Tips For Expat Women

An expatriate is someone that is temporary or permanently living in a  country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence. Living a life outside your country of  origin or where you grew up and has spent most of your life can be challenging. For many Expats, that is one of the loneliest experience they have had. When the excitement of being in a new country is over, homesickness starts to set in. You can start missing your family members, friends, food, culture, etc.

Relocating to a new country often means new society, new culture, new breed of people with different social characters etc. and worse still, new language. For these reasons, many expats/migrants often found themselves being very lonely or only mixing up with fellow expats which I think can limit them from learning about the people and the culture of the country which they are living in.

From my experience, there are things  expats should do to make life in their present country of residence worth living and more enjoyable:

1. Integrate yourself to the society. Learning and reading about the people, their culture and society will help you understand why they do or behave in a certain way. It will also help you to know what is important to them and how they react to certain things.

2. Learn the language. If your new country has a local language, LEARN IT. Studies have shown that learning the local language is one of the best tools that helps an expat/migrant to settling down in the new country. Find a language school and put your heart to learning the language.

3. Make friends. Be open to meeting new people especially the local citizens. This will help you learn more about the people and their way of life, language, culture, food, etc.

4.Find other expatriates around you. This is also a good way to come in contact to other foreigners and also helps you to exchange tips on living in a new country.

5. Be motivated and stay positive minded.  Maintain your identity, don't loose focus. Even though you are in a foreign land, you can always be who or what you want to be. Let know one bring you down, always put your head up and stay away from negative people. Read books, be informed and know what is happening in your environment. Join groups that will be beneficial to you and have fun.

6. Be creative. Having a creative mind is an added virtue. Be creative in every thing you do. If you are not working, be creative with the things you do around your home.

7. Give it your best and make it work. It all lies in your hands. You are the only one that will make it work. Accept your present country, love it, see it as an adventure and don't forget that you have to live every moment of your life to the fullest. 

Wishing you best of lucks. 

Always Nekky.

Multilingual Children

Trilingual kids who will never be tongue-tied

News like this helps to motitvate me as an Expat Woman in my  ongoing effort to make sure that my children (who are multilingual) speak all three languages fluently  without thinking that they are getting confused.

 

It’s not just bilingualism that has been in the news lately – here is an article from the Irish Times of April 10, about children with three, or even more, languages:

“You’d think speaking three languages would be confusing for kids, but don’t underestimate their ability to absorb…

…For English speakers in particular, it’s easy to be lazy when it comes to learning other languages, and, as any mature student knows, it is hard work, so if your children have the opportunity to imbibe other languages when they are young my advice is take advantage of their good fortune. After all: Tús maith leath na hoibre. It will broaden their minds, expand their horizons and provide a lifetime of pleasure.”

The article gives first-person, anecdotal and research evidence that children with multiple languages not only experience no difficulty but even thrive in their complex linguistic environment.

Here is the story of  IVA POCOCK

You’d think speaking three languages would be confusing for kids, but don’t underestimate their ability to absorb

MY FIRST experience of trilingual children was living in Sri Lanka in 2005, where many of the kids I met spoke Tamil, Sinhala and English. I was astounded when I realised that they could also read and write in these languages, a feat requiring knowledge of three completely different scripts – the Roman alphabet, Tamil script with more than 200 letters, and Sinhalese which has more than 50 characters.

 Read the entire article here.