Challenges of Living Abroad: Navigating the Difficulties of Expat Life
Living abroad comes with its own set of challenges, from missing special events back home to battling loneliness and cultural adjustment. While difficult, these experiences lead to personal growth, independence, and new opportunities. Here's how to navigate the realities of life abroad.
Living abroad can be an incredible adventure filled with new experiences and opportunities for personal growth. However, it also presents its own set of challenges. There are many things no one tells you about living abroad and some of them are mentioned below. We hope our experiences will let you know that you are not alone and help you deal with the emotional difficulties of expat life. Here are some of the most common difficulties we faced while adjusting to life in a new country.
Missing Family Events While Living In a Foreign Country
Living abroad means that, unfortunately, we may miss significant family gatherings, holidays and milestones such as weddings and birthdays. What makes it even harder is watching these events on social media or hearing about them later whilst you were longing to be there. It’s easy to feel left out and disconnected from those back home. This is why it’s so important to find friends and community in a foreign country. We have tips detailing how to build a support system when living abroad in our “Building a Community” section.
Making New Friends
Making friends as an adult is already hard but doing it in a new country can be daunting. You need to put yourself out there and often step outside of your comfort zone. Language barriers, cultural differences and the fact that everyone is busy can make forming connections challenging. It takes time to build established friendships like the ones you have back home. If you need any advice on this, we also have tips making friends as an expat in our “Building a Community” section.
Feeling Lonely
It is very common to feel lonely when living abroad.The lack of familiar faces and support systems can be overwhelming. Naturally you miss your family and friends who understand your background and have had similar experiences. It’s important to acknowledge your feeling and build connections with those around you.
Fighting the Urge to Move Back Home
It’s common to grapple with the desire to run back home especially during the tough times and challenges that arrive whilst living abroad. This internal struggle comes and goes but it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of moving back versus staying abroad as well as the personal growth and experiences you will gain through this journey. Dealing with the desire to move back home isn’t easy but it’s normal. You are not alone.
Adjusting to a New Culture and Language
Adjusting to life in a country with a different language and culture means you have to be open to experiencing different lifestyles and world-views. Language barriers can also complicate things as it takes time to learn a new language and develop the confidence to use it. These adjustments take time and patience but they are both overwhelming and exciting.
This section may seem a little bit doom and gloom but that is not the idea. We want to give you an insight into some of the harsh realities of living abroad we faced so you are not caught off guard. These challenges are a normal part of living abroad. However, they are obstacles that you will eventually overcome. We can honestly say that moving abroad, even temporarily, is a truly enriching experience that will make you more independent, self sufficient and show you that you are more capable of so much more than you had ever thought possible. We did it and so can you! Have you encountered challenges after moving abroad or need any advice? If so, send us an email or let us know below.