Third culture kids

Ji Min Kim

Have you ever lived in any foreign country? Have you ever wonder that your

home is not fitting to you? Do you feel alone when you are in home or foreign

country that you lived? What is TCK? And Are you a TCK? Well, if you don’t know,

DON’T WORRY. Here I am to talk you the WHOLE things about TCK.

First, you need to know what is TCK. Well, TCK is the short sentence of Third

Culture Kids. Third Culture Kids are kids that spent some of their growing up years in

a foreign country. So if you go other countries because of your parent’s job, then you

will be TCK. Plus when you back to your own home and then you feel something

weird in your heart and can’t immigrant.

Second, talking about some benefits and drawbacks of TCK. The benefits of

TCK are that you can speak more than 1 language and can learn more languages. So

maybe you can have more advantage of learning languages. Also you can have some

foreign friends. Such as I, I have lots of Non-Korean friends. Its good to have other

countries friends, because I can know their culture by looking through them. Plus,

TCK can know the worldview better than normal kids. It is the time that family can be

close. TCKs need to rely on their own families. Which means they need to help each

other and that actually make family closeness.

Talking about the drawbacks of TCK. Some kids are having trouble when they

are immigrant their home to other place. They will get scary and nervous, because

they don’t know the culture of that country and the most important thing, language.

Some stage, they might feel lonely. Some of them can think that I am not fitting to

my home friends and you cannot not go back to the place that you lived. Well, you

can but the date that your parents working are outdated.

I am Third Culture Kids too. I was born in Korea and lived until 11 (grade 5).

Suddenly, I got the message from my dad that we need to move to china. First, I

thought it was so cool, because I can have some experiment of going to international

school or living in another country… Before I went to China, I had lots of friends and

they and I promised that we would talk in society page. Such as Facebook. However,

last year I went back to Korea and I felt that Korea didn’t fit to me, because there

were some different changes between before I moved to China and now. Now, not

many my friends are coming to the society page and I feel like I am quiet alone to my

all-Korean friends.

Have you solved the any TCKs problems after you read my essay? I hope you

do. Remember, TCKs are not only having drawbacks. I guess TCKs have more

advantages than the disadvantages. There are many people are TCKs out in the

world. So what do you think? Are you a TCK?