There are many different ways to live an expatriation or a change of scenery. A short stay, or even a few weeks of vacation, does not necessarily give you the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in a country and to approach all its subtleties. The things one discovers while as a tourist are not of the same nature as those one learns through long-term contact, and postcard clichés, even if they have a life of their own, tend to melt down under the sun of prolonged exposure.
It is actually possible to live for years in a foreign city without breaking out of the small circle of reduced socialization. Many expats who have lived outside their country for many years have never made the slightest effort to learn the local language. Well, everyone is in command of he’s own life, but it is really a shame to travel to the other side of the world to breathe the same closed-in air of endogamy when there is another universe at our doorstep.
While any exposure to a different country is incredibly beneficial, there is something particularly magical about living abroad for an extended period of time. What you get out of the experience depends on you, but in general, it takes at least six months to start feeling at home in your new environment. This is the approximate time in which the things you discover with curious eyes turn into everyday things. The eye becomes accustomed, colors, lines, smells find their place by themselves in the rearranged order of daily experience.
There are certain things that are easy to take advantage of in the expatriation experience, here are 3 of them.
- Learn another language. Some people believe that the only way to become proficient in a foreign language is to immerse yourself in the country where it is spoken. Others prefer the somewhat more academic and laborious method of classes and lessons. The right balance is certainly a mix of both. Having a vocabulary and knowing the basics of grammar helps a lot to go beyond simple instinctive « gibberish ». On the other hand, there is no substitute for the spontaneity of real contacts when you really want to learn idioms. By living where the language you are learning is spoken, you have the possibility of multiplying your approaches and of making it, in addition to the object of learning, the instrument of knowledge of a culture. The discovery of local cinema and literature can be an opportunity to bring together these multiple levels.
- You will make friendships that would never have been possible in other circumstances. One of the best things about living abroad for an extended period is the friends you make. If they are local, you will be able to create unique relationships. Cross-cultural dialogue and curiosity about each other, when combined with respect and intelligence, give friendships an unmistakable color and depth. If they are expatriates, the shared experience of being in a new environment will cement a different kind of bond than you might have had at home.
- You will have a new vision of your compatriots. Reading opinion articles or watching foreign films does not prepare you to really see how foreigners perceive you. You will have first-hand experience with this issue. You will see things through your own lenses, which will be adjusted to the eyes of the other person. Many misunderstandings will become clearer, the comedy of certain situations will come out in all its glory, but also the banality of navel-gazing and lack of interest in the other.
A life experience abroad is ultimately what everyone makes of it. Boredom, bitterness, rejection to the point of racism or stimulating discoveries and broadening of horizons, it depends on each person, on the circumstances, on the encounters, on the countries, on the moments of life, it depends on so many things that it creates as many individual experiences as there are individuals. You will certainly have many things to tell at the end of such a rich, complex and subtle personal journey. But telling the story of distant horizons to the sedentary is a very difficult task…