For those of you who have lived away from your native country

[Laura Corin]

....for more than a year, did you view on your home country change? Your view on the rest of the world? Or were you more-or-less confirmed in your original views? This is inspired by Heather's recent posts. Poll to follow

[Hannah]

I lived in the Netherlands for nearly a year and was an exchange student in Russia for three months. So, I only just make the 'more than a year' requirement for your poll.

 

I had very romantic ideas about how living in a first-world country would be so much better than here (and of course we have an unusually bad crime situation, so there is truth in that). But living overseas made me realize that other countries have their problems too. Some places are better to live than others or way better even, but there are social, political and economic issues everywhere. So I voted that my views on the rest of the world changed.

 

At the time, my views of my own country did not change much. Having passed on an opportunity to emigrate a few years ago, I have learned to focus on and appreciate the positive things that we do have. Good weather, vibrant and innovative people, outdoor lifestyle, beautiful nature reserves where we can see animals from up close, a high standard of living if you're a professional and can afford to pay for private services, etc. There is also the feeling of 'belonging' that seems to matter more to me now that I"m getting older.

 

ETA: I say good weather, but it is actually snowing where we live this morning!! It's so newsworthy that there are reports on the local radio station. Everyone is sending photographs too and fro and generally enjoying it while it lasts.

[Lily_Grace]

We lived on an island for a few years and now here in Italy. Living on the island definitely changed my views of the U.S. It opened my eyes to the everyday excess that we viewed as normal. I mean, out there, the houses look like they rose from the ground. There's a strong pride in being able to be an island of sufficiency - houses built from the rocks, food grown and processed there, baskets and tiles made from the clay..Nearly all of our needs could be met from local manufacturers. It was a far cry from the Walmart-culture.

 

Both the island and Italy have helped me appreciate the slower pace the rest of the world seems to move at, too. Breaks and free time are encouraged. Politically I think the U.S. is better off, but for daily life I do appreciate the quirks and customs of Europe.

[Mom in High Heels]

Oh, my views on the States/Americans and the rest of the world have changed drastically, though nothing deep or philosophical for the most part. I can be amazingly shallow. :D

 

As Americans we are incredibly spoiled. I didn't realize how used to convenience I was until I moved away. Things are easy to get in the States, while in the parts of the world I've been to, not so much.

 

We are whiners. If we don't get what we want, when we want it, we whine. This goes back to being spoiled. I have been embarrassed for America on many occasions when I've been around tourists who are pitching a fit because they can't get what they want.

 

We are LOUD! I never realized this before, but compared to the way Europeans talk when they are in public and restaurants. When we visit the States James Bond and I are always shocked at how loud restaurants are. It's annoying. They also rush you out the door so you don't get to actually enjoy your meal.

 

America is HUGE! I've traveled all over the US and of course knew it was big, but the vastness is now surprising. The wide open spaces are something they don't have in most countries, unless it's being used for farming.

 

Americans are more open to being friendly in public. Europeans rarely make eye contact or smile IME, unless it's at a baby. It's not that they're unfriendly, it's just not their way to be so open.

 

Target is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Scratch that, I can slice my own bread. Target is the greatest.

 

Americans are wasteful! In most places there are no recycling laws and every few places to take things to recycle if you want to.

 

Billboards. Ick. In most places here, billboards are not allowed to be more than 2 stories tall. In the US, well, you know.

 

Americans are prudes! I'd have never thought this. The naked body is not a big deal here. There are nude pools, saunas, spas and beaches (most of the ones we've seen are topless). No one thinks twice about it. A breast is a breast.

 

America has options, options, options for so many things, especially at grocery stores. In many stores here, there are 2, maybe 3, choices for a product. Sometimes I miss having options.

 

Europe faces the same challenges Americans do politically and socially. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before.

 

Europeans are not as rude as I had been led to believe in movies and TV shows. While they don't smile at you, they're not rude in general. We've never had a rude waiter in Paris!

 

Europeans love American products and are willing to pay top dollar for them, which I find surprising. I love Oreo's as much as the next person, but I'm not willing to spend €4 (approx $6) for a small package that contains about 12 cookies. Yikes. Jeans are plentiful here, but American jeans are 2-3 times the price, as are name brand shoes (Nike, Adidas).

 

Europeans are far more informed about world events, IME. I didn't realize that their news would be approx 50% about their country and the other 50% about other countries and what's going on with them. They are also not into sensationalism and don't seem to make a big deal about things on their news shows.

