Ask yourself this: What things would you consider if you had an opportunity to work abroad? For many top executives and engineers, its not only the job they are thinking about. The main challenge is usually their free time, wife (or husband) and family. Ask yourself the question: if I will work in this country how will my wife and family been taken care of by the company in this country?
The transnational capitalist class, traveling students and the ‘new rich’. They all have one thing in common: they enjoy a global lifestyle. What I mean by that is that they can live everywhere, simply do business in English, visit a supermarket and go to the theatre in their free time. They live the same way in San Francisco, Barcelona and Shanghai.
Global lifestyle in Korea
Korea is an developed country but their capital city still has a long way to go to become a global city. Not so weird that the mayor has put this issue on top of their agenda. For now, one can live a easier life in Singapore or Hong Kong.
Globalizing a city doesn’t only require it’s inhabitants to speak English, it’s a matter of bringing in facilities to make people comfortable where they are. Here in Seoul, most of the foreigners go to one area of the city for religious reasons, buy groceries and eat national food in restaurants. Compare that to New York, where the opposite is true. In that matter, Seoul has a long way to go, and might not be the best place for your wife/husband to have a good time.
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Tags: challenges, Korea, lifestyle, travel, wife
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6 Comments
Interesting that only the “wife” is considered — are none of the “top executives and engineers” choosing to live and work abroad women? And if not, why not? There are enough of them now that some should be.
Hi Kat, good point. As much as I tried to avoid making a generalization in this article, I have to say that the prioritization of participating in the global economy is very important to the cities mentioned. The fact that some global knowledge class have (husbands or) wives is therefore very important. I agree with you that it’s not only the family issue, other examples could include global franchises to settle and English speaking citizens.
This kind of international life is only nice if your are on a “international” salary.
Most multi-nationals are discovering the benefits of getting some English speaking natives to run the local teams.
Much lower costs. Eg. for the package of one foreign transplant and spouse + offspring you can easily hire a whole local team which tends to have a lot fewer problems getting round “cultural” difficulties.
I have to disagree with you a bit here.
I agree it is nice to have English films, Western food and restaurants, nice gyms etc etc where ever you are. I think this is called globalisation. In most countries these luxuries are inaccessible to the local majority.
Also I don’t think they is a prerequisite for an expat’s family to adapt to the new environment or to make themselves feel comfortable. (Even though going to the cinema or eating your “own” food every once in a while is definitely a good thing.)
It’s not easy to adapt to a culture where absolutely everything is unfamiliar and you don’t have the comfort of the things that you’re familiar with. Then again, once you’re settled, you really start to understand the culture you live in, you learn the language etc. That is quite rewarding actually.
When I lived in Taiwan, I saw many foreigners who lived this “Global lifestyle” like the had never left home. Of course it was nice but in my opinion they lived in a “bubble” that they had created between themselves and the surrounding wordl. Many of these expats had very strange ideas about the surrounding culture, because they never had to really deal with it, not to mention knowing the language - even though some of them had stayed in the country for years!
I think the hosting company will have to take major responsibility of its expat employees in terms of good schooling, health care, housing etc. Teaching English to the local people, even though it is probably a good idea in any case, does not happen overnight.
Hi Aku, thank you for your comment. You made me aware of the fact that the employee can have two standpoints of integrating in the culture. From your standpoint, I can imagine that you try to integrate as an english teacher or traveler in a strange culture. So I think you are right, you don’t need things from home to have a good time. It remembers me of my time living in Spain, I didn’t understand the people that simply continued their life like they did at home, but then it struck me;
when you are placed in the country by an extrinsic force, like a company; you might not have time or willingness to be part of that culture. I’d like to add that I wrote this article more from a city’s point of view; What is important for an emerging city like Taiwan to stimulate to facilitate foreign employees.
Think your point on the facilitation of the company is dead on. Did you have experience with that?
I can understand that people fee that they don’t have time or energy, but I think it is also a matter of personal preference (and sometimes a lame excuse - especially when you have stayed in the country for four to ten years like some of the people I met).
In order to make a city appealing to foreigners, it would have to be somewhat safe, provide schooling for kids, good healthcare, possibly language courses and other activities and entertainment.
The company that I work for at the moment looks after us pretty well (a large number of people work on projects all over the world all the time)even though I personally just make shorter trips. Still, if I had a chance to live abroad again, I wouldn’t want to live in my little “Western ghetto”.
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