In this video, we'll offer ideas for living and working abroad as an expat. I like the picture on this slide because it evokes all the kaleidoscope of new sensations we experience when we travel. Here are tasks you should undertake immediately upon arrival. Register your contact information with your home country, consulate, or embassy. Embassies like to have this information in case of emergencies or if you somehow get into trouble, they're better able to help with the information. An example of this is the evacuation of foreign nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic. As needed, the first order of business is to find permanent housing, register with local authorities if needed, apply for a local bank account, buy a local phone SIM card, register for health coverage, and enroll your children in school. When you move into your new permanent residence, purchase supplies and soft goods, safeguard documents and valuables, meet your new neighbors, unpack, and settle in. Once in your permanent residence, make a note of your location, and its surroundings. Walk the immediate neighborhood for familiarity. Locate needed services such as a grocery store, apothecary or drugstore, restaurants and fast food, variety and department stores, and a hardware store. Buy city and neighborhood maps to locate workplaces and schools, and to figure out transportation to and from them. Ride public transportation and taxis to know how to use them. Take a city bus tour to quickly see the sites where you might want to return and spend more time. Hire a local guide for a day, perhaps, and sign up for local language lessons. Keeping in touch with your home country networks is important for your mental and professional health while your way, and to ease your re-entry at home when you return. Reconnect with family and friends, with email, social media, and photos, share experiences, yours and theirs, schedule regular video calls to catch up. At work, establish professional networks at your home, workplace, where you can share professional experiences. Schedule regular meetings with superiors to report on progress and updates. Consider starting a professional blog. Virtually attend home-country meetings, even if they occur in the middle of the night. Set up virtual coffee and happy hour events. Your goal is to be gone, but not forgotten. Another part of success and happiness while an expat is to establish in-country social and professional networks. To develop personal and family networks, consider joining a local expat group. Most expat locations have expat groups that form by nationality or language. There are spouse-oriented groups and you can locate ex-pat groups by online search and local contacts. It may seem strange to travel abroad only to join a group of familiar expats, but expat groups have several benefits. It takes time and energy, sometimes years, to make local friends, and to develop a local social network. Expat groups are incidentally welcoming since expats are continually arriving and departing. Expats can provide good information and resources for living and thriving in your community. Occasional expat advice can provide a needed respite from the constant stress of dealing with an unfamiliar culture. If you have children, school groups and activities are a universal way for families to meet. Enrolling in a language course or study group is another way to meet people with interests similar to yours. Other special interest groups focused on history, cuisine, or music is another way to meet people. At your workplace or university, you will be meeting and working with many people as a matter of course, but to build a professional network, participate in social activities and sporting events, invite colleagues to tea or lunch, and don't be shy, but be politely persistent. As you settle in, take time to review the cultural norms of your new community. The most obvious are folkways, which are customs without moral significance, such as rude versus polite behavior, in other words, etiquette, which deals with greetings, table manners, dress, touching, timeliness, posture, colors, numbers, and much more. More subtler are mores which deal with norms of right or wrong, which determine moral versus ethical behavior. Examples of mores are rules about public decorum, displays of public affection, unsafe behavior, substance abuse, and violence in much more again. Taboos are norms that are repulsive and that are societally repugnant. Breaking these norms can have very serious consequences. Depending on the culture, taboos include incest, polygamy, abortion, suicide, homosexuality, sex out of marriage, and others. As an expat, knowing the ground rules of behavior is imperative both personally and professionally. The unknowing about local norms and customs, most expats do not want to immediately be identified as outsiders like this caricature of tourists. Most would like to blend in and to be just another face in the crowd. While it's unlikely an expat would be mistaken for native, here's some ideas to help blend in. Try to speak the local language, even if only a few words. Don't shout when trying to be understood. Eat the local foods, don't hang out at international fast food stores. Dress appropriately. Be aware of apparel norms of taboos, and try to dress like a local. But don't be a clone, be yourself. Learn how to address people. Some cultures are formal, some relaxed. Greetings vary from bows, to handshakes, to kisses. Be on time. It never hurts to be on time at least at first until you understand the rules of arrival. Be open-minded and accepting of local traditions, holidays, religions, opinions, food, clothing, modesty, timeliness, and gender roles. While expat life is often exciting and fun, it also has its challenges. You're not on vacation, you have every-day work, family, and life responsibilities, so you can't do everything you may have planned to do. You're not a local, but you're not a tourist, so you may feel isolated as though you're in a bubble. You must build new routines which take time and energy. You may be spending more time with your spouse and family than you ever have before. You create food from home, but you love some local food at any rate. Life is an expat can be confusing. There's a very common pattern of cultural adjustment among expatriates. Before leaving their home countries, expats are usually apprehensive and uneasy about life abroad. Upon arrival, expats are usually exhilarated with their exciting and new experiences in their foreign country. But after some weeks and months, most expats are tired and overwhelmed with the ongoing and challenging differences of living in a foreign land and feeling like, "I just want to go home." This pattern of emotions is so common that it's been given a name, culture shock. But be patient. As the chart to the right shows, adjustment and acceptance are on the way. Expats will begin to feel familiar and comfortable in their new life with new friends, and established routines so that life is no longer continually perplexing. In summary, successful living and working abroad entails a number of tasks and activities. There are immediate arrival tasks to get settled. Local surroundings should be explored to get located, home country network should be renewed to stay connected, new in-country network should be created to get connected. Cultural norm should be respected to be accepted, local laws and regulations must be followed to stay legal, and blend in to go local. Finally, culture shock requires expats to be resilient. In the next video, we will discuss coming home and living abroad. We'll see you there.
