Yes, I won an award!

It's a good tradition to celebrate achievements. So let's celebrate the fact that I have been nominated for the "Versatile Blogger" award. I have to confess I have actually been nominated twice. I was nominated by Wordgeyser first and then by a fellow third culture kid Expat Alien. Thanks to you both!

Of course there are Versatile Blogger rules. I may nominate new bloggers and I must tell 7 things about myself.

First I will tell 7 things about myself:

1. I failed my drivers license test more than 3 times, I did get it in the end. I did the tests in Zimbabwe and I actually had to use hand signals too. I must confess that was ages ago. Lesson learned: never give up.
2. I was born on a mission station in the Zambian bush. My parents received a chicken as a present when I was born. Lesson learned: good things can happen where ever you live.
3. I just adore ripe juicy tropical fruits, it's a heritage of growing up in Africa. You know the mango's, passion fruits, gooseberries, papayas, bananas just don't taste the same here in Europe. Lesson learned: eat the local fruits and enjoy them to the full. 
4. I was a school prefect at high school, most Dutch people have no idea what a prefect is or does. Lesson learned: a as third culture kid I often have to explain things to other people.
5. I love ice skating even though I was about thirteen when I went ice skating for the first time in my life. Recently I wrote about ice skating fever here in the Netherlands. Lesson learned: You're never too old to learn something new!
6. I have been writing on this blog for less than a year and I really enjoy it. Third culture kids love exciting new things. Lesson learned: I love new adventures and challenges.
7. One of my favourite drinks is: Tjendol (or Cendol), in good Indonesian restaurants you can get it here in the Netherlands. It's just divine. It's with coconut milk and palm sugar. Lesson learned: you're never too old to taste something new. 

   

   Tjendol

   Now for nominating the new bloggers:

1. Mummy in Provence: I enjoy her global differences series about having a baby abroad.
2. Expat Life with a double buggy: I like Amanada's posts because she write about being an expat mum here in the Netherlands.
3. Tales from Windmill fields: Having lived most of her life in Spain Rosalind is now raising a trilingual daughter here in the Netherlands. Her blogs are about her new adventure here.
4. Raising third culture kids She is married to a German TCK and writes about here "fusion family".
5. Julia Simens is author of the book "Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child" and she is educator. Her words of wisdom and experience are worth reading.
6. Libby Stephens is a Third Culture Kid consultant and writes about children growing up in other cultures and everything that has to do with it.
7. Third Culture Kid Life by James R. Mitchener. I like the writing style and the topics too!
   
   
   Congratulations to all the above mentioned bloggers. Thank you for who you are and for your blog.
   

Twitter update week 16: children growing up in other cultures

Thank you all for visiting my blog. I am really excited that many people find the way to this blog and I hope you find what you are looking for. It's time for a twitter update. I will share recent interesting twitter links with you. I also want to let you know that I wrote a guest blog this week at The Migrating Yankee. The post is called "Clogs with a story to tell", do hop over and have a read. I met Tiffany from The Migrating Yankee at a writing workshop and she was the first person who asked me to write a guest blog. Thank you Tiffany, it's always good to celebrate your "firsts".

A guest post about not fitting in & Third Culture Kids: http://bit.ly/JetxNZ

Dutch tulips: Spring in the air @DrieCulturen

Great post on Third Culture Kids from @marilyngard: "Chameleon, Imposter, or Third Culture Kid?" http://wp.me/p1gwBI-Bb

Found this today. For TCKs change is imminent! How you deal with it makes the difference http://bit.ly/HYNSoS

Third Culture Kids - Emotions about Moving Back Home for University http://bit.ly/INbFLP

Here's the story of someone who is proud to be a third culture kid! @DougGulleson                    http://bit.ly/IQSsDM 

Gr8 story of a third culture kid becoming an expat "My home is airport terminals, new sites & city streets" by @TweetingAuthor http://bit.ly/HUlk3g 

Having a Baby Abroad – Global Differences Series: USA http://is.gd/Js7OZa #Global_Differences

RT@JoParfitt Writers Abroad Radio show 37: Nina Sichel, co-editor of fab, research-packed TCK stuff: Writing Out of Limbo http://bit.ly/HPMqsp

Rejoice with your family: Top three things to do with your Global Nomad http://goo.gl/7UVrf
Global parenting has its drawbacks but the joy.. RT@ExpatApple Global Parenting – My Telegraph http://soc.li/4G7FTUK

