The Life Of An Expat Is Not Always Sweetness And Light

by Donald Saunders
Sitting in your dining room and gazing out across your windswept and rain soaked garden it is all too easy to imagine yourself living a new life in a new country, but just how does the picture in your mind's eye compare to the reality after you have moved abroad? Well, this question is not perhaps as simple to answer as you might imagine.

Probably the biggest problem is that there are such a large number of variables to think about and so many factors which are quite simply unknown at the outset. It is very easy, for example, to think that the fact that you do not speak the language is unimportant as, in the short term at least, you may well be able to get by in your mother tongue and will always be able to pick up enough of the language in the longer term. But just how easy is it for you to learn a language and just how simple easy is it to learn the particular language of your chosen country?

You may also be looking forward to all that exotic food, but just how is a possibly substantial change in your diet going to affect your health? You may very well have tasted some wonderful restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the type of food you will be enjoying every day when you are cooking for yourself?

All of these problems are of course minor when you compare them to adjusting mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but often a very different culture. The things which you have found both fascinating and curious when on holiday could well present you with considerable difficulty when they become part and parcel of your daily life.

Most countries with an expat community of any size develop a strong support network, which often includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes outings and events, distributes its own newspaper and much more. Initially this may seem very comforting but it is worth thinking about why the expatriates in the country have found it necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you see the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the activities of the expat community you may find yourself asking why they moved overseas at all.

In fact a fair number of expats find that, after the novelty has worn off, they regret their decision to move overseas but have frequently burnt their bridges and now find themselves with no alternative except to stay where they are and make the most of their situation.

Of course this is not true of all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can tell you that there are also many of us who are extremely happy with our decision to re-locate and would certainly not wish to turn back the clock. For many hundreds of people every year the decision to move abroad is the best decision they have ever made and one which they most certainly do not regret. By how can you tell which group of expats you are likely to join before you take your decision?

Unfortunately, you can never of course be certain, although there are a number of things which you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one that you are glad you made.

One of the most important things that you can do is to test the water and that means effectively living in your chosen country for a fair length of time before you cut your ties with home. But the critical word here is 'living'.

It is no good just visiting your chosen country once or twice a year on holiday, staying in hotels and dining out in restaurants. You need to spend a minimum of a year in the country and cast off any idea of being on holiday. You need to make a conscious effort to live as you would wish to live in the longer term, keeping away from tourist areas and activities and integrating yourself into the local community. Live just like a local, doing your own cooking and making the time to learn something of the local history, lifestyle and culture, while at the same time beginning to learn the language.

If you steer clear of the expatriate community and integrate yourself into the local community from the very beginning you will rapidly find out whether or not you would be making a wise decision to live overseas permanently.

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