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Posted: 1 year ago by gratheo:
I recently moved from Indonesia, where I've lived all my life, to Canada. Although I am a Canadian, I associate myself more with Indonesia. As a third culture kid, I've been experiencing reverse culture shock, and it's really thrown me off my bearings. It's been quite difficult adapting to the extremely different culture, and I wondered if anyone here has previously experienced this / knows a good site to visit to talk to other TCK's.
Thanks in advance.
Score: [-] 55 [+].
Posted: 1 year ago by gnikgnok:
don't know of any support groups for you, grath, but Plime is the same no matter where you are in the world so you'll always have us as a constant in your topsy-turvy world!
:)
oh! and I opened this thread because I couldn't figure out why someone wanted to be a tick.
Score: [-] 57 [+].
Posted: 1 year ago by rambler:
Welcome to "my club", gratheo.
I'm Dutch, but was born in South Africa, after my parents emigrated there in '55. Same sort of thing for my wife. So we both lived there, got schooled there, studied there, got married there, had kids there. We did participate in Dutch communities there, a sort of strange Dutch time bubble from the 1950's, more Dutch than Holland itself in many ways.
Anyway, we moved to Ghana (West Africa) in 1994 and lived here for 6 years. Very different from SA, much less developed, etc. But a lot of fun. And we participated in a very wide circle of many nationalities, including (real) Dutch people.
Then from about 2000/2001, we moved to The Netherlands, "back" to our roots, but away from our soil, so to speak. A very strange experience, we do not feel really Dutch at all. Of course we are not seen as being Africans, but we are also regarded as some strange type of foreigners "at home" in The Netherlands.
This may be very similar for you, now "back home" in Canada?
Now I'm back in Ghana for a 3-year contract, my wife runs a midwifery practice in the Netherlands, she visits me here every 6 weeks or so for a couple of weeks. Two of my sons (aged 24, 22 and 20) are in the Netherlands studying, except for the youngest one, he's studying in SA. By now, most people reading this will be quite confused, and sometimes, so are we!
However, one very big positive: If I look at my kids, then I have to say the experience has made them much stronger than they would probably have been if we'd just stayed put in South Africa.
They have sometimes asked us: Are we South African or Dutch? (Since they have both nationalities.) My answer is always that they are both and that they are more than that - they are also really world citizens. And they are individuals, they shouldn't worry about classifying themselves so much.
Whew! Quite an essay from me, sorry! Unintentional. But if I was you I would not worry, and try to find friends who also have a "world-wide view" on life!
Not only friends like us here on plime (we obviously qualify) but also in real everyday life.
Score: [-] 62 [+].
Posted: 1 year ago by gratheo:
That's exactly it, rambler. I can really identify with what you described, especially the part about being a "world citizen", and not of a particular nationality. This slideshow pretty much sums it all up, in my opinion.
Score: [-] 44 [+].
Posted: 1 year ago by rambler:
« gratheo : That's exactly it, rambler. I can really identify with what you described, especially the part about being a "world citizen", and not of a particular nationality. This slideshow pretty much sums it all up, in my opinion. That is excellent! I've never seen it summarised so well.
For instance, I can really identify with the need to keep your mouth shut about places seen, foods and people experienced, etc. Otherwise the roundheads think you're bragging.
But inside, I know what I know, and it makes me a stronger person, I can cope with more than a roundhead can, I don't stress as easily about nothing at all, etc.
Score: [-] 30 [+].
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