The Significance of Food and the Expat Child http://vsb.li/JhkH88 via @Jsimens

Check this RT@Jsimens uploaded a @YouTube video http://youtu.be/4yY3qYzHwOA?a How to Build Emotional Resilience in Your Child

"Ik snak om meer te zien van deze wereld!" Jessica 13jr, geboren in #Australië, gewoond in Dubai en nu NL http://bit.ly/HMOD8G

If you have interesting links please share them with us. Thanks

New book: Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child by Julia Simens

Julia Simens has recently written the book Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child practical storytelling techniques that will strengthen the global family.
Julia Simens is an author, educator, consultant and presenter with a focus on international relocation. This has kept Julia coming and going from the USA for over 20 years. She has worked on five continents with families who are relocating all over the world. With a focus on family therapy and early childhood education she has helped many children and families adjust to their global lifestyle. Read more: http://www.jsimens.com/

Doug Ota, child psychologist has forwarded the book. He writes that the book "has broken the skill of understanding feelings into easy digestible and imminently practical steps that any parent can apply. No book has ever done so with the special issues of an expatriate or mobile population in mind."

Definition of the word "Resilience" according to Wikipedia:
"Resilience refers to the idea of an individual's tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual “bouncing back” to a previous state of normal functioning, or using the experience of exposure to adversity to produce a “steeling effect” and function better than expected."

The book is essentially written for families with younger children (unto approximately 8 years old) but it contains lots of information on different kinds of emotions (like fear, anger, grief, sadness, and aggression, just to name a few). It would be good for parents, grandparents, teachers and anyone working with third culture kids (global nomads) or expat children to read this book. Let's face it we all want to raise resilient children, don't we?

In the book Julia writes "Reflections about moving" and one sentence just jumps out of the page. It is the sentence:"Children understand and want to talk about what their life has been being an expat child". I think it is so true. Remember I know what she is talking about, I made several international moves as a child. I think this would also be true for children of refugees, immigrants, international adoptees and other kids known as cross cultural kids. So please let's make an effort to talk with these kids moving globally.

Watch this film and experience the book launch in May 2011 at the New International school in Thailand.

 

Here is a book review of "Emotional Resilience and the Expat Child" written by Wordgeyser (an expat blogger living in the Netherlands). 

 Read an interview of Julia Simens done by Linda on her blog "Adventures in Expatland"

Listen to Jo Parfitt interview Julia Simens on the Writers Abroad Radio Show. It's all about why Julia wrote the book.

Julia wrote an article for the website Expat women For Mothers: But just how resilient are you raising your children to be? 

Read more on Moving globally with kids: part one and part two. 

Interested in reading more books on this topic?

Do you have any tips to raise resilient children? Please add your tips.

Global nomads on the move

Recently 3 guys traveled to 11 countries in 44 days on 18 flights covering over 38 thousand miles (about 62 000 kilometers) to create 3 short films, ‘Move’, ‘Eat’, ‘Learn’. Thanks Rick Mereki, Tim White, and Andrew Lees for the great short films you made. I will write a post on each word because the words describe the lives of third culture kids (TCKs) or global nomads very well. So today it's all about moving.

I looked up the definition of the word "move" in the free online dictionary. Here follow a few of the definitions: "To go from one residence or location to another; relocate. To cause to go from one place to another. To start off; depart."

Idioms:

move in on

1. To make intrusive advances toward; intrude on.

2. To attempt to seize control of: moving in on their territory.

on the move

1. Busily moving about; active: 

2. Going from one place to another: 

3. Making progress; advancing: 

A study in Denmark found that children who had moved house more than three times were more likely to have been suicidal. "Children may feel ignored and have no one to communicate with. A suicide attempt may, to some extent, express the need for more attention from their parents." So parents please keep talking with your kids before, during and after moving. Many third culture kids (TCKs) or global nomads have moved more than three times. Actually I just discovered that I fall into this at risk category.  Before my 20th birthday I had lived in four different countries: Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the Netherlands. Two different continents. In Malawi we lived in Blantyre and Lilongwe. In Zimbabwe I lived in Bulawayo, Mutare and then we moved back to Bulawayo again. Normally I don't add the times we moved within a town, that did not really count for me, but it does count! I am kind of losing count now but I think I moved at least 11 times before my 20th birthday. Heidi Sand-Hart, an adult third culture kid (ATCK) wrote a book Home Keeps Moving. Guess what? It's all about moving.

