As I sit writing this, I’m watching the fields and farms pass me by on my way towards Groningen. Where is Groningen, you might reasonably ask. It’s a small Dutch city in the north of the Netherlands, with a quite a few highly ranked universities and even more high students. The exact history of the city originates all the way back in 3950–3720 BC and even played a role in World War Two, when the Battle of Groningen decimated the Grote Markt in 1945.
But why am I telling you all of this? What does this one small paragraph have to do with being an expat?
In my opinion, living as an expat means operating with a more nuanced knowledge and appreciation of the past. Because you’re living someplace that isn’t as familiar to you as your homeland, every aspect of the history and nature of a place is more pronounced. That’s why ‘going to Groningen’ goes beyond simply traveling north for a meeting.
Although the short paragraph I provide isn’t exactly nuanced in describing the role that Groningen has played in world history, it still represents a bit more mindfulness than simply traveling to a new place. As I’ve lived abroad and adopted more of the expat mentality, part of that has been becoming more aware of the places I live.
So often, we ignore the past.
Why, after all, bother learning about who lived in a place? If your aim in life is to work for a decent wage and find a new fun bars near your apartment, it can’t seem that important. If you can speak the language reasonably, what motivates you to dive deeper?
I think one of the more valuable things I’ve learned in my time as an expat is that being mindful of a place is just as valuable as learning the language and finding a good job. When you move to a foreign country, at the onset at least, it is not your home. You’re living in a land where you likely don’t speak the language and don’t understand why tipping isn’t the norm or why you can immediately sit down at a restaurant rather than wait to be seated.
Imagine if you entered a friend’s house for the first time. You would want to ask about how they moved there, why they chose to put up paintings or what the process was for getting their furniture in that particular order. It’s no different when living in a foreign country.
This isn’t to say there aren’t unmindful expats abound.
Unfortunately, there are more than enough examples to the contrary where Americans or other nationalities move abroad and choose to ignore the history, language and customs of a country. They don’t care whether or not they’re intruding. I personally think that couldn’t be further from the attitude that we as expats should be taking. I think it’s our responsibility as expats to be polite, to try and learn some basics of a language, to learn about why a particular culture works in a certain way.
It’s about being respectful, mindful and overall a decent person. Expat life is challenging in a myriad number of ways. More articles than this one list the hundreds of ways that it can be difficult, frustrating and on the other hand, incredible and eye-opening. All of this to say that perhaps cultivating mindfulness should be your mind the next time you leave your home country — after all, what do you have to lose?