TCKs

“The Road Home” Shortlisted for an Oscar

December 15, 2011

This dramatic short by Woodstock alum Rahul Gandotra – shot in and around Woodstock School in the Indian Himalayas – was recently shortlisted for the Oscars.  

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Why Do You Go Away?

July 20, 2011

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett in A Hat Full of [...]

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Coping Strategies for the Hidden Immigrant

October 5, 2010

…but first, I had better define “hidden immigrant.” The term comes from David Pollock and Ruth van Reken’s book Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds. A hidden immigrant is someone who looks and sounds pretty much like everyone else in her “home” country, but, due to a TCK upbringing or other [...]

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You Know You’re a Third-Culture Kid When…

February 1, 2010

(This exists in various versions on various sites; this one was sent to me by a friend.) You can’t answer the question: “Where are you from?” You speak two (or more) languages but can’t spell in any of them. You flew before you could walk. You have a passport, but no driver’s license. You watch [...]

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Famous TCKs: Third-Culture Kids in the News and in History

April 5, 2009

Barack Obama: The world’s most famous TCK right now, and maybe that’s a good sign (perhaps it’s fortunate that few American voters recognized the term). …and some of his cabinet. Other Famous TCKs Santiago Cabrera – actor, Hero Julie Christie, actress – “Julie’s father ran a tea plantation in India, where she grew up.” Richard [...]

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Third-Culture Kids: Growing Up Everywhere, and Nowhere

March 19, 2009

You who are on the road must have a code that you can live by. And so become yourself, because the past is just a goodbye. Graham Nash – Teach Your Children “A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ [...]

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Coming “Home” to America

April 14, 2008

^ spring blossoms at Sun’s Menlo Park campus So I’ve returned to live (and work) in the USA. A number of people, particularly US immigration officers, have said: “Welcome home.” I am grateful for their friendly intentions, but “home” is not what the US represents for me. I’ve lived here only about a third of [...]

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Shut Up or Go Home – No Culture Likes a Kibitzer

April 17, 2007

I was recently interviewed for an article about third-culture kids, to be published in the Christian Science Monitor. In an hour’s taped phone conversation, Erik Olsen asked many questions, including: “Being an outsider in all cultures, how does that make you feel?” I thought for a moment, and said: “Superior.” No doubt that statement will [...]

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Born into It: Why You Can’t Become Italian

March 28, 2004

Most of the world’s major religions proselytize (for some, it’s a major facet of the faith), and eagerly accept converts. Except Hinduism. Hare Krishnas notwithstanding, you really can’t convert to Hinduism, because it is much more than a set of beliefs and practices. Hinduism is a system that you are born into, a fixed hierarchy [...]

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Alienation

September 11, 2003

It’s 4:00 am. I’ve been awake since 2:00, thinking, and writing didn’t quite get everything off my chest. It’s partly about the concept of “home.” I don’t have one, you see. Well, yes, I have the type that you live in, and a very nice one it is; I’m very happy in it. But I don’t [...]

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Cultural Assumptions

August 7, 2003

What You Think You Might Know About Somebody… Might Be Wrong Years ago, before we were even living in Italy, Enrico and I spent a night in Courmayeur, on the French side of Mont Blanc, on our way to somewhere. Our hotel included breakfast (most of them do), eaten at large, bare wooden tables with [...]

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Paul Hackney: Learning About India

July 28, 2003

t> filmed at the Woodstock Old Students’ Association (North America) 2003 reunion Paul reminisces about what he learned about Indian culture from Indian friends and neighbors. More Woodstock Videos Tenzing’s Monkey Tales Mussoorie Monsoon Melody Tibetan Prayer Wheels at Happy Valley Cicadas Jana Gana Mana

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Servants: Household Help in Developing Countries

January 17, 2003

If I mention that I grew up having live-in servants, many Americans assume that I must have been filthy rich. But, when I lived in Asia, most foreign families there (and many local ones as well) had servants, and needed them for very practical reasons. Picture yourself as the wife of an American diplomat or [...]

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What Happens When You’re Not a Native of Anywhere?

November 5, 2002

I’ve been living in Italy so long that I seem to be losing what minimal ability I ever had to pass for a “real” American. My accent is becoming indefinable, or so I guess. Some Americans have told me that I sound vaguely British, and a few years ago in Dallas, someone asked me if [...]

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