The American Academy of Child and adolescent Psychiatry writes that children who move frequently are more likely to have problems at school. In the article there are also 7 tips for parents to make the move easier for kids. One that is very important for kids moving around the globe (TCKs) is:

Help children keep in touch with friends from the previous neighborhood/country through telephone, skype, letters, e-mail, and personal visits. 

Julia Simens has written about The top 10 ways to cope with any transition. She is the author of the book Emotional Resilience and the expat child. You can read a book review by Wordgeyser here.

Words I associate with moving are:

• change
• chaos
• stress
• uncertainty
• adapting again
• losing friends

Of course there are positive things about moving but today I want to focus a little on the negative side. After writing all this I must admit that I still enjoyed this film. I hope you do too.

 

Third culture kids (TCKs) or ATCKs what are your experiences with moving? What are your thoughts on this topic? Parents of global nomads do you have advice for other families? What are the lessons you have learned? I want you to know that I appreciate your comments.

Want to read more? Read my post Global Nomads on the move part 2

Lees ook: Verhuizen met kinderen

From the "Walk of the World" to Modern Technology: My 7 links

A big thank you to Tiffany at Clogs and Tulips who invited me to join in the 7 links Project. It's a real honour especially because I have a young blog. It is not even 2 months old. They say "time ripens all things", I think it ripens blogs too. So I hope my blog ripens into a nice juicy mature blog. I recently met Tiffany at a writing workshop run by Jo Parfitt. The funny thing was that I had already visited Tiffany her blog and even put a link to her blog on one of my posts. It was nice to meet, hope we meet again. Bloggers must be nominated to participate in the 7 links project. This gives me the opportunity to re-post 7 links to some of my best blog posts. Then I get to nominate 5 other bloggers.

Just as young kids struggle with languages especially when they grow up bilingually, so I have struggled on this blog with my language. I started in Dutch and recently switched to English. In my post Interesting worldwide third culture kid news I wrote about this language struggle. It complicates my links a little because some will link to a Dutch post and some to an English post. Please bear with me and give me some grace. Thanks I appreciate that.

My most beautiful post is Tropische bloemen en verhaaltjes. I like it because of the lovely photos of flowers like the Flame Lilly. The post is also about stories, my mum always had a story ready about something.

My most popular post is my post on Modern technology a blessing or a curse for our third culture kids? I do know that modern technology has really changed the lives of children growing up in other cultures. There was a time when my parents lived in Zimbabwe and I lived in the Netherlands and internet and email was not available yet, can you believe it? It seems ages ago! My most popular Dutch post is Voorbeelden van Adult Third Culture Kids (ATCK). The post gives examples of Dutch people who grew up in another culture. Adult third culture kids are creative, think in possibilities, have compassion and get into action.

My most controversial post well I don't really write controversial posts. Maybe this one will do: 10 nadelen van het opgroeien in het buitenland. The post is about the 10 disadvantages there are of growing up in another culture. There are also advantages of growing up overseas. Not everyone wants parents to read about disadvantages but they do exist.

My most helpful post is this one: Aga Magdolens TCK film Les passagers. It has a link to the trailer of this film on third culture kids. It can help children who have grown up in another culture. This short film speaks to my heart, it is so true. It helped me. The trailer starts with these words:
"I come from here I come from there
In truth I come from everywhere.
My tongue does not have a mother
my language is an open mind.
Before I learned how to walk I already knew how to fly!"

A post whose success surprised me is my post on the Nijmeegse wandel vierdaagse: The Walk of the World. The post is about things Dutch children growing up overseas should know about. This year it was the 95th time that the "Walk of the World" was organized. A real international event.

A post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved Adult Third culture kids an under-tapped source of high quality expats? I enjoyed writing this post and I would have liked more comments. I would have liked to have a discussion on this topic, maybe something for in the future.

The post that I am most proud of is a Dutch post Spiegeltje Rondreis, opa en oma met kleinkinderen in Verwegistan. I just had so much fun writing it. I like Annie M.G.Schmidt her children's books. She is a very well known author of Dutch children's books. She wrote so many lovely stories and the post is based on one of her stories. It's about grandparents with grandchildren overseas.

I would like to nominate these bloggers to take part in the 7 links project:

1. ExpatriateLife because I like your post on "third culture kids starting careers".
2. Julia Simens author of the book "Emotional Resilience and the expat child", she helps families worldwide. She knows about kids, emotions, moving around and other cultures.
3. Libby Stephens because Libby has such resourceful posts on third culture kids.
4. Reflexions  She is from Nigeria and lives in Germany with her husband and two children who she calls the UFOs (Unlimited Flying Opportunities). I like your post on third culture kids and I love Africa.
5. Tales from Windmill fields written by someone living in the Netherlands. She was a third culture kid too, has a British passport and grew up in Spain. Now raising a trilingual daughter.