 

While Europeans are more informed on world events, they seem to sadly lack any knowledge of US geography. They seem to know, California, Texas, Florida, New York City, Chicago and DC. Everything else doesn't seem to exist. They seem to know the most obscure little countries, but don't seem to realize that there are places in the US outside of the ones I listed above.

 

Europeans travel more than I thought. I mean I know it's easy to hop across the borders to other countries, but I guess I didn't expect that they would do it so often.

 

Europeans don't think all Americans are idiots. Some, but not all.

 

European TV is...weird in many ways. They have wacky game shows and after 9pm, anything goes. Really, anything. They also love American shows. While many shows are dubbed into the various languages, there are several channels that play them in their original English. The commercials are all in the native language though. Oh, and they don't do commercials the way we do. They play the show in its entirety and then do blocks of commercials between shows. In Germany they have to tell you when commercial blocks start and when they end. I'm not sure why.

 

There are other things, but I'm supposed to be doing school with Indy, so I should probably hop to it.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Mom in High Heels

[Tressa]

I lived in Singapore for three years. It was 15 years ago now and I hear the country has changed a lot. I was also in my early 20's, so I wonder if going now things would be different.

 

I thought only the US struggled with racial tension. Not so. Although the government tried to keep its citizens from becoming too self segregated.

 

I still shocks me how much the kids study over there. Wherever we went there were kids studying. Late at night or early in the morning. It didn't matter. The kids also had a lot of freedom.

 

Distance is relative. My husband and I traveled all over the island. We saw more of the island than some of the Singaporeans we knew. To them, traveling across the island was too far to travel. For us it was like traveling across town.

 

They loved to shop. Americans aren't the only mass consumers on the planet.

 

There was also a McDonalds on almost every corner. (not really, but they were everywhere) They love McDonalds.

[mamakimberly]

I lived in China for nearly 4 years, in a large city (Tianjin- an hour from Beijing, about 10-15 million people depending on where you draw boundaries).

 

Living in China messed me up in good and bad ways. I'll never be the same after my time there. Some of those things I am thankful for. Some I grieve. Some just are what they are.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Oh, my views on the States/Americans and the rest of the world have changed drastically, though nothing deep or philosophical for the most part. I can be amazingly shallow. :D

 

As Americans we are incredibly spoiled. I didn't realize how used to convenience I was until I moved away. Things are easy to get in the States, while in the parts of the world I've been to, not so much.

 

We are whiners. If we don't get what we want, when we want it, we whine. This goes back to being spoiled. I have been embarrassed for America on many occasions when I've been around tourists who are pitching a fit because they can't get what they want.

 

We are LOUD! I never realized this before, but compared to the way Europeans talk when they are in public and restaurants. When we visit the States James Bond and I are always shocked at how loud restaurants are. It's annoying. They also rush you out the door so you don't get to actually enjoy your meal.

 

America is HUGE! I've traveled all over the US and of course knew it was big, but the vastness is now surprising. The wide open spaces are something they don't have in most countries, unless it's being used for farming.

 

Americans are more open to being friendly in public. Europeans rarely make eye contact or smile IME, unless it's at a baby. It's not that they're unfriendly, it's just not their way to be so open.

 

Target is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Scratch that, I can slice my own bread. Target is the greatest.

 

Americans are wasteful! In most places there are no recycling laws and every few places to take things to recycle if you want to.

 

Billboards. Ick. In most places here, billboards are not allowed to be more than 2 stories tall. In the US, well, you know.

 

Americans are prudes! I'd have never thought this. The naked body is not a big deal here. There are nude pools, saunas, spas and beaches (most of the ones we've seen are topless). No one thinks twice about it. A breast is a breast.

 

America has options, options, options for so many things, especially at grocery stores. In many stores here, there are 2, maybe 3, choices for a product. Sometimes I miss having options.

 

Europe faces the same challenges Americans do politically and socially. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before.

 

Europeans are not as rude as I had been led to believe in movies and TV shows. While they don't smile at you, they're not rude in general. We've never had a rude waiter in Paris!

 

Europeans love American products and are willing to pay top dollar for them, which I find surprising. I love Oreo's as much as the next person, but I'm not willing to spend €4 (approx $6) for a small package that contains about 12 cookies. Yikes. Jeans are plentiful here, but American jeans are 2-3 times the price, as are name brand shoes (Nike, Adidas).

