
31 Oct Life as a long term expat in Qatar
After a recent article on the BBC website, we asked our members about their thoughts on this article.
“As a long term expat I have been living away from my home country for over 20 years. I was quite young when I left (20 years old) and so I didn’t have many problems adapting. I moved to the UK for further studies from South Africa and then pretty much settled there. Aside from missing foods from my home country I didn’t have many problems adapting– fortunately I spoke the same language (English – although I still argue that Robots is a better term than Traffic Lights!)) and held many of the same cultural values.
Fast forward 20 or so years: I’m now married to a lovely English lady with a young son. We decided to move to Qatar as we had some great opportunities here. I was naturally a little nervous but quite blasé about it- after all I had done this before! This however is my wife’s first move abroad- and with a young son!, but it’s a whole other article about how we adapted to Qatar!
Home is where the family is
We are now 3+ years into our life in Doha – and our we notice how differently we view the UK – Some things are better and others worse. We even complain about the bad driving in England- I mean how can we drive properly if they are not going to be unpredictable and travelling at excessive speeds! – It throws off your defensive driving!
We notice the lack of information people have about the Middle East- When we tell them where we live we often get comments about “how safe is it- aren’t you worried about yourselves there?” Whereas we find it an incredibly safe county! When we are outside Qatar we must remind ourselves not to leave a wallet on a table, make sure the car is locked etc.
We do find our view points on the rest of world has changed as well- we have met loads of cultures here. We are much more understanding of other cultures and viewpoints. We do sometimes get infuriated with some of it- (Kids and seatbelts!!! Please make them wear them!!!)
Our son is now very cosmopolitan – He is 3 and learning Arabic 🙂 His teachers are from all over the world and his friends are similar. He will grow up knowing all about the world- but naturally we worry that he won’t know his home culture, so its up to us to teach him.
Adjusting back to the UK: Would we be able to? Yes I think we could but it would take time- On a recent trip to the UK we were wandering around central London and we spotted Qatari number plates and got excited :)”
Now it’s a holiday destination
Here are some other great comments from our members:
“When u go back home, u don’t find the home that you left. It turned out to be a point in your lifetime rather than a physical place so impossible to find your way back there!”
“It is hard to go back. Travel opens you up to new experiences, cultures.. it changes your outlook, you appreciate things more and you change as a person.. you find you can relate to other expats as you share the same experiences and go through struggles only they can relate too..”
“Very interesting article, both my husband and I grew up in this region, spent high school and university back “home” (US) and it seems the longer we stay here, each time we visit home, it’s harder to go back or “fit in”.
“I was an expat brat… lived overseas but went to school in the UK. After i graduated, lived at home. As soon as the kids were grown and on their way we deliberately sought out a job as an expat. After four years in Qatar we will never go back to the UK.”
“A British friend left Doha last year for Switzerland. Didn’t last 12 months. Now back in Oman…said she didn’t fit in…preferred the ME.”
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