Each blog is worth a visit. Please follow up the links and enjoy the visit. The blogs all have something to do with children growing up in other cultures, third culture kids, also called cross culture kids or global nomads.

What are your favorite posts? I would love to hear from you.

Twitter update week 31: news on third culture kids (TCKs)

Resource for multicultural parents & kids Bringing Up Children Bilingually: http://bit.ly/qTN53e

The story of a Third Culture kid (TCK) feeling foreign when she is not a racial minority "a stranger in my own skin"  http://t.co/XNYK7yO

All about Third Culture Kids (TCKs) starting careers http://t.co/ui8v2es 

Jo Parfitt interviewed Helen Maffini, author of  the children's storybook Sammy’s Next Move (written by an adult TCK for TCKs): http://bit.ly/rb6jxC

Building resilience in children&teens: Giving your children Roots and Wings! http://t.co/kyk3CpS 

Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself, a Video TED.com http://t.co/NvH1Wey

Have you found your story? Inspiration from the stage to the page http://t.co/gCICwv4 hear all about food: the Food Inspirer!

Jonathan Griffiths and Marion Knell discuss re-entry as it affects the entire family. http://bit.ly/pNoH6e

The End of Expatriate Life Leads to Re-Entry Shock http://ow.ly/4xaf1

Andrea Expat July Feature: Emotional Resilience & the expat child http://bit.ly/nO8OaY

Calling all Expats/Repats - here's a fun way to define "where's home?" Families in Global Transition are producing a cookbook http://www.figt.org 

10 ways to cope with any transition by Julia Simens: http://t.co/QfcSCLG 

Je puber veilig laten opgroeien in het buitenland http://t.co/Avg4Krp artikel van RNW

Interesting worldwide third culture kid (TCK) news

Recently I have been having quite a struggle deciding whether this blog should be in Dutch or in English. Originally I wanted to write it in Dutch, so that is how I started, sprinkling some occasional English phrases into it. The problem is that the goggle translation does not work from Dutch to English because there are some English words in the text so the machine says it is already in English. Maybe this is the kind of struggle I have had in my life. Some kind of language struggle. In Dutch I struggle with the "d"s and "t"s. If a book was originally written in the English language I really want to read the original English version and I struggle with the translated Dutch version. Well I think I will just treat you on an English post today and we will see what the future will hold. I am not sure that one is allowed to mix languages on a blog, but that is the problem with third culture kids (TCKs), we do not fit in the box and we do not always do things the way the should be done. Who's fault is that? Can I blame it on my parents? In this day and age we always want to blame someone....

I will share some interesting links, blogs and twitters I came across this week. Be informed and have fun!

• Did you know that Colin Firth, the actor in King's Speech is a third culture kid (TCK)? Read Cami's post I'm in love with Colin Firth on Libby Stephen's website, Cami's post is worth reading.
• Culture shock described by an American coming to the Netherlands: Insego community
• New blog post: 10 ways to lead by example as parents, written by Julia Simens author of the book Emotional-Resilience and the Expat Child. 
• The youngst third culture kid (TCK) that I have found who writes her own blog is Eliana, she is 11 years old and lives in Miami, Florida. She has lived in many places including St.Petersburg, Russia and Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• A blog post about third culture kids (TCKs) on Nekky her blog Reflexions, Nekky is a Nigerian girl living with her husband and children in Germany. 
• The top 10 most spoken languages of the world 

  
Twitter updates:

• RT @RebeccaGrappo Expat Radio interview w/ me on challenges of educating #TCKs overseas & finding the right school http://t.co/zJt6Dty
• @globalcoach TCK interviewed by Expats Radio on calamities of moving around http://dld.bz/abdCT #expatriate #expat #tcks #tckids
• RT @InterNationsorg Back to the roots can be difficult for #expats: http://t.co/H09EPcv Trouble readjusting? Share it at http://t.co/kjMkwf5 
• RT @Thandelike what #relocation means for this Third Culture Kid: "Lost in Transition" http://t.co/8EQCWBD #expat #TCKs   
• RT@3rdculturechild "Moving is the 3rd most stressful life event". Really? Wouldn't have guessed that in a million moves! http://t.co/jNTMrLV
• Are you a Third Culture Kid? Help @denizenmag learn more about modern #TCKs by taking our survey: http://t.co/1Hvs2NJ did it!