Invisible Outsider: From battling bullies to building bridges, my life as a Third Culture Kid

It is not day by day you meet a white, blond, Midwest American child who speaks English with a Japanese accent.

However that is no odd child. On the age of three, he’d relocated from Indiana to the neon-lit metropolis of Eighties Tokyo. As the one foreigner or ‘gaijin‘ from Japanese kindergarten proper by means of to highschool in each Japan and the US, he’d battled to slot in. He’d fought his nook laborious and located a level of acceptance.

Again within the US together with his Japanese sensibilities, a brand new cycle of bullying started. Folks thought he talked ‘humorous, ‘ and for a younger Casey Bales the trauma of tradition shock hit laborious.

Invisible Outsider is a uncooked learn into teenage ‘turning into’ that charts the ups and downs of Casey’s emotional and inspirational journey: his life in Hawai’i, the place he follows within the steps of Barack Obama’s father; his persevering with love affair with Japan; and his dedication to construct bridges between his Third Tradition Child (TCK) identification and multicultural America.

With educational perception and a deep realizing, Invisible Outsider lays a path for different TCKs to observe. At its coronary heart is a message of hope: cross-cultural expertise can promote international literacy, concord, and mutual understanding. As Casey navigates wildly completely different cultures and loses his bond together with his homeland, he as an alternative finds a reference to the broader human race.