The Benefits Of Reading As A Third Culture Kid
I don’t think
it’s an understatement to say that books have played a large role in making me
the person I am today. Books have been especially important to me as a Third
Culture Kid (TCK). In brief, a TCK, also known as a cultural chameleon, is a
person who has spent a large part of their formative years outside their home
culture. The term “third” refers to the
fact that the individual does not relate to the parents culture (first culture) or the host culture (second culture), and instead feels
the need to create a third culture. There are of course many advantages
associated with being a TCK but it’s not always easy to be one. We as a group
definitely have special needs that are, unfortunately not commonly recognized. Identity
development is one of the issues that TCKs face; feeling like we have no roots
and without any clear sense of belonging means that cultivating an identity is very
difficult. On top of that, there is always a transitional interruption when
moving between places, which results in stress and also social marginalization.
I made the rare
move of being from the Third World, growing up in the First World and returning
to the Third World as a pre-teen. Talk about extreme culture shock, and at such
a pivotal point in my development too! It was not a move I made happily.
Luckily I was able to take home most of my books. Books definitely had a very
stabilizing effect on my life and I shudder to think of how I would have coped
without them.
Quite a few
people I’ve talked to about my love of literature have been surprised by how important
I think fiction is. Perhaps they feel that I’m exaggerating because many of
them don’t see the benefits in reading fiction in particular. They prefer
non-fiction because they want to focus on reading things that enrich their
lives, advance them in the job market and so on. To me it’s quite a tragedy
that some people really don’t see the benefit of reading fiction. I can think
of lots, especially from my experiences as a TCK.
Books helped me
learn more about my culture and my surroundings. I was supposed to know all about
a culture I had never lived in, but I didn’t. Reading African novels and short
stories really helped me fill in some of the gaps. Suddenly I was reading books
where characters were named Zione and Dalitso instead of Scott and Debbie. Towns
and cities in the books changed from London and Cardiff to Zomba and Chichiri.
The flowers went from daisies and honeysuckle to frangipani and jacaranda. It was definitely a big change and an exciting
one for me.
Books comforted
me when I was homesick. The UK was my
first home, the only home I really knew, and the place where I had had my first
memories. Reading books that were set in the UK helped me to maintain my
connection to that place while I felt I still needed to (until I had become
more or less socialized into my home culture). Books written by Enid Blyton, Roald
Dahl, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jill Murphy were special favourites. Historical
fiction based on my favourite Scottish heroes Mary Queen of Scots, William
Wallace and Robert the Bruce made me feel less ashamed of not knowing any
African history. And as long as I received one of the British comic annuals
that came out every Christmas (Oor Wullie, Dandy, Beano etc.), I was happy.
Books were
about revelation. Realizing the unfortunate fact that despite being a black
African I was quite the outsider due to my British mentality, and feeling
embarrassed that my European and North American high school teachers knew more
about my culture than I did, I felt the desire to change that fact. For the
first time, I was reading African books and I was fascinated. The three books that stood out to me where Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Mariama
Ba’s So Long A Journey, and Peter
Abraham’s Tell Freedom . Finally I
was learning more about my continent.
Books encouraged
confidence. TCKs are often thought of as being a bit weird, and they may
overwhelm people around them at times with their worldliness and their ways of
thinking and being. For young people it’s so easy to just conform and suppress
one’s true self in order to allow others to feel comfortable around you.
Reading books about other unique people who stayed true to their selves is
another thing I got out of my reading. My heroines were definitely Pippi
Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables.
I think that
being a TCK attracted me to science fiction and fantasy novels. I suspect this
is because TCKs feel the need to create a third culture, an alien culture. I
felt very comfortable amidst the goings-on in Narnia (Lewis), the Foundation world (Asimov) and Middle
Earth (Tolkien), and in the lands up the Faraway
Tree (Enid Blyton). It made me feel, as Anna Quindlen remarked in her book,
How Reading Changed My Life, “I am
not alone. I am surrounded by words that tell me who I am, why I feel what I
feel.”
So here I am
years after I made that first big move and years after I made that second move
to Canada. I still stand by the opinion that fiction-reading is rewarding and
has helped me to understand myself and the world around me.
Rowena is a
soon-to-be grad school student who is curious about the world and those in it.
Her passions include multiculturalism and diversity issues, social activism,
literature, music and travel. Rowena can be found at her blog, on Twitter and on GoodReads.
I'm grateful to Rowena for guest posting and, thus, allowing me to spend more time writing Magic Within, Book II of the Magic All Around series (Due out November 17th!)
May you have a joyful day!
