Living life as an expat<\/b> can be difficult for some, but not all. People experience homesickness to a varying degree depending on what and who they have back home, and who or what they have in their new home. Typically speaking, the longer we live away from home, the more likely we are to get adjusted to life outside of it, and therefore no longer really feel the want or need to visit our home country.<\/p>\n
Living abroad can sometimes make you feel like an alien. When I said alien, you probably thought of extraterrestrial<\/b> beings like E.T., which was indeed what I meant. However, we are actually aliens of the country when we\u2019re expats. Case in point, foreigners who worked or lived in Japan were registered under a system called \u201calien registration\u201d until July 9th, 2012. By definition, alien refers to \u201ca foreigner, especially one who is not a naturalized citizen of the country where he or she is living.\u201d Therefore, it makes sense that we sometimes feel alien in a country because of the cultural gap, language gap, and just the fact that we\u2019re visibly different from the locals.<\/p>\n
For people who are more susceptible<\/b> to homesickness, many people may believe it\u2019s better to visit home as often as possible. Personally, I think that\u2019s counterproductive<\/b>. I think the more attached you are to the people and life back home, the more likely you are to suffer from homesickness. This is because you\u2019ll constantly miss what you don\u2019t have where you currently reside. In turn, this becomes a vicious cycle where you\u2019ll become more homesick, so you go home more, and then you\u2019ll miss it more, and you\u2019re more than likely to find it very difficult to adjust to life abroad.<\/p>\n
Now at the other end of the spectrum<\/b>, some people may never feel the need or desire to go back to their home country for many reasons. This could be due to not having a \u201chome\u201d to return to. This could be physical, but usually it\u2019s that family and or friends no longer reside in your home country. What they have, or don\u2019t have, at home, could also be the reason they left in the first place. Therefore, these people have absolutely no reason to \u201cgo home\u201d when their home country didn\u2019t feel like home in the first place. Just because it\u2019s your \u201chome country\u201d doesn\u2019t mean you have to go if there isn\u2019t enough reason to do so.<\/p>\n
From personal experience, there is a certain point when one starts saying to \u201cgo\u201d to their home country instead of saying to \u201cgo back\u201d. If you have a lot of loved ones back home, or elderly or sick family, maybe it\u2019s a good idea to go home as often as you can financially. If your home country is right across a border that\u2019s a few hours drive, why not drop by every month or two if you\u2019ve got time to spare? If your home country is far away and it\u2019d take a long time or a lot of money to go back, maybe go during the off-season once every several years. If you hate everyone and everything back home, don\u2019t go back. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a one-size-fits-all<\/b> answer to how often anyone should go back to their home country. Do what feels right for you, and what\u2019s important to you.<\/p>\n
Loki<\/p>\n
Vocabulary<\/b><\/p>\n
expat (noun) \u2013 short for expatriate: someone who doesn\u2019t live in their own country
\nextraterrestrial (adjective) \u2013 in or coming from a place outside the planet Earth
\nsusceptible (adjective) \u2013 easily influenced or harmed by something
\ncounterproductive (adjective) \u2013 having an effect that is opposite to the one intended or wanted
\nat the other end of the spectrum (idiom) \u2013 the extreme opposite of what was earlier stated
\none-size-fits-all (idiom) \u2013 suitable for everyone or every purpose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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