My English name is Jack.
Our oldest son is a cultural chameleon. His language and his behaviour change depending on the cultural environment. The timber in his voice will switch. He’ll count starting from a […]
Third Culture
Let the Summer of (multilingual) Reading begin!
If there is one thing I miss from our previous life in America, it’s got to be the library system. I’ve written about American libraries before. I remember the kids’ […]
5 wonderful new cross-cultural books well worth your time
Following a stint of abandoned books, I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few phenomenal ones that have really broadened my horizons. What a relief! It made me think of […]
You belong here.
These days, I have been filling my fringe hours preparing for an upcoming Third Culture Kid speaking engagement. In my very early morning researching, there has been a most peculiar […]
The day they asked me to speak to them in different languages
Some of our family’s best conversations happen around the dinner table. I’ll reassure you, some of our worst happen there too. Dinner in a home of young ones is a […]
Welcome back to America, Third Culture Kids!
The kids were delirious by the time we reached the rental car place in Denver. They kept flipping from giggling to crying, while I tried to make sense of the […]
When cross-cultural kids are rejected by their own family
From this side of the ocean, I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. Those little moments of laughter or mimicking or side comments are natural and usually not out […]
Third Culture Kids in marriage: 10 survey results & trends
This past month of focusing on Third Culture Kids in relationships has been a thrilling roller coaster to say the least. It all started when the 2017 EuroTCK consultation invited […]
Third Culture Kids in love: Jackie’s story
Welcome to the third and final part of the “TCKs in Love” interview series. Join me as I interview part Chinese-Malaysian, part Filipino-Chinese Third Culture Kid Jackie who is married […]
Third Culture Kids in love: MaDonna’s story
Welcome to part two of the TCKs in love series. Join me as I interview MaDonna, who was raised in small town America and has been married to her German-Taiwanese […]
Third Culture Kids in love: Suzanne’s story
Welcome to a three part series all about married Third Culture Kids and how their Third Culture affects their relationship. For our first interview, I really wanted to hear from […]
TCK love and marriage: survey and giveaway!
Calling all Third Culture Kids in love, married TCKs or all you brave monoculturals married to TCKs! 🙂 I am collecting some data for a workshop I am hosting for […]
6 Ways to show some love to a TCK
By now, you know what a Third Culture Kid (TCK) is. It’s highly possible TCKs are all around you. They are the expat kids, military kids, missionary kids, navy kids […]
Where do I belong? The early years.
Could my young children already be wrestling with their cultural identity? In preschool?? As with many profound reflections, this one came about at the table, where precious friends asked us […]
Growing a world-shaped heart
I just love that French word “terroir”, most often used in reference to wine. Terroir describes that dynamic process by which the whole environment: climate, geography, soil, air – gives […]
The fantastic gift of being a Third Culture Kid
Hey kiddos, it’s your own Third Culture Mama here (with papa chiming in!). It’s your parents who watch from the edge of our seats as you slowly attempt to recreate […]
New Eyes for an Old Home: Adult Third Culture Kids
“I am sure you’ll be so thankful to be back home in your country” wrote my friend in a farewell card as all the cogs were in motion for us […]
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
I jumped right into All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, the fifth of Maya Angelou’s seven part autobiographical series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In this installment, Angelou writes about […]
6 tips for TCKs returning “home”
The move to my passport culture, a country I hadn’t lived in for 20 years, was littered with pain and grief. I felt the physical ache in my heart as […]
New language goals!
You might remember how down I was on New Year’s resolutions in 2015. I didn’t set any goals at the beginning of last year other than the resolve to just […]
“They’re gonna hate you for it”
I have been grateful for so many encouraging comments and emails about traveling with small kids, multilingualism, and cross-cultural living on social media. Then, almost out of nowhere, this one […]
On saying goodbye
Saying goodbye is nothing foreign to expats, Third Culture Kids or highly mobile people. Sadly, though, many of us are known for being quite poor with our farewells. We may […]
Bilingual Avenue Podcast
I am really honored to feature on this week’s episode of Bilingual Avenue, a weekly podcast with insightful tips and advice from language experts and normal parents like us, raising […]
Good grief.
Late last night, I mustered up the courage to flick through my old blog that accompanied me like a best friend from graduate school, outlasting even my first two real […]
Ditching Brittany
I sat in my favorite solid wooden chair at our kitchen table and stared out the window. Many an “aha” moment has come to me on this comforting chair with […]
That global vs. local tension
A friend of mine recently sent me a message with a question that got me thinking. He asked me how I developed a hunger for both local and global experiences, […]
Advent around the world
Living in Germany first gave me an insight into the craft of the homemade advent calendar. Ten years ago, a German friend of mine showed me a perfectly engineered cardboard […]
God Bless America.
The first Fourth of July I experienced as an Adult Third Culture Kid was in 2008. We went to some highly political parade in the middle of the country. We […]
Pico Iyer: Where is home? (TED Talk)
I posted this beautiful TED talk by Third Culture Kid author Pico Iyer to my Facebook wall the other day, but I am not sure the fast pace of social […]
The early years…
My first two were spent aboard the floating hospital in this 12 minute clip, which aired on 60 Minutes this past weekend. True story! That’s me pictured with my brother […]
Visiting Mrs. L
Mamie has forever suggested taking Ayo to a nursing home to provide some cackling cheer to sweet grannies. We finally got a chance to do so yesterday. Tata Mimi, our […]
The end of innocence
Pic and caption stolen from Time magazine (Jan 14th): A schoolgirl astride a toy pony looks up after hearing the sounds of shelling in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo. […]
RIP Nirbhaya
To our friends in #India: we share your outrage over an act of unimaginable cruelty against one of our sisters. RIP Nirbhaya -Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, […]
Baby jetlag
Well, as uneventful as the flight was, baby jetlag has been pretty bad for the past three nights. At 3.5 months Ayo had no issues at all adjusting eight timezones […]
American dental skepticism
It all started as an innocent visit to the dentist for a cleaning and check-up late August. We brought Ayo to the dentist in his car seat and meticulously coordinated […]
A walk in the park
Outside: Golden leaves glistening in the late afternoon sunlight on a warm autumn day. Inside: One baby-on-the-mend who had been quiet in his PJs all day. One papa that could […]
There’s no place like Asia…
except for downtown Los Angeles! Sometimes you just need an Asian day. That’s how I felt yesterday! So, we enjoyed a Korean BBQ lunch in K-town, home to the largest […]
Five.
It is hard to believe we got married five years ago. Since then.. -I have changed my hair color four times. -We made croissants three times – you’re lucky if […]
TCK goes to hoity toity hair salon
I got my hair cut on Saturday. I don’t cut it that often so it was a rare treat. It’s even more of a treat now that getting a haircut […]
Champignons de Paris
I found this glossy ad inside the front cover of a food magazine (left). It’s an advertisement for champignons de paris, or agaricus bisporus, also known as.. good ole button […]
All Americans speak French
Ayo and I went to our city’s central library this morning (pictured above). We sort of had to. Bringing up Bébé was due on Saturday (thankfully, there is a two […]