Name: Dual Citizenship Dilemma: Where Is Home?! (3rd Culture Kid??)
Uploaded: 2020-03-01T08:55:10.000Z
Duration: 9 min 19 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past simple

So I just wanted to take this moment and talk about something that I've been thinking a lot more about recently.

As a whole, as the world becomes much more of a global place.

To-infinitive

This feeling is increasingly common amongst people. So I just like to talk about my experience being...

from a dual national family having parents from two different countries, two different cultures.

And how that has affected me as a person and me growing up.

So I wouldn't consider myself a third culture kid.

Although there are aspects of that that I do relate to quite strongly.

And I'm sure some of you guys are probably third culture kids and I'll just read the definition out loud real quick.

So third culture kids are people who have spent a portion of their formative childhood years,

around zero to 18, in a culture different from their parent.

But as some of you probably know my dad is Finnish and my mom is American. Now I spent pretty much all of my formative childhood in Finland.

Where are you from?" My answer would be Finland. Automatic.

No questions asked. But on the other hand if someone asked me "Are you American?"

I would say "Well... yeah, of course I'm American." That's just the most outer layer of it. I say I'm Finnish.

I say I'm American, but what do I actually feel cuz that's just like holding a passport. Yeah, I'm from that country book.

Am I really from that country? And that's where the confusion starts to form, for me at least.

Because sometimes I feel like I'm from neither of them. And of course now I'm living in a third culture from those two.

I'm living in the UK Scotland. So now I have that add it in the mixed. Of course. I don't feel like I'm British.

I don't feel like I'm from Scotland for obvious reasons, but there are times I don't feel either Finnish or American.

So I just kind of wanted to take this time to kind of explore my feelings about this

and maybe some of you guys can share your own experiences in the comments.

So yeah, as I said if someone were to ask me where am I from.

Like here obviously coming to university one of the first questions everyone asks you is "So where are you from?" and I say, Finland.

I'm from Finland, but then I have grown up in an environment

where I do have a lot of American influences. My accent for one is clearly American.

My worldview has been shaped by my mom as well.

I've gone to the States pretty much every year of my life.

I have family there, but I don't quite feel American if that makes any sense.

But then again, I don't quite feel Finnish either like I'm kind of hovering in this weird middle place

where I feel like I don't quite belong completely in either culture.

So... let's take Finland for example, so I was born in Finland. I've lived in Finland until I was 20 years old.

I should probably feel Finnish and I do. It's the country I identify with strongest.

And if I think of a country that I would consider home,

When I think of home, I think of my parent's house in Finland.

However, when I compare myself to other Finnish people that have been born and raised in Finland as well but don't have as much of an international background as me.

I don't feel like I quite fit in when I hang out with Finnish people that are 100% Finnish.

I feel like there's a lot of stuff that we don't particularly have in common and...

And just as a whole, as I think a big part of it was I went to international school since I was 7 years old.

So I was kind of in a bubble within Finland in an international bubble. Of course, I did hobbies and I interacted with outside of the bubble.

But the bubble really made me not integrate with other Finnish people as much as, you know, probably would be ideal to feel 100% Finnish

And through that most of my friends are from an international background.

You know, that feeling where you just ... you feel like... I feel like I'm Finnish,

but I feel like I'm not Finnish enough sometime. You know, I'm too European to be American.

So for some things for example, behavior.

I don't behave like a typical Finnish person. I of course I have traits like ... like being more of an introvert,

I follow Finnish customs more than I would follow American customs.

Because you know, I was brought up in Finland, like just these kinds of umbrella terms that people associate with Finnish people.

I have more of these traits than I do have like American... "American" stereotypical traits.

But then when you compare me to an average Finnish person, I don't really behave like them either.

Or when you compare me to an average American person... I don't know,

this is like super super vague because of course there's all sorts of people in both countries.

I don't really behave exactly like either of them. Because of course when I'm in Finland

I have all these American influences that I've had that

shapes me to be a bit different from the typical Finnish kid.

And then in America, of course I've had my Finnish upbringing and all the Finnish influences

so that my perspective is a bit different.

And of course like in America you have all sorts of cultures coming together

and it's a whole racial mixture of different folk from all over the world.

But just in general, at least like where my mom's family lives and it's quite...

People don't really leave their city too much or the country for that matter.

So of course, I stick out as the "Finnish person" and...

So then sometimes it just feels like wherever I am, I'm kind of the "foreigner".

So in America, I'm seen as the "Finnish kid" ,the foreigner ,which you know I am.

And in Finland, I'm seen as "the American" because I'm not completely Finnish,

So I'm right away seen as "the foreigner" there, too.

So it kind of feels like... and of course here in the UK as well. I'm clearly a foreigner.

So sometimes it just feels like wherever I am I don't quite fit in

and I'm always kind of on the outside not really a part of that country.

That's why I guess I kind of gravitate towards other international students and people who have quite similar backgrounds as me.

Maybe they did haven't lived in one particular country their whole life.

But maybe they've moved around or maybe they went to international school as well.

I feel like we have a lot of things in common, but then on the other hand

I would never change this experience for anything.

and to have the chance to be a part of different countries and different cultures.

And I'm really really happy that my life is the way it is.

I can experience both the American life and I can experience also the Finnish life and now I'm experiencing the British life.

And I'm feeling really grateful and thankful that I've been life's handed me these opportunities and experiences to me.

So I would never ever change that to the world.

But sometimes, you know, especially if, you know, a certain instance happens

wow even though I'm Finnish, I'm not Finnish enough.

Or, wow I'm always gonna be a bit of a foreigner in my own country, you know what I mean?

So yeah, that's just a little thought I had.

But yeah and it is true when I really learned to appreciate Finland a lot more when I moved away.

That when I'm on an airplane going back to Finland,

I do feel like I'm going home when I land in Finland, I get off the plane, I'm in the airport.

I just feel real settled and it feels real homey to me. I'm like, ah, I'm finally home, I'm in Finland, love life.