by Ruth E. Van Reken

Greetings to all,

Just to let you know that the Third Culture Kid book revision is now available. Please note a tiny title change too, just so you can make sure to find it. It used to be Third Culture Kids: The Experiences of Growing Up Among Worlds. Now it is simply “Third Culture Kids: Growing UP Among Worlds, revised edition.” (no “the experience of”..)

You can order the book here on Amazon.

So what’s the same? What is different or new in the new edition?

What’s the same is the original book is still there…the explanatory chapters at the beginning, the TCK Profile, the “how to help” chapters at the end. Hopefully they are only better and strengthened with lessons learned in the last ten years.

What’s new? Besides updating various facts and figures, acknowledging the arrival of Facebook, Skype, and other changes in our world since the first edition, we have added a chapter on Cross-cultural kids–a larger overarching category to which we belong with others who also grow up cross-culturally. Hopefully this enlargement will give us new ways to look at how lessons learned in our experience also relate to many others…and also to acknowledge the growing complexity of many TCKs stories… We feature Brice’s story as one of our examples!

Each chapter after the first 3 ends with “Lessons from the TCK Petri Dish”…the place where we examine new ways to use and apply our story to other CCKs in today’s world.

And then, the last appendix, Appendix B, is an article by Momo Kano Podolsky, writing about her research into the Japanese experience of TCKs. I hope this will begin to bring to light a huge amount of research most of us don’t know about because most is written in Japanese. But it’s great to begin seeing work done in many lands and places begin to come together.

So just want you know the revision is out and what the updates are, even without messing up the parts that I hope had helped at least some of you find language for your own story.

May you find new joy in your journey each day…

Ruth E. Van Reken
http://crossculturalkid.org

Questions? Comments? Please leave a comment below this blog.

UPDATE: October 16thThank you ALL for your responses..I’m trying to write each of you back but never sure how all of this works (Brice knows I’m internet challenged!) But what gratifies me most is how quickly you are enthusiastic for the expanding ways to see and use our many facteted stories in the larger context of how the world is becoming..and I do want to say one word to Michael. One great hope I have in doing this update is to honor the vision my co-author, Dave Pollock, already had for other types of CCKs in the first edition..we just didn’t have the language yet…but as you more than well know since you have known him longer than any of us…his work with refugees and non-Western TCKs for many years before his death as well as traditional TCKs was the seed bed for so many ideas here. My last letter to him was saying it was time to update the book as we had talked about before, but I never received a reply before his untimely death. I want to publicly honor your father here as the one who gave me my “Aha” moment more than twenty five years ago and has led the way for so many of us personally and with what is on this website now. He was a great, great man and it will always have been my honor to know him and work with him on the original TCK project and hopefully carry his vision on a bit more in this edition.

On September 5th, 2009, TCKID has been under attack from hackers. We have temporarily shut down the community to protect members security. It may not be back up and there’s a possibility that the content may not be retrieved.

October 12th Update: Pledge success! A couple of weeks ago, we challenged you to identify supporters to save your TCKID community. The goal of the Organizing Pledge isn’t just to save TCKID which has recently been attacked by hackers, but it was an effort to identify and mobilize advocates for your Third Culture Kid community.

Over 300 have signed the pledge. You can read their comments and find out what’s next here.

How will it affect your community? Why is it urgent?

The webmaster said it was very complicated to fix it and the backups have been lost. The attack that was made on Wordpress and it has affected some large websites. Wordpress is being used by governments, nonprofits and corporations. Read the News of this attack on The Guardian.

How long will it take to bring it back? It may not be brought back exactly the same it used to be. Assuming that we can do it, it would more than a week. We are organizing a pledge to identify supporters by September 25th before moving forward so you can decide what to do.

The cost of inaction and band-aid solutions is great. Every day, hundreds of people depend on the TCK community for emotional support, outreach, research and much more.

“Hi there, It upsets me so much to learn that TCKid’s currently under attack. TCKid has truly been one of my biggest emotional supports. And I can only be too grateful to every single individual in the community. – Amanda”

But we’ll need resources to make your ideas become real – to pay for part-time webmaster, keep training volunteers, organize online TCK chats and more local event, and the best technology available to empower volunteers and make sure your voices are heard.

Now it’s up to YOU to decide how the community should move forward.

What to do next?

Can you chip in $1 or more to save TCKID to beat this attack?

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DEADLINE TO VOTE: SEPTEMBER 25TH MIDNIGHT PST

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TCKID has been attacked, but we don’t want to leave you without support! Donate now and get a free chat event with our members.

We will organize a chat event so you can get support. Even though the site is down we still want to help, because we don’t want to leave you alone. So you can join the chat and still get support from members.

Why support the TCK community? Who is part of this community?

“I just wanted you to know that I am so happy that TCKid sponsored these chats in January. I have met a lot of wonderful people, and learned from them. I am really grateful to be a part of this community.” – Annette

When I lived in Texas, I struggled to fit in, no matter how hard I tried… then I actually met a TCK here in the TCKID chatroom. We exchanged emails, and eventually got on Skype … and now we’re best friends. This community really changed my life, this is why I got involved to help. – Scott”

I see this attack as a wake up call, to get more involved and to start a new way, shaping the community the way we like it to be. – Yu Yu Din

From Daniela Tudor, Brice Royer, Paul, Michelle Kim, Yu Yu Din & members of the TCK community.

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Voting and showing your support is just the first step. It’s up to you to build and organize support for the TCK community.

Invite your friends, family, and neighbors to vote and get involved.

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Hello, Colorado TCKs! For all of you who have attended a TCK meetup so far, would you take a moment to share your thoughts? I’ll start:

I thoroughly enjoyed both meetups so far! It’s great to feel “normal” once in awhile and just chat about things that most of the world doesn’t get. Despite our diverse childhoods, ranging from Europe to Africa to Asia to Mexico, we all seemed to have similar stories (someone’s story of drinking ketchup out of a cup with a straw reminded me of my own strange habit of drinking the little cups of half-and-half at restaurants!).

Lots of laughs and fun…I am really looking forward to the next one, and hoping for a great big turnout!!!

Ever wondered what TCK community leaders are up to? You’re in the right place. TCKID News is published by our team of community leaders in over 50 locations worldwide from Taiwan to New York City. You’ll find the latest meetup reviews, pictures, and important announcements.

Why this blog and not use TCKID forum?
TCKID forum is an open space for any members to post, but our team of community leaders had no platform to share news and connect with other leaders. TCKID News our attempt to give them a connection and open platform to share their news & discussions.

How does it work?

Are you a TCKID community leader?

Submit your pictures to TCKID using Flickr. Search for the TCKID group and upload your pictures in the group.
Submit your news. Register on this blog and start posting! You can submit news, requests, pictures & reviews.

Who on the Team can publish on this blog?
Teresa Aradhana Hinds – (New York City)
Lily Friend-Grover (Colorado Springs, CO)
Narges Bayat (Sweden)
….
Full List of our Team.

Questions? Email daniela@tckid.com or leave us a comment below!