easy to absorb both. As a Third Culture Kid it is helpful to have time to discern or be encouraged to discern what is the good and the bad of the cultures you have been in and are going to.

 

It's very easy for a Third Culture Kid, or a parent of a Third Culture Kid, probably to identify another Third Culture Kid. How can others identify a Third Culture Kid because Third Culture Kids are accused, good or bad it depends on how you look at it, of being cameleons. How is a Third Culture Kid identified in a society?

 

Probably one of the biggest or easiest ways to identify a Third Culture Kid is when you ask them, Where are you from? There is a big hesitation and they finally decide what they're going to tell you. The other thing you often find is they have little quirks. Maybe they talk about some of the places they've been to and they're quite outrageous, quite outlandish, things you've never thought about. Sometimes it comes across in clothing, in the food or some of the activities that they do.

 

Now, who do the Third Culture Kids identify with the most when they return to their passport country?

 

Often Third Culture Kids will identify with other foreigners in their passport culture because Third Culture Kids will often feel that they are a foreigner in their own passport culture. Even though they look the same as the culture that they've arrived in, they feel very different and therefore they think, yes I identify with the asylum seeker, the person who is maybe of a different colour or from a different country.

 

Let's go over the definition one more time and let's see if there is anything we've missed. The definition that we are using for Third Culture Kid is based from Dave Pollock and the term originates from Dr. Ruth Useem. A Third Culture Kid, or TCK, is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her development years outside of the parents' culture or cultures. Now, that can be between 0 and 18. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK's life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background. So the question, then, as we've got a definition for Third Culture Kids, there are some academic descriptions of spending a significant part of life in another country between 0 and 18. They have assimilated certain things from these different cultures that they've been in, whether it's food or dress or culture. They have a sense of belonging and relationship to people of similar backgrounds, refugees, and especially now with globalization there is a lot of influx of people back and forth. How do TCKs, or Third Culture Kids, feel about this definition?

 

It's interesting. I've come across a variety of feelings about this definition. Many Third Culture Kids are angry about being pigeon-holed. They like being different and therefore don't want to feel like they are part of a defined group. However, there are also others who are very glad to finally find a group where they belong, a group of people who feel similarly to them, who've been through similar experiences even though they haven't been necessarily in the exact same countries or had the exact same experiences or been to boarding school the same as them or whatever. So there is a mixed reaction to that and what I would like to say to people who work with Third Culture Kids, who have their own Third Culture Kids, is it's a helpful description describing this group of people, but because they are people every person is different. As I said, is made in the image of God. They have different characteristics. Some things will fit them like a glove and others will not be relevant at all within this description. That is something we need to keep in mind as we work with Third Culture Kids and live with them.

 

Thank you very much Jo. We do look forward to more programs from you and probably more definitions. Very quickly can you just read the definition of what a Third Culture Kid is?

 

A Third Culture Kid, a TCK, is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCKs' life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background.