 

Europeans are far more informed about world events, IME. I didn't realize that their news would be approx 50% about their country and the other 50% about other countries and what's going on with them. They are also not into sensationalism and don't seem to make a big deal about things on their news shows.

 

While Europeans are more informed on world events, they seem to sadly lack any knowledge of US geography. They seem to know, California, Texas, Florida, New York City, Chicago and DC. Everything else doesn't seem to exist. They seem to know the most obscure little countries, but don't seem to realize that there are places in the US outside of the ones I listed above.

 

Europeans travel more than I thought. I mean I know it's easy to hop across the borders to other countries, but I guess I didn't expect that they would do it so often.

 

Europeans don't think all Americans are idiots. Some, but not all.

 

European TV is...weird in many ways. They have wacky game shows and after 9pm, anything goes. Really, anything. They also love American shows. While many shows are dubbed into the various languages, there are several channels that play them in their original English. The commercials are all in the native language though. Oh, and they don't do commercials the way we do. They play the show in its entirety and then do blocks of commercials between shows. In Germany they have to tell you when commercial blocks start and when they end. I'm not sure why.

 

There are other things, but I'm supposed to be doing school with Indy, so I should probably hop to it.

 

 

This is pretty much exactly how I felt/view things after living in Europe.

 

ETA: I worked for a short while at a Swiss company that had just been purchased by a French company. One of my bosses was from Finland, and he told me that once you live in a different country for longer than a year, you are never really, completely at home in your own country again. He said you still always feel like a foreigner in a different country, but that when you go back home, you miss some of the way things are done in the other country.

Edited August 7, 2012 by thescrappyhomeschooler

[Amira]

There are obviously some things that seem new or unexpected when I live overseas, but I always thought the world was wonderful and that feeling has never changed.

 

But I am an entirely different American than I used to be.

[sandst]

Hannah, I am not sure where you are in South Africa but we are in Gauteng and I started another thread about the kids going outside and playing in the snow.

[....]

. 

 

[DawnM]

Hard to really gage for me because I grew up overseas and then came back as an adult with a few years in the States in-between......so I didn't start with a view of the US from living here and then go overseas and return.

 

However, my views on the US and the world are very different than most who have lived here all of their lives.

Edited August 7, 2012 by DawnM

[stripe]

Europeans love American products and are willing to pay top dollar for them, which I find surprising.

Oh, it's not just Europe -- I was visiting my in laws, and saw Landers moisturizing cream. No idea where it's made, but in my local stores it was running $1 for a giant container, so NOT top quality stuff! I snorted to see it again. I think Nivea and Neutrogena were a good deal more, though.

 

European TV is...weird in many ways. They have wacky game shows and after 9pm, anything goes. Really, anything. They also love American shows. While many shows are dubbed into the various languages, there are several channels that play them in their original English.

That reminds me! I stayed for a week in Paris at this little tiny hotel. We had breakfast every morning in this little room that one of the men who ran it stayed in all day long. He seemed to be watching Alf most of the time. Yes, that Alf.

 

[Laura Corin]

I don't want to get in trouble here, but yes, my view of the rest of the world changed dramatically - and not in a positive way.

 

FWIW, I'm trying to come up with a number on how many countries I've been to...I'm gonna say 6. I've been to 6 countries outside of the US.

 

Did you live in one of the overseas countries for more than a year?

 

Laura

[....]

. 

 

[TheReader]

We've been in Brazil almost 5 yrs now, and I definitely feel like living here has changed how I view all things, both my home country, the rest of the world, and just...everything. I definitely do not look at life through the eyes of a stereotypical American anymore, though it's hard to pinpoint exactly how my views have changed.

[BugsMama]

I've been living in Germany for a year. Before that, I lived in South Korea for 6 months.

 

My views have changed. I feel more at home with all kinds of people. I feel more amazement at the world.

 

I feel more wanderlust. I feel like more things are possible to me... I never thought I would get to do half the things I have done.

 

My definition of old has changed. I feel like I view time differently. I stand in some of these places, and I feel so.... small.

 

The united states.... It feels less important to me. I feel like I was really self centered before.... self important.... self involved. It's a wonderful country.... but it's not everything. I

 

am proud to be an American. I also love Germany, and South Korea, and Belgium, and France, and the Netherlands.... I am loving every second of this.

 

I don't really know how to put into words how I feel.

 

Changed for sure. In a good way.

