(Editor’s note: This is Pt. 1 of a two-part series about growing up as a cross-cultural kid. You can jump to Pt. 2 here.)
“You’re so lucky to be a citizen of the world!”
I heard this all the time as a child and young person. I definitely liked the label, but it had significant downsides as well. I was a bilingual and bicultural kid, attending an international school and spending the nine months of the school year in Greece and the other three months of the year in the United States.
My international school gave me the opportunity to travel and be taught by cultured and open-minded educators with diverse worldviews. I had family on different continents and friends from all over the planet. International festivals were my favorites. Food, drink, and music from around the world.
What could be better?! And yet, there is a dark side to that privileged lifestyle.
If you have children or are planning to, and you are living or planning to live and work abroad, read on. Your children will be receiving both a great gift and something of a curse with this lifestyle.
Who is a cross-cultural kid?
A cross-cultural kid (also known as a CCK) is an umbrella term for any child who has spent a significant amount of time in more than one culture during their formative years. In our increasingly globalized world, a CCK can take many forms. This young person often speaks more than one language and sometimes might even be a bit of a foreigner in their own land, as is the case with children whose parents decide to send them to a local international school. (This is not uncommon in countries with subpar public education systems.)
Sometimes a CCK has one parent from the country in which they are residing and their second parent is from another country, so at home they might eat, speak, and generally live like people from that second culture. A CCK might be, for example, the child of one or two expats temporarily working in a new country. A CCK can be the child of minority, immigrant or refugee parents.
This youngster speaks the language and participates in the traditions of the parents’ country of origin and has contact with family from there, but is also at least partially immersed in the local culture through school, for example, or via neighborhood friends who belong to the majority culture.
A third culture kid (TCK) is a more specific type of cross-cultural child who, like any CCK, spends significant time in a country other than their country of origin, often due to parental employment opportunities. An example would be the child of people working for a multinational corporation or the child of diplomats who move every few years.
A lot of people ask what the ‘third culture’ is in that label. “Third culture” refers to the new culture that is born when people from somewhere (the first culture) move to a second culture and create amongst themselves a third culture of sorts, which is often largely separate from the first two cultures. They create their own way of meeting each other halfway in terms of play, communication, and so on in a way that transcends the cultures of the individuals.
Did I feel lucky to be a cross-cultural kid?
Yes, in many ways, I did feel lucky. I learned about Japanese culture by eating udon and looking at the traditional paintings and calligraphy on the wall at my friend Mari’s house. I learned how to sing “Happy Birthday” in Norwegian at my friend Benedicta’s eighth birthday party. I participated in a cultural travel and exchange program with kids from Cairo. I played basketball against teams from the United Kingdom and Kuwait. I sent and received letters with stamps from multiple countries. (Yes, I am that old – no email until I was in college!)
As a result of all this, I feel like I gained a truly well-balanced perspective on religions, traditions and ways of life from around the world. My best friend to this day is a Swiss-Lebanese woman I met in 6th grade who attended the same international school as I did, and went on afterwards to study in the US and the UK.
A multi-culti gal, if ever there was one!
However, the cross-cultural life is not all diversity and delight … in Pt. 2, I further explore the yin and the yang of being a CCK and offer some advice on how to help your little globetrotter adjust and take advantage of their new environment, whether it’s in Greece or beyond.
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A Pittsburgher by birth, Christina T. Hudson is also half Greek and has – so far – spent most of her life in Athens, the chaotic but captivating capital city of Greece.
