The Isolated Expat

By Jeff Booth

Imagine a city of 15 million Chinese and 60 English-speaking foreigners. It’s easy to see how the few people who share a common language and cultural identity act as a safety and sanity net while working abroad. Sometimes, though, that net acts as a trap--a barrier between you and the very culture you wish to be involved with.

Nearly every country harbors an expatriate community, usually a motley mix of teachers, businessmen, and students. Whether you’re an extreme minority or one of the teeming foreign masses in Bangkok, Beijing, or Paris, there’ll be others like you. That, in fact, is the problem. They are so much like you that there are times when its easy to forget you’re living in a different country--especially when every night is spent discussing politics and television and food from “back home.” I taught English at a university in western China, and I benefitted from the other foreigners living and working near me, but at some point I realized that dependence on the expat community only isolated me.

Language Barrier Binds Foreigners

The language barrier between locals and expats is the tie that binds foreigners together. It can’t be stressed enough that scaling the language barrier of the host country is the single most decisive factor in your experience abroad. While traveling through a country, getting by with the phrases “How much does it cost?” and “Where’s the bathroom?” might be sufficient. But when you are living and working with the indigenous population this won’t get you any farther than, well, the bathroom.

It takes decisive effort to separate yourself from the safety of a known language and culture and immerse yourself in a new one. While other expats congregated in English-speaking groups to decry postal workers and restaurant owners they couldn’t communicate with, I joined locals for weekend camping trips. The only way to improve your language skills and your cultural understanding is to get involved. It is never easy, but it is immensely rewarding.

Cultural and Economic Barriers

The language factor isn’t the sole cause of the separate lifestyles of locals and expats. It’s simply the most obvious. Even in countries where the language barrier has crumbled, cultural and economic differences sometimes still prevent the expat and local communities from mixing.

Cultural backgrounds can seem like impossible chasms to cross. None of my Chinese friends would catch a reference to I Love Lucy, and I missed quite a few of their references to Li Bai and other Chinese poets. But isn’t that part of why living abroad is such an exciting time? One of my goals was to learn a new culture, not continue to rely on my own.

Expats often get paid higher wages than the local population, especially in Third World nations, in order to compensate for the change in the standard of living. A friend of mine loved to dance, but instead of frequenting the small Chinese karaoke and disco halls, he paid big bucks to enter the Western disco downtown. Since none of his Chinese acquaintances could afford to join him, he spent his time drinking a Corona with Germans instead of rice whiskey with the Chinese.

Most Singaporeans have excellent command of English, the language handed down from British colonialism. While working for a magazine in Singapore, I began playing ultimate frisbee with a group of expatriates on Saturday mornings. Not a single Singaporean joined in, even though there was no language barrier, no real economic differences, and sports is one of the most cross-cultural passions of all. If I wanted to know Singaporeans, I’d never meet them on that expat-filled field.

It’s important not to ignore the other foreigners; they do offer an important dimension to your experience abroad and an opportunity to form lasting friendships. The crucial point is that when you leave whatever country you’re working in, ask yourself, Did you live as part of that country, or simply in a facsimile filled with foreigners?

Expat Information

There’s a vast amount of information on the expatriate lifestyle all around the world. The nearest embassy for the appropriate country will most likely help you connect with expatriates in the area.

Jeff Booth is the Assistant Editor at Student World Traveler.