[TheReader]

I have to say -- thank you for posting this list! Much of the same is what I've noticed while living in Brazil. Except the openness. Brazilians are crazy-open people. I know way more about some of my neighbors than one should ever know about people. Stuff that likely my very best, friends for 20 yrs, friend wouldn't confide in me in the US. Although I don't make eye contact with men, because flirting is so rampant and I'd just rather not.

 

But other than that, I ditto a lot of this. Thanks for summing it up so nicely!

 

Oh, my views on the States/Americans and the rest of the world have changed drastically, though nothing deep or philosophical for the most part. I can be amazingly shallow. :D

 

As Americans we are incredibly spoiled. I didn't realize how used to convenience I was until I moved away. Things are easy to get in the States, while in the parts of the world I've been to, not so much.

 

We are whiners. If we don't get what we want, when we want it, we whine. This goes back to being spoiled. I have been embarrassed for America on many occasions when I've been around tourists who are pitching a fit because they can't get what they want.

 

We are LOUD! I never realized this before, but compared to the way Europeans talk when they are in public and restaurants. When we visit the States James Bond and I are always shocked at how loud restaurants are. It's annoying. They also rush you out the door so you don't get to actually enjoy your meal.

 

America is HUGE! I've traveled all over the US and of course knew it was big, but the vastness is now surprising. The wide open spaces are something they don't have in most countries, unless it's being used for farming.

 

Americans are more open to being friendly in public. Europeans rarely make eye contact or smile IME, unless it's at a baby. It's not that they're unfriendly, it's just not their way to be so open.

 

Target is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Scratch that, I can slice my own bread. Target is the greatest.

 

Americans are wasteful! In most places there are no recycling laws and every few places to take things to recycle if you want to.

 

Billboards. Ick. In most places here, billboards are not allowed to be more than 2 stories tall. In the US, well, you know.

 

Americans are prudes! I'd have never thought this. The naked body is not a big deal here. There are nude pools, saunas, spas and beaches (most of the ones we've seen are topless). No one thinks twice about it. A breast is a breast.

 

America has options, options, options for so many things, especially at grocery stores. In many stores here, there are 2, maybe 3, choices for a product. Sometimes I miss having options.

 

Europe faces the same challenges Americans do politically and socially. I'm not sure why this didn't occur to me before.

 

Europeans are not as rude as I had been led to believe in movies and TV shows. While they don't smile at you, they're not rude in general. We've never had a rude waiter in Paris!

 

Europeans love American products and are willing to pay top dollar for them, which I find surprising. I love Oreo's as much as the next person, but I'm not willing to spend €4 (approx $6) for a small package that contains about 12 cookies. Yikes. Jeans are plentiful here, but American jeans are 2-3 times the price, as are name brand shoes (Nike, Adidas).

 

Europeans are far more informed about world events, IME. I didn't realize that their news would be approx 50% about their country and the other 50% about other countries and what's going on with them. They are also not into sensationalism and don't seem to make a big deal about things on their news shows.

 

While Europeans are more informed on world events, they seem to sadly lack any knowledge of US geography. They seem to know, California, Texas, Florida, New York City, Chicago and DC. Everything else doesn't seem to exist. They seem to know the most obscure little countries, but don't seem to realize that there are places in the US outside of the ones I listed above.

 

Europeans travel more than I thought. I mean I know it's easy to hop across the borders to other countries, but I guess I didn't expect that they would do it so often.

 

Europeans don't think all Americans are idiots. Some, but not all.

 

European TV is...weird in many ways. They have wacky game shows and after 9pm, anything goes. Really, anything. They also love American shows. While many shows are dubbed into the various languages, there are several channels that play them in their original English. The commercials are all in the native language though. Oh, and they don't do commercials the way we do. They play the show in its entirety and then do blocks of commercials between shows. In Germany they have to tell you when commercial blocks start and when they end. I'm not sure why.

 

There are other things, but I'm supposed to be doing school with Indy, so I should probably hop to it.

[Parrothead]

I lived in Italy for two years when I was young. I was too young to have any type of views formed.

[SKL]

I have lived with people from another country for over 20 years, and spent some time in other countries. So I'm going to chime in.

 

When I met my non-US friends in my early 20s, I was a lot more negative on the US than I am now. I tended to focus on the negatives such as the fact that we don't live up to our potential (as a country) educationally. But when I started fielding questions and hearing ignorant assumptions from foreigners, I started to develop a more balanced perspective. I changed my "we suck" attitude to "we have room for improvement, like every country does."

