Many of us have been out of our home country for many years (check out our Seasoned International School teachers post). Sure, we love our international school teaching life, and there are many reasons to continue that life. If the school is inspiring, stay. If the benefits are great, why not stay. If the travel opportunities are awesome, definitely stay!
Like all good things though, they are bound to come to an end.
But why would an international school teacher move back to his/her home country? There are different reasons for everyone because everyone is coming from a variety of situations and circumstances. With that in mind…what are the Top 10 reasons for wanting to move back to my home country? (USA) Maybe you can relate to some of these!
#1 – I want to have the experience of living as an adult in my home county (I was 24 with I left).
Some teachers leave to start their international school teaching career straight out of university, which means you are between 21-24. If you leave your home country that early in your “life after college”, there is not much time to enjoy the pleasures of being an adult doing adult things. For example, leaving at 21 doesn’t leave too much time for you to save up enough money to buy a house.
#2 – I am tired of being a foreigner and need a break. I may go out again after a year or two.
It can be quite exciting when everything is new and different, but it can also be draining on your day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, year to year life while living abroad. Of course the longer you live somewhere, most things become routine and normal. However, it doesn’t mean that you completely forget your life back home. Sometimes you just want to go back and remind yourself of all the things you missed or forgot about.
#3 – I miss my friends.
You can make some great friends in the international school community, especially the ones that started the same year as you did. The friends you make while living abroad are truly your family away from home. The friends from your home country are unique though and super important to you. Not being able to see them can be quite difficult at times. Usually you only get to see your home-country friends once a year if you are lucky. Many times when you set up a time to see them, many other old friends are there too…not leaving you enough quality time to catch up on everything. How nice to have all the time in the world to hang out with your friends if you are back living in your home country again!
#4 – I am tired of people saying hateful things about my home country to my face as soon as they meet me.
You really learn a lot about your home country while living abroad. You get to hear, first hand, the multiple perspectives people have related to where you are from. Not all the things they say to you are positive though, making you feel bad and pensive. If you are from an area that has a negative stereotype attached to it, you end up constantly hearing it, after you meet new people and mention your home country to them. Over and over again, you need to explain to these people how you are not like that stereotype and teach them about your experience. It can definitely get a bit irritating.
#5 – I want a garbage disposal again.
It is all the conveniences of your home country that you start missing. The list of things you miss can be a long one! There aren’t many countries that have garbage disposals as a standard feature in a kitchen. Because of this, I miss them.
#6 – I want to be able to walk into one store and buy everything I need.
If you are from the United States, then you know what a Super Target is. Now it has everything that you would need to buy for your weekly shopping. For those of us that don’t want to spend extra time shopping in multiple stores to get everything we want, the idea of just going to one store to get it all done sounds great. Living in your host country, you don’t know where things are most of the time (the language barrier comes into play here as well). Back home, you are an expert on knowing where to go and what you can get there.
#7 – I want to see my country, travel around and really experience it.
Many of the veteran international school teachers have been traveling around the world like crazy. Traveling is a top priority for many of us. Once and a while you see a movie or a tv program and see some pictures of your home country that are stunningly beautiful. You wonder why you never went to that stunning place when you were living there. Going back home might just give you a better opportunity to explore more of your homeland; a nice way to re-appreciate where you came from.
#8 – I want to do a proper Halloween.
You can try and celebrate your home-country holidays while living in your host country, but some things just won’t be the same to how you would celebrate them back home. Halloween is one of them. Some countries try and celebrate a few of your home-country holidays (like Halloween), but some are just not comparable to how your home country would celebrate them. Being surrounded by many houses again, all with their light on to welcome trick-or-treaters, can be just the thing to know you are back home to your roots again.
#9 – I want to experience the weather that I grew up with again.
Not many places in the world have exactly the same weather as the place in which you grew up. Sure you can try and experience what it is like to live in a tropical location (like Singapore), but being hot and sweaty every time you go out of the house can get tiresome. You can also check out the weather living in a colder climate (like Moscow), but having endless cloudy days of freezing cold weather in the winter is enough for you to wish you didn’t live there. Going back to the weather you grew up with can be just what the doctor ordered.
#10 – I want to be able to turn on the tv and be able to understand most channels.
You can go for years without turning on a tv while living abroad. If you don’t understand the local language very well, you know that you won’t be able to understand or follow many of the tv programs anyway. It’s true that you can get all the news and information you want from the internet, but it is nice though to have an option where you just turn on the tv and surf the channels (like how you used to do when living back in your home country).
This top 10 list was submitted to us by a guest author and International School Community member who is from the United States.
All guest authors to our blog get six months of free premium membership to our website. Email us if you have a top 10 list idea and would like it to be highlighted on our blog as a guest author.
