One of the things they warn you about when going into our line of endeavor, is that your kids won't fully belong to any one culture. They'll exist more or less in both your homeland's way of life, and that of your host country. They call these children "third culture kids." Every once in a while I get a glimpse of it. For example, the day Tennyson found a quarter and announced, "Look everybody, an American kopeck!"
Today Johnny excitedly explained this game some American girls had taught him. With no sense that such a thing is widespread back home, he told us quite solemnly, "They call their game 'dodgeball.'" I was reminded of Dr. Evil making quotation marks in the air and saying, "It's a thing I've chosen to call a LASER."
Addendum- Sorry to anyone waiting for a response on past threads. Occupied with both real life work and a familial re-enactment of the Black Plague. Fun.
Posted by Discoshaman at juin 11, 2004 12:07 AM | TrackBack
I've known a lot of MK's. They tend to struggle a lot with it during their college years but it seems like they eventually figure things out and end up being happy, well-adjusted adults. A few of them ended up being missionaries themselves. They're all odd in a certain way. It's just that they learn how to be comfortable with being odd.
-jdm
Sorry to hear about that plague thing. That can be a real bummer.
Posted by: Paul Baxter at juin 11, 2004 05:24 AMHilarious.
Hope the plague is clearing up, if not I understand sacrificing small animals can sometimes help.
Just kidding... you PETA people have no sense of humor
Get well soon! If it's that stomach bug we had 'round here that hangs on for 2-3 weeks, good luck!
Posted by: AutMom at juin 15, 2004 09:11 AMMy husband spent ten years in Taiwan as a MK. He really had no problems adjusting to life in the US when they returned, but his siblings had a bit more trouble. First, he was already 8 when they moved to Asia, so he'd experienced life in the US, his siblings were all younger and had forgotten more about what it was like to be over here. They all went to American style schools in Taiwan though and that helped them when they got back -- schools weren't a complete change. On the other hand, they'd gone to very good private schools abroad and when they returned to public schools in the US they had trouble. My husband didn't have the same problem, because he went straight into college when they came back.
I think my husband also had an easier time adjusting, because he'd spent a lot of time thinking and writing about how different it was to be a kid of two cultures. In his senior year of high school he actually wrote an essay that won him a Presidential Scholar award on the subject.
So as your boys get older, I would suggest you try to both embrace Americanism at home, but also really make them ponder their own differences from other American kids and how that makes them who they are.
At least, I'd say it worked pretty well for my husband -- or else his readjustment was all due to a really cute girl he met in college, who made him glad to be back. ;)
Posted by: Jordana at juin 15, 2004 09:26 PM