Wherever you travel, but especially if you become an expat overseas, you are an ambassador for your country. You may feel that once you’re away from everyone and everything you’ve ever known you’ll be free to act how you like, let your hair down, and experiment with your freedom. Even though your actions may be unusual for you, all of your actions will add to an image the host country will form about you and the rest of your home country.
While you may think this doesn’t directly affect you, you will find that the way people perceive you will affect the way they treat you. For a more enjoyable experience overseas for yourself and those who follow you, become a good ambassador for your country.
1. Explore your new boundaries while respecting the hosts’ boundaries
Keep in mind that the foreign country is not your playground, but someone’s home. By all means explore as much as you can in your new country as well as about yourself, but keep in mind that while you are pushing your boundaries there are people around you living their daily lives.
2. Get to grips with what culture shock is all about.
Understand most negative emotions about living overseas will be a result of culture shock. It is a natural occurrence that everyone experiences to some degree. There are many coping methods and many books/blogs/websites on the subject. Culture shock initially happens in the first six months, but it can recur many months and years after you have settled into your host country.
3. If it wasn’t your idea to move, don’t resent the person who suggested it.
Compromise is a wonderful thing in a relationship but if you have compromised and moved overseas, don’t then punish your partner or family by being miserable. Don’t let the time you’re there be wasted months or years. Instead, challenge yourself to find things to enjoy in your host country.
Focus on guiding yourself and your family through the stages of culture shock, on exploring the things that are different about your host country, on discovering a new favourite food, and on trying new experiences. Take lots of photos and videos and think of all the fantastic stories you’ll tell your friends and family when you return home. And remember what a great opportunity living overseas is for adults and children for opening minds and developing new skills.
4. Keep Complaining to a minimum
A bit of gentle joking about the customs is good for keeping a sense of humour, but complaining about local custom and systems blocks learning and simply makes you look bad. The locals should not have to know your language even if it is the most common language in the world, the administration systems might be arduous, but they are the systems in place, and the foodstuffs in the local grocery stores may not sell your favourites—or even many of your basics, but they provide an opportunity for you to learn and be inventive.
‘If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.’ James Michener
5. Be proud of your homeland
Even if your country is unpopular, or your politicians are out of favour with the rest of the world, don’t run down your homeland just to try to distance yourself from the negative feelings. Instead, you can agree with their opinions, but try to find something to be proud of from home and focus on that when people around you want to start bashing your homeland.
6. Develop a sense of humour if you don’t already have one.
Don’t take yourself too seriously; if you get laughed at it may be because you’re doing something genuinely funny! So what if the locals are amused by your faux pas? If you learn to laugh at yourself and your mistakes, you’ll gain a lot of points from the locals and you’ll enjoy life as an expat a lot more.
7. Be an enthusiastic expat!
Living overseas offers so many exciting opportunities to try new things, it would be a shame to let them pass by—one day when you look back on your life you will more likely regret the things you didn’t do, than the ones you did. Whether you’re overseas for six months or 60 years, get out and experience what the host country has to offer.
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