About this ebook
"Where are you from?"
An easy question for most to answer, but a very tough one for Third Culture Kids (TCKs). These children grow up outside their parents' home cultures, neither belonging entirely to their home culture nor to their host culture. They face unique challenges in establishing their identity and a sense of belonging, especially when returning to their home country.
An increasing number of Singaporean families are living overseas for various reasons, and their children are growing up as TCKs. On returning to Singapore, these Singaporean TCKs will have to cope with a variety of re-entry stresses when adjusting to Singapore culture, making new friends, and continuing their education in the Singapore education system.
Many existing books about the TCK experience are written from the perspective of other cultures, chiefly the US. This book addresses some factors unique to the Singapore environment and provides Singaporean parents with suggestions to smooth their children's re-entry to Singapore. With experience drawn from the real-life experiences of the authors' children and others they know personally, this book will be helpful to families of TCKs through the whole process: preparing to leave Singapore, while overseas, and, especially, when they return.
About the author
Sharon Tan had the privilege of raising two TCKs while partnering her husband, David, in the ministry of Wycliffe. She was a librarian in Singapore for nine years before leaving with David on their overseas adventures. She has a B.A. (Jurisprudence) from Oxford, an M.A (Library and Information Studies) from Loughborough, and a Diploma (Applied Linguistics) from Asia SIL, all of which came in somewhat useful in homeschooling and guiding her children as well as performing a multitude of different tasks on the field. She feels that her greatest achievement is keeping the family going all these years, and is immensely proud of her two TCKs who grew up overseas and transitioned so well back to Singapore. She is currently serving in the area of Communications in Wycliffe Singapore, and is also a freelance copyeditor.
David Tan has had a career in the Republic of Singapore Air Force, the National University of Singapore and PSA Corporation. He and his family lived in an Asian country for ten years where he pioneered a Bible translation project among an unreached people group. Throughout that period, he was very concerned to ensure that his daughters would one day be able to return to live and thrive in Singapore. Some of his intentional efforts included planning his work schedule to make time for school immersions in Singapore, coaching them in Maths, and teaching them some Singlish! After returning to Singapore and completing his theological studies, he served as Missions Pastor in Queenstown Baptist Church for a year before taking up his current appointment of Executive Director of Wycliffe Singapore. He has a B.A. (Physics) from Oxford, a PhD (Mathematics) from Cambridge, a Diploma (Applied Linguistics) from Asia SIL, and a MDiv from the Biblical Graduate School of Theology.
