Track 22

Unit 2b.

Anthropology.

Third culture kids.

Pages 32 and 33.

Listen for main ideas and listen for details.

Well last time we talked about the stages of culture shock and I shared my experience of living and studying in Albania.

Today I’d like to talk about another subject from anthropology it’s called third culture kids as you may know many anthropologists study other cultures by living in them, this means that their children often our third culture kids or TCKs for short.

Now hat exactly do I mean by third culture kids?

Well, let’s see if we can find a definition by looking at my own three kids experience. Our family lived in Ghana Africa for seven years, of course in our home my kids learned the behaviors and the values of the American culture because my wife and I are American, but at the same time our kids were also learning about the Ghanaian culture from their Ghanaian friends in neighbors.

The kids also attended an international school which had children from several different cultures so that was another source of learning.

So third culture kids are children who grow up in a culture different from their parents native culture, while participating in this new lifestyle these children are also learning about their own identity, that is they’re learning about themselves and the world around them.

For example as young children, my kids celebrated Thanksgiving and learn to enjoy jazz music, American traditions. At the same time they were also celebrating the Ghanaian Independence Day on July 1st and we’re listening to West African high life music whenever they were with their Ghanaian friends.

So they grew up learning behaviors and beliefs of both their home culture and their host culture. That is they grew up in an environment that was a mixture of two cultures, so it was really like a new different culture, a third culture.

Now is being a TCK a good thing, well it can be helpful to children in a number of ways here are four of the most important. First these kids become interested in and learn to accept other cultures, second they learn to be flexible they live happily and successfully in different cultures, third TCKs learn to make friends quickly and they often have a large circle of friends all over the world, and finally of course these kids have excellent communication skills in several languages.

However third culture kids also have some problems that other kids don’t, for one because they grow up in this special third culture they often don’t feel like they really belong in either their home culture or their host culture. So they’re a little unsure about their identity.

For example even though our family has been back in the US for several years now my kids still don’t completely think of themselves as American and they don’t think of themselves as Ghanaian either, my son says he is a nomad you know someone who lives in many places but doesn’t really have a home.

Another problem for third culture kids is that they may not feel socially comfortable with their relatives.

Why is this? Because they’ve never really spent much time with them.

Similarly TCKs may not click with or relate well to other American kids. Often it’s because they haven’t experienced the same cultural events in their lives.

For example like seeing popular movies or big sports events.

Actually third culture kids often say they’re most comfortable when they’re with other TCKs that’s easy to understand, isn’t it?

The third and final problem for third culture kids is that they don’t have much experience making deep long-lasting friendships.

This is because they know they’ll be leaving the host culture at some time and if they’re at an international school their friends are always coming and going too.

Okay let’s end here by saying that third culture kids can understand and adjust to other ways of life and other languages, but they may not feel completely comfortable in any one culture.

However if you ask my kids they’ll tell you that they really enjoyed growing up as TCKs as a parent I’m glad they did too.