Life As An Expatriate Is Not All Sweetness And Light

Sitting in your lounge and looking out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is all too easy to imagine yourself enjoying a new life in a new country, but how does this picture in your mind's eye compare to the reality once you have moved overseas? Well, this question is not perhaps as simple to answer as you might think.

Probably the greatest problem is that there are such a large number of variables to take into account and Such a large number of factors which are quite simply unknown at the beginning. For example, it is easy to think that the fact that you do not speak the language is of little importance as, at least in the short term, you may well be able to get by in your mother tongue and can always pick up the language in the longer term. But just how easy is it to learn a language and how easy is it to pick up the language of your chosen country?

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

The problems are of course minor when it comes to comparing them to adjusting mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but frequently a very different culture. The things which you have considered both curious and fascinating during holiday trips could well present considerable problems when they are part and parcel of your everyday life.

Most countries with a sizeable expatriate community develop a large support network, which often includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, distributes its own newspaper and much more. At first sight this may seem to be very comforting but it is often worth thinking about why the expatriates in the region have found it necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you examine the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the expat community you might find yourself asking why they want to live abroad at all.

In fact a fair number of expats find that, after the novelty has worn off, they regret their decision to live abroad but have often burnt their bridges and now find themselves with no alternative other than to stay where they are and to make the most of what is a far from an ideal situation.

Of course this is not the case with all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can tell you that there are also many of us who are more than happy with our decision to move abroad and would not wish to turn the clock back. For many hundreds of people each year the decision to move overseas turns out to be the best decision they have ever made and one which they certainly do not regret. By how can you tell which group of expats you are going to fall into before you make your decision?

Regretably, you can never of course be sure, but there are a number of things that you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one that you will be glad you made.

The most important thing that you can do is to test the water so to speak and this means living in your chosen country for a reasonable period of time before you cut your ties with home. And the important word here is 'living'.

It is no good merely visiting the country regularly on holiday, staying in a hotel and dining out in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend at least a year in the country and to cast off any idea of being on holiday. You need to make a conscious effort to live as you would want to live in the longer term, steering clear of tourist areas and activities and integrating yourself into the local community. Live like a local, doing your own shopping and cooking and taking the time to learn something of the local history, culture and lifestyle, as well as making the effort to learn the language.

If you stay away from the expat community and integrate yourself into the local community from the beginning you will soon find out whether or not you would be making a wise choice to move abroad permanently.

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