[SKL]

I will say that having a good understanding of other countries makes one aware of just how rich the US is. Last night I was reading about a controversy over the free cell phone give-away and there was a photo of a couple booths where low-income people could come and get their free phones. There were only two customers politely standing there. In most countries (a) this giveaway would not even be a dream and (b) if it did happen, there would be a mob of humanity grabbing at the phones because © they'd turn around and sell them so they could buy something they need more desperately. Yes, there's poverty in the USA, but that's like saying it gets cold in India sometimes.

[mumto2]

I wrote a long post earlier this morning that got lost in posting. Grrrr Maybe someone was trying to tell me not to post that.

 

I am glad that I was raised in the States. I am grateful that my children were born there also. I love the states while I am there. It is bright and loud, not nearly as polite. Generally fun. We all love Target and Taco Bell. We love the sun. We base ourselves in Florida.

 

Personally, I think the poll should have been 2 years. For the first year I wanted to do things the American way. So I did not adjust much. I made things fit my ways. When I gave that up life became easier. People here are very polite and friendly. They just have no expectations of friendship until you have been acquaintances for several years. I am always amazed how patient people are while waiting. People stop so you can make turns while driving.

 

I wish I had more time to explain myself but dd has a lesson so need to go.

[SorrelZG]

I have lived in the U.S., away from my native country, for over ten years now. My view and feelings about my own country, the U.S. and the rest of the world have not been changed. Any impressions I had of the U.S. were just reinforced.

[Stacy in NJ]

and Costa Rico for 3 months. Additionally, I've traveled quite a bit for both my work (prior to children) and with dh for his job.

 

I appreciate America in a way I never could have anticipated prior to my travels. What was most interesting to me was the sometimes very childish or single dimensional views others (non-Americans) had of us. They tend to see us in stereo-types. Fat, bible-thumping, gun toting, white supremacists, or lucid, thoughtful, right-thinking, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, pro-national healthcare, etc.. There seemed to be little understanding that America was a great big place with very a complex political, religious, social construct.

 

I am frequently awed by our dynamism, how we continue to re-work and re-make ourselves. How we argue, compete, sometimes in a pretty grubby manner, but nonetheless, succeed. In America people don't give up or give in, we constantly stew, yet we do this all within our original constitutional framework.

[weddell]

I studied abroad in Hong Kong for 5 months in college and now as an adult with children have been in India for the last year and a half with another 9 months to go. Although both Hong Kong and India are in Asia they are radically different from each other and radically different from the US as well.

 

I've learned good and bad things about the US. I wholeheartedly agree about Target being the best place on earth. I think about Target and Costco on a regular basis. For example, our apartment light fixtures all take different styles of lightbulbs and I can never find the right ones at the stores. Whenever a light bulb burns out (which is frequently because we have regular power outages and power surges that actually blow up the light bulbs) I dream of going down the light bulb aisle at target and getting everything I need in mere minutes. I know that is the lamest dream ever, but for me it is really emblematic of how inefficient so much of Indian life is. You spend so much time getting basic things done because of lack of infrastructure! I really appreciate the US for its clean tap water, animal shelters, child welfare system, and efficiency. Yes, I know these are things that get complained about on a regular basis, but really compared to India the US is light years ahead. The streets are covered with stray dogs and little ragged children begging. I spend a ridiculous amount of time arranging clean drinking water and many people don't even have that luxury.

 

The other thing I've come to appreciate about the US is the level of equality among people. I know there are some class differences in the US but the way Indians of different classes treat each other is unbelievable to me as an American. I've heard the same thing from other Americans here as well.

 

On the flip side almost everyone here in india speaks more than one language. Many people speak Hindi, the local dialect, and English. The European expats here often speak their home country's language as well as English. It's mostly the Americans who only speak one language. It really feels like most Americans are really limited in their interest and experience with other parts of the world.

 

I could write more, but being in India has definitely shown me good and bad about the US. That said, I'm anxious to move back and shop at target!

[Roadrunner]

Oh yes I have changed my views. I now have an ability to look at my native country and my new native country both as an insider and an outsider. I also made friends with people from all over the world and have a very different view of them than I held growing up (certainly much less fear :D).

[Audrey]

Not being inundated with my native country's propaganda on a daily basis gave me the opportunity to see it from a more neutral perspective. It definitely changed my opinions. It was a real eye-opener, to say the very least!

 

Having better/more access to world news and events in my current country than in my native country has also changed my opinions of the world at large. Mainly, I am more informed overall, which of course informs my opinions more thoroughly than before.

