The Life Of An Expatriate Is Not Always Sweetness And Light

Literally thousands of people move abroad every year and, while for many this is a great move, for others regret soon follows.

Sitting in your conservatory and looking out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to picture yourself with a new life in a new country, but how does this picture in your mind's eye live up to the reality after you have moved overseas? Well, this question is not perhaps as easy to answer as you might imagine.

Possibly the biggest problem is that there are such a large number of variables to consider and Such a large number of factors which are simply not known at the outset. It is 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 can always pick up the language in the longer term. But just how easy is it for you to learn a language and how simple easy is it to pick up the particular 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 eaten some wonderful high quality restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the type of food you will be eating day in and day out when you are cooking for yourself?

All of these problems are of course minor when it comes to comparing them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but perhaps a very different culture. The things which you have found both curious and fascinating during holiday trips might well present you with considerable difficulty when they become part and parcel of your daily life.

Many countries with an expat community of any size develop a substantial support network, which usually includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, distributes its own newspaper and considerably more. At first sight this may seem extremely comforting but it is often worth thinking about why the expatriates in the country feel that it is necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you look at the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the expat community you might well find yourself asking why they chose to live abroad in the first place.

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

This is not of course true of all expats and, as an expat myself, I can assure you that there are also many of us who are extremely happy with our decision to move overseas and would certainly not wish to turn back the clock. For many thousands of people every year the decision to live overseas is the best decision they have ever made and one which they most assuredly do not regret. By how can you tell which group of expats you are likely to fall into before you take your decision?

Regretably, you can never of course be certain, although there are several things that you can do to increase the chances of your decision being one which you will be glad you made.

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

It is no good just visiting your chosen country once or twice a year on holiday, staying in a hotel and eating in restaurants. You need to spend a minimum of a year in the country and to throw off any thoughts of being on holiday. You need to make a conscious effort to live as you would see yourself living in the longer term, keeping away from tourist areas and activities and integrating yourself into the local community. Live like a local, doing your own cooking and taking the time to learn something of the local history, lifestyle and culture, as well as making the effort to learn the language.

By staying away from the expat community and integrating yourself into the local community from the outset you will soon find out whether or not you would be making a wise choice to live abroad permanently.

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