Incidentally, those statements that I disagree with usually involve the US invasion of the Middle East and the "support our soldiers" assertion parroted by so many Americans. Their favorite take on it is always, "Even if you do not support the war, you must support our military." The hell I must. Supporting volunteer soldiers is no different than supporting the illegal occupation of the Middle East, and sorry, but I'm not going to pretend to consider this acceptable; not to sell books on Amazon and not to make anyone feel warm and fuzzy about me. Really I do not give a flying crap what anyone thinks of me – that is a fact that you could take to your fact bank.
One early morning this past week an Amazon forum poster took the time to tell me about "Third Culture" kids and adults, and this was the most helpful information that anyone has ever given me since I have been in the US. Wow! There is a coined term for what I feel, what I am, why I disagree with Americans all the time, and why I have never adjusted to life in the United States! It was a shocker for me as all along I considered that it must be me, and what a depressing thought. My contradictory thoughts of being a foreigner in a foreign land are now reconciled.
The Amazon forum poster was so kind as to furnish a link to a website on the topic and offered a book recommendation. I think the poster is female and figure that she must be another one of us third culture kids to be as knowledgeable as she is on the topic. The Third Culture Kid (TCK) website has lists with 500+ answers to:
You know you're a TCK when…
- “Where are you from?” has more than one reasonable answer.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your “home” country.
- Your life story uses the phrase “Then we moved to…” three (or four, or five…) times.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You don’t know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- When asked a question in a certain language, you’ve absentmindedly respond in a different one.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.
I am sure that you have the idea anyway.
On that note, I am seriously sick and tired of Americans calling me un-American just because I disagree with their own indoctrinates in American society. It is an indoctrination in which I did not participate.
Image © 2007 S. Greg Panosian / © 2010 iStockphoto.com
