Elle Kin is a South African-Taiwanese, first-generation immigrant who was born and bred in South Africa. Yet her immigrant kid story very closely resembles the traditional third-culture kid (TCK) narrative, and that’s because both experiences fall under the “Cross-Cultural Kids” (CCK) umbrella.

In this episode, we’ll get to compare the childhoods of two cross-cultural friends who grew up in South Africa — Elle who stayed, and Hana who got away.

Thanks to Ruth E. Van Reken, author of "Third Culture Kid: Growing Up Among Worlds" for her work developing the Cross-Cultural Kids (CCKs) Model that sheds light on all the different groups of cultural chameleons: traditional TCKs, children of immigrants, multi-cultural and multi-racial children, children of refugees, children of minorities, international adoptees and "domestic" TCKS.