Third Culture Kids do you Dare to be Green?

In an earlier post Third Culture Kids Learning to be Themselves I had written about this poem but I had not posted the complete poem. I can really identify with the words so I did want to post the whole poem. My parents are from the blue country: the Netherlands and I grew up in the Yellow country. Well the yellow country for me would be the African culture or continent. The countries I lived in were: Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. If you enjoy this poem and want to read more, read the poem "Who am I?" by my guest Marina Sofia, who was a third culture kid too.

By a 4 year old @DrieCulturen

Colors
by Whitni Thomas, MK

I grew up in a Yellow country
But my parents are Blue.
I'm Blue.
Or at least, that is what they told me.
But I play with the Yellows.
I went to school with the Yellows.
I spoke the Yellow language.
I even dressed and appeared to be Yellow.
Then I moved to the Blue land.
Now I go to school with the Blues.
I speak the Blue language.
I even dress and look Blue.
But deep down, inside me, something's Yellow.
I love the Blue country.
But my ways are tinted with Yellow.
When I am in the Blue land,
I want to be Yellow.
When I am in the Yellow land,
I want to be Blue.
Why can't I be both?
A place where I can be me.
A place where I can be green.
I just want to be green.

What about you. Do you dare to be Green? Do you enjoy being Green? Have you accepted that you are Green?

Related posts:

• A Third Culture Kid Speaking: "I'm not from Anywhere" 
• Counselors: Be curious about their upbringing....Third Culture Kids
• Book review of the book "Expat Teens Talk"
• I am all the places in which I've left my heart

A Short video about Third Culture Kids

Today it will be a post with only a few words. Sometimes there are days when it is a little more difficult to write a post. Today is one of those days. I do want to share this short video about third culture kids made by Shari Plueddemann. She grew up in Africa, just like I did.

I hope you have 3 minutes to watch and listen to her story. It's just one story but there are many thousands of people that have a story like this. These global stories need to be told. The world will be a better place when the stories a told by the children that grow up between cultures. These stories add colour, diversity, and spice to this world.

Related posts:

• Dare to be a creative third culture kid
• Third culture kids learning to be themselves
• Interview with Heidi Sand-Hart, author of the book "Home Keeps Moving"

The Most Difficult Transition For Third Culture Kids

Today I was reading a post on a new blog called La Vie Overseas. It's a nice blog about expat life as a foreign service wife. The post that attracted my attention is called Raising Third Culture Children: the other side. The post is an interview with an adult who grew up in a foreign service family. What struck me most was the answer to the question "I what place did you experience the biggest culture shock?" Now the Adult third culture kid had lived in several different countries: Jerusalem, Ankara, Falls Church (VA), Islamabad, Cairo, and Tel Aviv. The answer was that going to college in Virginia was by far the most difficult. It was actually pretty easy to adjust to all the other countries.

Home: where the tulips grow? By DrieCulturen

Wow! It sounds just like my story. When I was a child and later as a teenager our family moved several times, within cities, within countries and within the African continent. I cannot remember being really sad about leaving every time. It was a way of life, many families around us led the same kind of life. The big shock came when I went to university in the Netherlands. The rest of our family stayed in Africa so it was out on my own this time. I have written about it in an earlier post: Cultural identity confusion and the third culture kids. All my life in Africa I had felt Dutch and now being in the Netherlands all of a sudden I was not like the other Dutch university students. We did not think alike, we did not feel alike, I had completely different associations with certain things. The worst part was that no one had prepared me for this "culture shock". We can all have a "pity me" party now but that will not help. I just hope that there are people out there: parents, teachers, therapists, friends and family who are preparing teenagers for their return to their "home" country or for the transition to college or university. Let's raise the awareness about the challenges these youngsters face. From the comments on this blog I can see that there are many more like me who would have liked a little more help, a little more preparation, a little more support. It's such a lonely road to walk.

Luckily there is some information available on this subject:

1. A Third Culture Kid's Guide to college: it's at DenizenMag an online magazine
2. The book "The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition" by Tina Quick. It's a useful book and I wish it had been written when I went to university.
3. My earlier post "Third Culture Kids going to university"
4. "The 10 Things every global nomad needs to know before leaving for university" found on the website International Family Transitions.

Please share your thoughts on this subject. Do you know of any useful resources for preparing teenagers to return to their "home"country?

Related posts:

• Third culture kids learning to be themselves
• Neither here nor there: where do I belong?
• The downside of growing up as a third culture kid
• I am all the places in which I've left my heart

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.