The Good Side Of Being A Third-Culture Kid

Now after mentioning the bad side of being a Third-Culture Kid in my previous blog and getting it out of the way. I can now mention the good stuff about being a Third-Culture kid/Global citizen.

When you tend to travel to other countries, it can have a positive effect on you, as you will experience new languages, depending on where you are going of course, but even traveling to a country with the same language as your home country can still be totally different, still different culture, and different way of speaking(accent) and communication. Moreover, you start having a global perspective after you travel to other countries, your mindset changes on things that you have been taught.

For me as I lived in Egypt for a while then moved to Bahrain, you can say that both have same languages, but, they’re totally different language because of the accent and the culture, both combined can make you feel that you are in a country with a different language than yours.

Then when I moved to Scotland, as mentioned in the 2nd blog, that I have been taught English since kindergarten. When I travelled to Scotland the English was totally different, because first, when you learn a language in school they only teach you the language that will help you in the formal life situations, for example getting a job. But they do not teach you how to communicate using this language in an informal way. So, when I travelled to Scotland, the way people spoke was for me a new English language, even putting the accent on the side, that’s another story.

Having a global perspective can be very important, I start to have views and opinions on specific things, the only problem is when I get to travel back to the countries that I used to live in, these view or opinion are considered wrong. But that’s the whole point of travelling, you start to grow and have a wider perspective from people that only experienced one culture in their lives.

The Secret Downsides Of Being A Third-Culture Kid

Looking at people that never travelled and still live in the same country they were born in, can sometimes be a positive thing and a negative thing. First, these people have more stability in their lives, they have more constant friends, and usually a stable community. And the negative side is that they will never experience what I have experienced.

The negative part about being a Third-Culture Kid or in this case a Global citizen is that I will never have that stable life. Travelling can have a big effect on friendships, as people tend to prefer friendship to be stable. I know that there are other negative aspects about being a Third-Culture kid, but this topic is very important to me as it affected me personally.

The problem with being a third culture kid or a global citizen, when I leave a country, I usually lose some friends, even friends that I was very close with, maybe because I’m no longer around, and they have other things to do than remembering that they once knew someone called Mostafa.

For example some of my very close mates back from school in Egypt, after I travelled to Scotland, some never got in contact with me until this day, and the rest used to get in contact with me every once a month, and after a year these “once a month messages” starting to be every 6 months, usually asking me when I’m going to be visiting, and then these 6 months became a year or 2, sad I know. Some of these friends, I still haven’t seen in the past 5 years, but at least we get in contact occasionally.

But the important thing is, you start losing friends from where you left and start making new ones in the country you moved to.

You know your're a Third-Culture Kid when you...

1-You can curse in many different languages confidently. And sometimes you slip foreign slang by mistake in conversations  

Some situations in life require cursing out loud, and when you can curse in other languages, it can be a lifesaver.

Sometimes you cannot be bothered by some people, you pass by that person that you hate, and with a very rude smile he/she says good morning or any equivalent, and that’s the time the “multi-lingual cursing” comes to use, you smile back, and say good morning, usually follows with a cursing word.

Cool huh?

I thought so, helps me every day.

2- you can change your accent depending on who you are speaking to

People that know me well, know that for my English, I try to use the Scottish accent so that I can be understood, because when I first came to Scotland I used to speak English in a similar accent to American English, basically no accent. Sometimes I felt that people didn’t understand some stuff, so I started using the Scottish accent, even though it can be shite sometimes, but it does the job. And when I’m speaking to a person that is not from Scotland I would usually go back to the “no accent” English.

3-When it comes to birthdays, you get birthday wishes from family or friends hours before your birthday

As it was my birthday last week, so I can relate to this one, I got birthday wishes and birthday posts from my friends and Family 2 hours before midnight.

4-You have a love-hate relationship with the question "Where are you from?"

This is probably the most common thing that I have experienced, people randomly in conversations ask, “where are you from?”, and I usually think “why does it matter where I’m from?!”, and I tend to have a different answer for every single person.

5- You know that McDonald's tastes extremely different from country to country.

McDonald's tasted very different in every country that I’ve been to.

Tbh McDonald’s in Egypt is way better than the one in Scotland.

The reason i consider myself a Third-Culture Kid (Part 2)

The reason I consider myself a Third-Culture kid is that not only was I born in a house with a variety of cultures, but because I’ve lived in different countries, with completely different cultures.

I was born in Cairo, Egypt, I got to live there for 7 years, until my dad got a job in Bahrain, so we had to move there to stay with him.

We only stayed in Bahrain for 2-3 years, the culture over there was very vague for me not only because I was young, but because I went to an international school, with so many nationalities, I didn’t even interact with locals to be able to learn from their culture. Majority of people I’ve interacted with were either British teachers or friends with different nationalities.

After living in Bahrain for over 2 years, we decided to go back to Egypt, where there I went to 5 different schools, which emphasises the idea of constant change/travel I experienced. Of course, I was exposed to many new people/friends, each had different traditions and mindsets.

These past experiences and constant change helped me later when I travelled to Scotland, again surprise surprise, we moved there because my dad got a job.

In Scotland, I got to experience a whole new culture. The culture here was almost the opposite to the one in Egypt, but there were still some similarities. The thing about being Third-Culture kids is that we tend to be a Culture Chameleon, thus, I managed to adapt to the new culture.

The only difficulty was the Scottish accent, this took a while, I’ve been taught English since I was a child. But when I came to Glasgow, it took me a good 2 months to even understand what the teacher was saying in class, I spent those 2 months nodding to anything that was being said or asked.

Nevertheless, the journey doesn’t end here in Scotland, I’ve been planning my whole life to go to Germany, so this year I’ve planned to go live there, then come back to Scotland for my final year of university.

The reason i consider myself a Third-Culture Kid (Part 1)

For those of you who are probably asking what does a "Third Culture Kid" mean? a Third Culture Kid is a person that their own “personal culture” is considered a fusion of 2 or more cultures.

Before I talk about why I consider myself a third culture kid, I want to give the story/background of some of my family members. First, let’s start with the grandparents as they, of course, have a big influence on their kids (my parents).

So for my Mother’s parents, each of them were born in a different city in Egypt, my Grandmother was from Ismailia (الإسماعيلية), and my Grandfather was born in El-Mansoura (المنصورة), both places have different traditions and different culture. My Mother was born in Cairo, so she got to experience something similar to being a Third Culture Kid, but still, both Grandparents traditions and cultures weren’t totally different, it is still domestic, but with very subtle differences.

On the other hand, my Father’s parents were both from different countries. My Grandmother was from Hamburg, Germany, and my Grandfather was from Cairo, Egypt. My father had already experienced being raised by two completely different cultures even before travelling anywhere, later in his life he got to live in Germany, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Dubai, Ireland (both Ireland and Northern Ireland), and Scotland.

Now imagine being in my position where both parents are considered Third Culture Kids. It’s a Culture blend. You walk into the living room with one of your parents watching German TV and walk into the other room with Egyptian radio or TV on.

The next Blog will be on how I actually consider myself a Third Culture Kid. How I’ve managed to live in more than three countries.