Best Ex-Pat area for full time residency

RPreeb wrote:

fulltimedaniel wrote:

RandACampin wrote:

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
... You are a guest wanting to be a local - so you are the one who must change your mindset and way of thinking...

If only people would do that when they come to this country!

I am not sure that this as you infer is the case at all. I believe that most of the folks that immigrate here or are refugees, want desperately to fit in to their new country and try hard to do so.

My bet is you have never lived or worked overseas and had to adapt to a completely different culture, script (such as Khmer or Arabic) language and even things like traffic laws.

I can tell you from experience it is NOT EASY. It takes time.

I would also remind you that their are still Polish Radio stations in the Chicago and Michigan areas that sprang up with the immigration from that part of Europe in the late 1800's into the early 20th century. All over this country European immigrants and their offspring celebrate their original culture in festivals and religious ceremonies.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with keeping in touch with your mother culture.

However, people who come here with no plans to make any effort to embrace OUR culture or learn OUR language and then expect us to bend over backwards to accommodate them are the ones I take issue with. That see-saw rocks both ways.

I'd be interested to know how you judge such a thing? How do you know what a persons intentions are or how they feel?

And what kind of criteria are you using to define "embracing" our culture?

And how many languages do you speak? And how long did it take you to learn them.

I speak Khmer, Arabic, Spanish, English, I was pretty conversational in Thai and a bit better than that in Bahasa Indonesia. In the Peace Corp I had to learn 3 languages at ONE TIME two west African dialects Mende and Temne and Creole (a mixture of English Portuguese and some local dialects)

Now I dont speak all of these anymore and haven't spoken some for 30 years or more. The reason I bring it up is because I know learning a new language is tough. It's hard work. And just because you hear someone speaking in their native tongue to another may be a cultural issue more than a language one. I also know how hard it is to be in a strange country and have to try to navigate the language and culture. I can tell you first hand how at the end of the day of trying to speak another language, and not make a total fool of yourself, your head wants to explode.

A little patience, humility and understanding can go a long way.