A Third Culture Kid meme

11 Replies

As a nomadic person by birth I have made a lot of acquaintances and friends in my thirty years of life. Whether a person comes into my life for a few minutes or a couple of years, there is one question that will always be asked.  

The question: 
“Where are you from?”  

Of course here in England it gets slightly altered with the wording:
“Where in America are you from?” 

In my first year back to England I would answer without missing a beat “I’m not.”  

Which of course leads me into a much longer answer.  

This photo pokes fun at my situation that is being a TCK. 

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/01447158394306745621 being erica

    this might make me look silly.. but.. what is TCK?

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

      No, not silly at all. It is something I am and I only found out about it while at University. A TCK, or Third Culture Kid, is someone who spent good amount of time as a child growing up in a country/culture outside of their parents. My parents are American, but I grew up in England, Germany, and Italy until I was seventeen years old. Read more about my personal experience of being a TCK: I am a TCK & Expat Thank you Erica for commenting with your question. xx B.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/11949603215180300118 Tali RockMyHeels

    OMG this meme made me lol! I have exactly the same face when I get asked that question and lately I try to make it as simple as possible, because if I start to explain, I only get people confused:)
    So how many languages do you speak?

    xx
    Tali

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

      So glad you could connect to this Tali. My husband found this originally for me and shared it with me and I had to share. I just cannot give an easy answer. I moved to the US when I was 17 and lived in many places over the next ten years. People will to to get me to be specific and askme ‘but where in the US are you from?” Or where my parents are from…which I’ve never spent any significant time there either. I speak English. 😉 Unfortunately I know travelers Italian and enough French and German to be able to eat . I moved so frequently (2-3 years, sometimes more frequently) and for the most part went to schools with other US military kids. I keep trying to work on my Italian so I do not lose what I’ve learned. What languages do you speak? xx B.

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/11949603215180300118 Tali RockMyHeels

      Wow you do a lot of moving! How do you cope with it? Do you miss places?
      I moved 4 times in my life, Kazakhstan -> Russia -> Kazakhstan -> Israel -> Holland. Since I spent many years in every place, I speak Russian (mother tongue), Hebrew, Dutch and English. I also used to speak German, but Dutch took over:)

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

      I have always moved so I am kinda addicted to it, to be fair. But yes, I def. do miss places! Plus all the little aspects of places. Its been years since I’ve been to Austria and I crave this food item, Germknodel so much its not fair. :( hehe.

      I am so jealous you’ve been able to pick up so many languages. I worked beside a man who spoke Dutch when I first got to England and I fell in love with that language. I need to stick to one language and get fluent. :)

    • http://www.blogger.com/profile/11949603215180300118 Tali RockMyHeels

      I guess I can speak languages because I was always thrown into the environment that didn’t speak English, so I had to learn with blood, sweat and tears :) I know what you mean about food, I miss some foods too! (have no idea what Germknodel is, but I already want to try it!)

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03481775343584575260 Casey Martin

    I love this… I know exactly what you mean and for years have been struggling with this too. Sometimes I just want to say “I’m a child of the whole world” and leave it at that :)

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

    Casey I love ‘I’m a child of the whole world’. When I was a freshman in Uni I used to say ‘no where’ when people would ask where I was from, without realizing it sounded a bit negative. A friend brought it to my attention and since then I do like to say ‘Everywhere!’ I like how no everywhere you go a little bit of that place sticks with you. Thank you for commenting Casey, I look forward to keeping up with your blog too.

    xx
    B.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

    I am in LOVE with your TCK series and had no idea there was a term for what I am/was! I HATE BEING ASKED WHERE I AM FROM! I want to say France ( where I spent the bulk of my childhood) or the UK as I am a Brit but like you I have an American accent so it never flies well. Sigh.

    http://www/phuketfamily.blogspot.com

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/05022023043718407104 Bonnie Rose

    So glad that I was able to enlighten you…it is the soul reason why I blog! I love sharing about it. I only learned about it after getting married when I was 21. Just this week I was meeting a bunch of new people and they kept asking where I was from, knowing I was american by my accent. So I’d say ‘I’ve got an American Accent, but I was born in Oxford and grew up in Europe until 17 I just lived in the states as an adult pretty much’. To which they take a beat and then ask ‘okay but where in the us are you from’. I’m not! :)