Writing as a TCK
I was just looking at my last post, and realized that part of the problem I have with writing is that I am a very verbal communicator. As such, my writing can be very dry and pedantic, or it can be very vague and parenthetical. In spoken communication, I find that I try to say as little as possible until I can determine what I have in common with my interlocutor. This is probably a consequence of being a matured Third Culture Kid.
To explain the last comment less tangentially: TCKs experience a lot of occasions where they’ve contributed something which seemed obviously pertinent to the conversation, only to realize that the rest of the people present don’t have the cross-cultural experience to understand what’s been said. This can be simply linguistic (any number of cross-lingual puns, etc.) but is usually cultural or experiential. For example, I recall with great amusement and some pain the confusion I experienced in the late ’70s when boys my age were all excited about some guy called Bo Derek. And they seemed equally interested in a movie called, ambiguously enough, “10″. I finally resolved the issues, but apparently have never quite gotten over it.
There are similar situations where the subject of Africa will come up. Suddenly, I am the expert, but I eventually realize that very few people are actually interested in correcting their understanding of Africa (or anything else). Rather, they are very interested in impressing people with their own opinions.
The most dreaded question, “Where are you from?” becomes a litmus, where answering ambiguously and noncommittally allows the other to request clarification, but also allows them to nod and go on with things, indicating that it really wasn’t considered to be a serious question; certainly not one worthy of the fifteen minute response a complete understanding requires.
Well, this entry is morphing pretty drastically, so I think I’m going to wind it down. This reveals another problem I have with writing - as when I’m speaking, I tend to follow any rabbit trail that comes along, and this is even less bearable in writing than it is in speech. Perhaps someday I’ll learn control.
