THE MAJOR CHALLENGES OF LIVING AS AN EXPAT

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If you are planning to move abroad and pursue a new career, you should know the major challenges expats face living abroad. Following are some of the most common challenges expats face:

1. Loneliness

If someone moves abroad alone, loneliness can be the biggest challenge. Making friends in a new place can take time and be very difficult especially if the new culture is quite different. You will be missing your loved ones back home. That is why making new friends quickly should be a top priority. Owning a pet can be a good way not to feel lonely as well. Having constant contact with loved ones back home is another great way not to feel alone. The first few months can be the most difficult time, and after you adopt to the new culture and make new friends, loneliness should not be a major problem.

2. Cultural Differences

If someone is not prepared well enough to cope up with the new culture, he or she will find adapting to the new culture as one of the biggest challenges in his or her expat life. Even a harmless comment in one culture can be regarded extremely rude in another culture. Knowing about the new culture beforehand and trying to adopt as quickly as possible are good ways to face this challenge. If you are moving to Asia from Europe or America or vice versa, you should find significant cultural differences. So, get ready for that.

3. Making New Friends

It definitely is tough to make new friends quickly in a foreign land. You can’t trust people too quickly and share your feeling and personal stuff. While making friends should be a top priority, you have to be very careful making friends. Making friends in the same organization can be the safest for someone who has just started living as an expat.

4. Language Barrier

If you speak English, you should be doing well in most countries. But there are countries like China, Japan, Germany, and Spain where you need to learn respective country’s language to communicate and live a normal life effectively. If you are moving to a country where the primary language is different from the languages you know, make sure you learn at least the basics of the language of the country you are moving to. Otherwise, the language barrier can make you feel uncomfortable and make your life difficult.

5. New Weather

Weather is not a big challenge when the temperature of the new country is not much different from your country. Moving to the Middle East from Europe can be a difficult weather challenge to face for an expat. Similarly, moving to any Scandinavian country from a typically hot Asian country can be challenging as well.

6. Food

For some people, not having their favorite food daily is a great discomfort. If you are one of those and the food you eat is not readily available in the new country, you need to cook at home, or you need to adapt to new foods.