Have you recently become disillusioned with life in your hometown? Do you have an urge to spread your wings and seek new pastures? If you don’t want to look back in 50 years and have any regrets, you should seriously consider relocating to your dream location. Of course, if this location just so happens to be abroad, so be it! Moving overseas might be a massive upheaval, but it will most certainly be worth it if it allows you to live your absolute best life.
If you want to lead a fruitful, fulfilling, and stress-free life as an expat, be sure to heed the following advice. Here are two top tips for anybody wanting to live abroad:
Find the perfect home
During the initial stages of your life as an expat, you will be liable to suffer from pangs of homesickness from time to time. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve made a terrible decision by moving abroad. On the contrary, it’s only natural to yearn for familiar surroundings, which is why you shouldn’t be too concerned if you experience these types of emotions.
If you’re to successfully overcome your ‘settling-in period’ without booking yourself a flight straight back to your hometown, you must make yourself comfortable in your new surroundings. Having your offer accepted on your dream overseas property will help you to do just that. Once you move into this safe haven, everything about your big move will be a lot easier to handle. Getting to grips with your new way of life won’t feel like such a big challenge, and this will ultimately help you to grow in confidence as an expat.
Learn the local lingo
If you’re serious about fully immersing yourself in the country’s culture that you relocate to, you absolutely must make an effort to learn the local lingo. You might not pick up the language right away, but simply making this type of effort will showcase the fact that you want to play an active role in your new society. In addition, this will adhere you to the people you live and work alongside, which will help you settle into your new life as an expat.
Learning a completely new language is by no means an easy task to undertake, especially for adults. However, if you’re to complete this challenge efficiently and effectively successfully, you must:
1. Commit to continuous learning over a sustained period
2. Make your language-learning endeavor a daily habit
3. Fortify your language foundations by learning cognates (words that are almost the same in different languages)
4. Learn the most commonly used words and phrases in your new society
5. Master words that are relevant to your day-to-day life as an expat
6. Take advantage of flashcards and apply a concept known as spaced repetition
7. Download language tools, apps, and resources on your smartphone
8. Never be afraid to practice your new language around native speakers (you might make mistakes, but this will be sure to have a profound positive impact on your confidence)
