Sharing New Third Culture Kid Links

A couple of times these past few days I thought "oh that's an interesting post that I want to share with you!" So that's what I am going to do. Here comes 5 interesting links that are worth checking out:

1. A Series called Painting Pictures: Who are Third Culture Kids. It's a series that started in May 2013 on the Djibouti Jones blog written by Rachel Pieh Jones. She has a call for submissions too. Ruth van Reken starts the series. Ruth’s and Rachel's desire, for this series, is “the normalizing of experiences and then the empowering of TCKs and ATCKs to live life to the fullest potential.” There are many good posts there already and every week new posts are being posted, so it's worth checking her website. This week there was a great post called A Whole New Self by Dr. Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg who is is a Canadian behavioural health psychologist. She has experience working with adult third culture kids (ATCKs). She gives 8 tips how to maximize the upside and minimize the downside of the TCK experience. In the comments you can find sound advice on how to find a therapist if you need one.
2. There is a new article on DenizenMag Making the Most of Your TCK Experience When Applying for a Job. As the author says: Cross-cultural and multilingual communication skills are assets in the workplace. This is so true!
3. If you need a good laugh it's time to check 31 Signs You're a Third Culture Kid.
4. What's it like when someone who has always lived in one spot falls in love with a third culture kid? This is a guest post written by James R. Mitchner's girl friend on his TCK Life blog.
5. Here's a link to a post on Irina's blog. She interviewed me on: why I started my DrieCulturen blog. How I find things to write about? What my future plans are etc. You will learn more about me than that I have shared here. Irina is from the Ukraine, she now lives in Denmark. At 19 years of age she worked in Belgium. She is not a TCK but  after she returned to the Ukraine after one year it was very difficult, she had changed a lot and she felt that her life wouldn't be the same, with some friends unfortunately she didn't have common interests anymore, but she found new ones. Actually, no matter where she is she always finds good friends, she tries to be open to people. She has just started her blog.

By DrieCulturen seen at a local hotel in Holland

If you dicovered any interesting new links on third culture kids please share them here. 

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Great Third Culture kid information on the Web

Every now and then I post twitter updates but recently I realized that not everyone is on twitter. I wasn't until a couple of months ago. In this post I wrote about my first adventures on twitter. You can follow me on twitter @DrieCulturen. Just today I read that the number of active twitter accounts in the Netherlands increased by 60% in the last 10 months. Well that's all for now about twitter, because I decided to give you links to good third culture kid information on the web. If you are a third culture kid looking for information or a parent raising children internationally do have a look at these sites.

1. Libby Stephens wrote a great blog post on her favorite third culture kid resources. Libby Stephens is a cross- cultural transition consultant and she has worked with TCKs for more that 25 years. 
2. Denizen online Magazine it's dedicated to TCKs. Interesting information: like an infographic about third culture kids.
3. Educating Global Nomads a blog by Rebecca Grappo, a Certified Educational Planner. She is also mother of 3 grown expat children. On her blog you will find information about education, international schools, special needs and more.
4. Multilingual Living is a place where parents raising children in more than one language and culture can find inspiration, tools, advice, wisdom and support! Worth a visit.
5. In Culture Parent is a website for parents raising little global citizens. There's lots of different information there.
6. MummyinProvence Ameena Falchetto is third culture kid and an expat living in France. She has lovely posts on her site about the Global Differences in Baby-making. Nice photos and advice from mothers who have been there before.
7. Julia Simens she is author of the book "Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child", educator and consultant. She has a blog and here are her "Mustreads".
8. Raising My TCKs it is an online community with personal stories about parenting third culture kids.

I hope you find what you are looking for. If you know of good sites, please let me know. If you need information about third culture kids but you can not find it, please let me know. Maybe I can help.

Raising awareness about third culture kids: a brilliant idea.

Recently I stumbled on an interesting article in the Denizen online magazine. It is an interview with Alicia Ingruber (an ATCK) and the titel of the article is Sharing the TCK Experience through Design. I was impressed by the content of the article and even by the title.

Alicia is an adult third culture kid, she was born in Australia, and lived in the Philippines, Canada, Cyprus and New Zealand. I was also excited to discover that she is partly Dutch too! At the age of 22, she discovered she was a third culture kid (TCK). She is a graphic designer and she created an information package for young TCKs moving to New Zealand.

There are 3 parts to the TCK information package:

1. A children's book for 6 - 10 year olds. It is a story all about moving and going to a new school.
2. A booklet for parents, with on one side the positive aspects and on the other side the negative aspects of being a third culture kid. It includes tips for parents.
3. It is a card game: all about creating a sense of belonging. It is a conversation starter.

 

Alicia "We need to get more awareness out there. Being a TCK is something you should be proud of, and that there are so many people going through the same things you’re going through."  

I am excited about the information package. Is it not possible to make it an international project? A global information package available for parents, teachers, international schools, expats, companies etc? What do you think? Could it be possible? Do you have suggestions? Please let me know. Thanks.

Third Culture Kids Going to University

Graduation

Have you heard of Denizen Magazine? It is an online magazine dedicated to third culture kids also known as TCKs. There are more than 14 people contributing to this magazine. See the list of contributors here. It is a very multicultural group of people that have lived in many countries of the world. I am enthusiastic about one of their latest articles: A Third Culture kids guide to college. The article is full of links and worth reading if you or someone you know is going off to university or college. Please share it with your friends and family.

I remember the question I came to dread when I started university here in the Netherlands. It was the question: "well where are you from?" Now there someone just asked me one of the most difficult questions there is to answer. In my mind I would think shall I give a short answer or shall I give the whole story? The short answer was "I am from Friesland" (that is up in the north of the Netherlands, where my dad comes from). By the way in Friesland many people speak Frisian. I can actually speak some Frisian too. It has happened that when I gave the short answer and said that I came from Friesland, the reply was "so that explains your accent". Little did they know that the accent in my Dutch was actually an English accent. Now for the long answer I sometimes gave: I was born in Zambia, lived in Malawi, my parents now live in Zimbabwe. My parents are Dutch but I have never really lived here. Usually after the long answer our conversation would end. We had no similarities, my background was so totally different to their story. Occasionally there was the odd question: in what kind of house did you live in? What did you eat there?

Denizen Magazine has another article on 8 do's and don'ts for introducing your TCK background. How can you celebrate your experience abroad without boasting? It's worth reading if you are about to start at a new school or college.
The first tip is interesting:

"Don't give everyone you meet your life story"

So maybe I should have answered with the short answer instead of giving people and overload of information within a few minutes of meeting me?

A book worth reading if you have just started university is "The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition" written by Tina Quick. She is an adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK) who, having made 18 moves (9 of them before her 10th birthday) understands well the cycle of loss and grief involved in a cross-cultural lifestyle. Tina has raised her own TCKs across four cultures and continents including Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. On the website International Family Transitions Tina gives a list of 10 things every global nomad should know before leaving for university.Check it out.

Recently I wrote 2 blog posts in Dutch. One is about one of my first days at university and the other has 5 tips for students coming from overseas.
Waar kom je vandaan?
5 tips voor jongeren die vanuit het buitenland komen en in hun "thuisland" gaan studeren

Do you have advice for third culture kids going to university or college? Please share it with us. What were your experiences?

Image thanks to hmm360 Morgue file