© Positive aspects of being a TCK by Tayo Rockson

You may notice that in the alphabet the letters K, Q, U, X and Y are missing. I was tempted to fill the gap and the first things that came into my mind were keen, qualified, unique and youthful (I’m still looking for an appropriate “x” word, unless you accept “x-cultural” for “cross-cultural”…).

TCKs are keen to discover new cultures, languages, habits and qualified for an international life. TCKs know what it is like to move cultures and countries, what to expect and how to navigate an international life. All the TCKs and ATCKs I know are very youthful. They’re usually flexible in many ways, very adaptable and all in all unique. Of course, we are all “unique”, but for people growing up in the same place, sharing the same experiences (and memories) is easier than for people who move frequently around the globe. TCKs share the experience of an international life, but they usually move to different places: it’s more likely that they share only a part of their experience abroad with other TCKs.

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qualified to know what it is like to move cultures and countries – See more at: http://www.relocationafrica.com/articles/understanding-third-culture-kids-tcks#sthash.fGoGih9p.dpuf

qualified to know what it is like to move cultures and countries – See more at: http://www.relocationafrica.com/articles/understanding-third-culture-kids-tcks#sthash.fGoGih9p.dpuf

qualified to know what it is like to move cultures and countries – See more at: http://www.relocationafrica.com/articles/understanding-third-culture-kids-tcks#sthash.fGoGih9p.dpuf

This infographic is made by Tayo Rockson, author, podcaster, and digital marketing expert.

Tayo Rockson has long focused on helping people better themselves. As a Third Culture Kid, or a child who grew up in a different culture from both parents, he learned how to cope with many issues that other Third Culture Kids struggle with. As a global nomad, Rockson has lived in Vietnam, Sweden, and Nigeria, and now he resides in New York. He is working to make a difference in the world by sharing his experiences and wisdom with others. His vivacious personality and uplifting positive outlook set the stage for Tayo Rockson to be an international motivational figure. He is the author of “The Ultimate Guide To TCK Living. Understanding the World around you”, a free book you can download here. In this book TCKs and Global Nomads can learn about their areas of strenghs, fitting in, how they can thrive in the workplace, become global leaders etc.

Today he launches a very exciting new podcast series, As Told By Nomads, which features discussions about growing up in multicultural environments, getting jobs outside the country of origin, global leadership, and much more. In these podcasts he focuses on inspiring others to overcome the challenges that come with experiencing different cultures. He discusses ways to turn even the most difficult situations into positive life experiences while growing up in a new culture, as well as cover more challenging aspects of living in a new cultural environment.

As Told By Nomads includes stories, advice, and inspiration for dating as a global nomad and Third Culture Kid, as well as how to succeed in school, careers, and even entrepreneurship. – You may subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes here at http://bit.ly/1vmD3Fu; Stitcher here at http://bit.ly/1q5ldFm; or tunein here at http://bit.ly/1ohPzQZ

Tayo just released a brilliant video about this infographic!

©TayoRockson

Born in Nigeria and raised throughout Africa, Europe, North America and Asia, Tayo’s upbringing as a global nomad and Third Culture Kid gave him a unique perspective on life and he has remained committed to building the next set of global leaders. To read more about Tayo and find out about his podcast and books, visit his blog at www.tayorockson.com, like his page on Facebook, and follow him on Twitter.

Maybe a Third Culture Kid (TCK)? TCK is a term coined in the early 1950s by the american sociologist and anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem “to refer to the children who accompany their parents into another society”. Based on this definition, are TCK children usually born in their parents homecountry? – The american sociologist David C. Pollock suggested another description for third culture kids: “A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture.” It doesn’t say when such a kid did spend or started to spend life “outside the parents’ culture”, so it could be from birth? Was I a TCK before becoming an expat?

What about Global Nomads? In 1984, Norma McCaig coined the term Global Nomad as a synonym to TCK: “A global nomad is anyone of any nationality who has lived outside their parent’s country of origin (or their “passport country”) before adulthood because of a parent’s occupation”. She opted for this slightly different definition of TCK’s because she didn’t like being called a kid when she was grown up and she wanted to make clear for future research purposes that this experience happened because of a parent’s career choice. Those parents weren’t refugees or immigrants. McCaig did not want the nuances particular to each type of experience to be lost.

For this reason, Ruth Van Reken is now suggesting a more comprehensive term, Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK), for all types of cross-cultural childhoods. “A Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK) is a person who has lived in—or meaningfully interacted with—two or more cultural environments for a significant period of time during developmental years.“ – But these terms classify children again, not adults.

I would like to point out that one of the common characteristics of a TCK is “expected repatriation”. And if you are a CCK or TCK who never expected to repatriate?

Let’s see the next category: the Adult Third Culture Kid. – The Adult Third Culture Kid is the grown up (or adult) version of a child who has had the privilege of living for significant periods of time in non-native cultures. What exactly does “native cultures” mean? Is this the “homecountry” of the parents, well known to First Culture Persons? Or does it mean the country where you were actually born – and this could be an other one than your parents’ homecountry?

Instead of “non-native cultures” we can also find “in countries outside their birth or passport country/ies due to parental work-related migration” in this definition of ATCK. Are the “countries outside their birth” and “passport country/ies” supposed to be the same? And “for significant periods” always implies a longer stay, but not a lifelong stay, right? – How does this term differ from expat though?

You can also find the term Third Culture Adult. In her dissertation “Third-culture Students: an exploratory study of transition in the first year of College” (Appalachian State University, 2001), Dorothy S. Weigel refers to Third Culture Adults as “someone who grew up with the third-culture experience and is beyond the traditional college age” (Cottrell & Useem, 1993). In this way the term covers the post-college period in someones’ life.

I’m still missing a term that would sum up an expat, ex-TCK (or ATCK) – maybe global nomad? – who spent the whole life in other countries than the one of his or her passport.

I’m not a child anymore, so I might be an Third Culture Adult? I’m a German citizen, but never lived in Germany. I never only “accompained” my parents into another society, I was born into one. And I didn’t only spend “a significant part of my developmental years outside” of my parents’ culture, but all of my life up to now. And I’m in my forties…

I guess I passed from a TCK to an ATCK and I am now an expat–global nomad… or just an expat-since-birth (someone who lives out of her passport country since birth).

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Personally, I use the term of “Expat” in its original meaning from EX-PATRIAM (“out of” + “fatherland”) which, for people from romanic countries is much more logical. The term of “expatriate” comes from lat. EXPATRIATUS, which is the past participate of EXPATRIARE and means “bannished”. When telling an Italian or French etc. person that he or she is an “expatriate”, they would probably make the connection with people who have been banned from their home countries and refuse to be labelled this way because of this original meaning. This is surely true for the italian or french term : expatriato (ital) or expatrié (fr.).
I’d really like to know more about the whole discussion about the terminology “Expat” or “Expatriate” here in Europe.

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Diane Lemieux recently wrote an interesting article about the definition of expats, expatriates and the blindness of expat privilege. – In my personal opinion, the perception of the term “expat” or “expatriate” depends on the context and the people who use it. I think that many people wouldn’t consider themselves as expats when they associate a certain standard and profile of expats. The term in itself is being used and understood in many different ways around the world and it would be a great help to know also the opinion of people from the most diverse backgrounds and “expat lives”.

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• So… where’s home? [from a TCK’s perspective]
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