[Violet Crown]

I don't really count because I just had 3 months out of the country. But....

 

I was terribly nervous. I'd heard all about Europe: the people there are thin, dress well, cook and eat well, speak multiple languages, don't care for children (I mean, that's why they don't have any anymore, right?), and have practically banned religion. I was prepared to be outclassed and depressed.

 

And then we went to Scotland!

 

Turns out that short and a little plump don't stand out in Scotland. Everyone was lovely and kind. There were tons of adorable children, playing in the world's most awesome and perilous playgrounds (clearly the Scots haven't invented torts law). People complimented my children and were extremely kid-tolerant. Wee Girl cried and vomited in motion-sickness-induced misery throughout one endless bus ride, and as I got off I apologized to the driver, who looked at me in puzzlement and said, "But it's just a baby, innit? Babies cry."

 

The Scots fry food even more egregiously than Texans. They weren't smugly cosmopolitan, there was a thriving parish with normal, friendly, non-persecuted people, and Austin casual worked just fine. I love Scotland. There even seem to be homeschoolers! :D Everything I thought I knew about Europe - at least there - was so very, very wrong.

 

Oh, and I discovered fresh fish. Deep-fried fresh fish. Mmmmmmmmm. Catfish hasn't been good enough since.

[SorrelZG]

It seems to me to depend heavily on the media and education of one's home country (or one's personal experience within their own country). Mine prepared me quite well, although learning about something doesn't necessarily compare to experiencing it first hand but it does make for an easier adjustment. For example, the majority of the (native born) Americans who traveled to SE Asia from my church have talked much about how changed they were by it whereas those of us not American born and raised were not because so much due to the knowledge and experience we already had. However I did learn that the people we met there had very inaccurate ideas about what it was like in America, at least in some respects.

[katemac]

We lived 2 years in South East Asia before coming back to the US. After going through that, I learn to appreciate the stability, the dynamics and the openness towards homeschooling. I appreciate the vast of opportunity made possible by K12, Calvert, Stanford EPGY and JHU CTY programs. I also appreciate the diversity in culture and education ideals between these two worlds.

[Maus]

I worked for a short while at a Swiss company that had just been purchased by a French company. One of my bosses was from Finland, and he told me that once you live in a different country for longer than a year, you are never really, completely at home in your own country again. He said you still always feel like a foreigner in a different country, but that when you go back home, you miss some of the way things are done in the other country.

That's a pretty good description. I miss Austria, in particular, a lot. (Some things we can get here, now! Nutella!!!)

 

I lived in Austria for 14 months, and Germany for 2, and I've been to several other countries for "more than just a tourist stop." (China/Taiwan/Hong Kong - still separate then; England/Wales; Mexico).

 

On the whole, I'm still grateful to live in the States, but I think other countries do some things better, and many, many other things just as well even if differently. I'm more determined to be globally informed and to raise my children to be.

 

I'm less afraid of other ethnicities within my own country, because I'm more internally aware that people are essentially the same inside. I knew it intellectually before, but still had emotional reactions, say, to a gang of bikers, or a group of kids that looked like they might belong to a Mexican gang, etc. Now I can see the individuals in the group and react to them as a fellow parent, etc. Hmm, am I making sense?

[SorrelZG]

 

ETA: I worked for a short while at a Swiss company that had just been purchased by a French company. One of my bosses was from Finland, and he told me that once you live in a different country for longer than a year, you are never really, completely at home in your own country again. He said you still always feel like a foreigner in a different country, but that when you go back home, you miss some of the way things are done in the other country.

 

I think I would feel this way. I haven't been back but just over the phone I've been told I talk like an American, not just in accent or words but something more than that - something about the way I think and express myself. But accent alone, it's defiled from both ends. :tongue_smilie:

 

 

On the whole, I'm still grateful to live in the States, but I think other countries do some things better, and many, many other things just as well even if differently. I'm more determined to be globally informed and to raise my children to be.

 

I agree (although im moving .. But that aside :D ).

[Mrs Mungo]

We lived in Germany for five years, and traveled all over. It definitely changed my views. But, honestly? I think living in different areas of the US had an equal impact.

[Firefly]

I spent all of my teen years into college overseas, mostly in the Middle East and the UK, and have traveled extensively all over the world. I voted other...some things (whether about the States or the world) I changed my view on, some stayed the same. I am definitely not the same person I would have been if I'd never lived overseas, though! (I think that's a good thing :D)