If you live in a foreign country for many years, you can see the pros and cons. I have been living in France for decades and can feel the difference clearly. This time, I will introduce the positive and negative aspects of living overseas over the long term while sharing my own experience. If you are planning a long-term overseas life, I would be very honored if this blog helps you.
Plus side
Can understand Japan globally
This is a big advantage. Surprisingly, you are not sure about yourself. It is the same as this, and you can’t see unexpected Japan if you are always in Japan.
For example, in Japan, it is quite natural that a store is open late at night, with a 24-hour opening. Even if it closes on Sunday, it is almost impossible. It’s so common that when you’re in Japan, it’s easy to forget it, but in France there are no such shops.
On the other hand, Japanese things are almost perfect, but I feel that they are all remade in Japanese style. Are Italian pizzas, American hamburgers, and even French Camembert cheese somehow regenerated to fit the Japanese tongue? I feel like this, is this my opinion? Japan is a magical country that does not accept the unique goodness of the country and changes everything to Japanese.
Either way, good or bad, isn’t it an advantage that you can see Japan globally (objectively) when you are in a foreign country?
Communicate with people of different races, nationalities, and cultures
When I first got on the Metro in Paris, I was surprised at the difference of various races. I think the couple sitting right next to me was speaking in English and I could hear Chinese from behind, there was a black mom wearing a colorful cloth on my back, and my head was covered with a scarf Hidden Arab women get on board and live in a mix of all nationalities, races, cultures and languages. It ’s a world of culture shock. Such a landscape is not seen in Japan very much. If you live in “Japan, everyone in Japan”, it may be unavoidable that there is little interaction with such many cultures, but I feel that I am less aware of being Japanese. Is n’t it?
Foreign language improvement
Naturally, because you live in a French world every day, your French will naturally improve. First, you cannot live unless you speak French. By the way, this can be said from my personal experience, but in any foreign language, it is much quicker to improve the grammar first. Later everyday conversation will be very easy.
Either way, in order to survive in a multicultural, multiracial society, it is essential to be able to speak the language of that country. In Japan, it is a friendly country for foreigners who can’t speak Japanese, but in France it is often ignored if you can’t speak French.
Convenient and easy to travel abroad
Traveling from France to a foreign country is much easier than traveling from Japan to a foreign country. Above all, it is very convenient to be in Paris. Neighboring countries such as Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, etc. are on land, so you can use the railway. Even in the UK across the English Channel, a European star goes straight to London. It may be a privilege to be in France to say, “When I got on the train, I was in Venice the next morning!” Also, if you are traveling within the European Community, everywhere is in the Europe zone, so you don’t have to bother preparing foreign currency, and you don’t have to wait for a long line to enter the country. Anyway, it is very convenient to travel to a foreign country without wasteful energy and psychological stress.
Minus side
Forget Japanese
This is quite a surprise. I am not proud of anything in Japanese, but I am thankful to forget my native language. During this time, when chatting with friends, a friend
I heard lightly “What do you say in Japanese?”
For a moment, “What do you say in Japanese? The irony is that you have to look up the problem Japanese later in the dictionary from French. Living in a foreign country every day is very beneficial for learning the language of that country, but remember that there is a disadvantage of forgetting your native language. You need to be careful about writing and reading in Japanese. French people often say “language is alive”, but that’s right. Words are useful because they are used every day. Let’s keep it in mind.
Lag behind the Japanese fashion
This is an unavoidable disadvantage. Fortunately, because there is an information network called the Internet in the present day, you can catch information in Japan with almost no time limit. The What is the latest fashion in Japan and popular TV dramas now? Even if you ask, you may not be able to understand why it is popular with Japanese people, even if you can say the style name and title. The “language is not alive” mentioned above, but “the fashion is alive”.
Depends on time difference and exchange rate
To be honest, I was a little worried about whether to treat this as a negative or positive side. I decided to write down the Japanese blog and introduce it to Japan as a disadvantage, but at the moment I am much stronger than the yen. However, the time difference between Japan and France is 7 hours in summer and 8 hours in winter, so you have to work in an environment where there is an error of almost half a day or more.
Either way, if you want to maintain a relationship with Japan behind the earth, you will need to consider the effects of time differences and currency exchange.
Sense of seasons disappears
As you can see from the world map, France is located far north compared to Japan. By the way, Paris is north of Hokkaido. Thanks to the Golf Bay Current, I live in almost the same climate as Japan, but it took me quite a while to get used to the shortness of spring and autumn. Naturally, the feeling of the four seasons disappears. In Japan, you can taste spring, summer, autumn and winter every three months, but in France, there is almost no change from winter to spring, summer to winter, and if you suddenly notice one day, summer and winter do not wait for autumn I’ll come in a rush. However, because France is large, if you go to South France, the situation will be a little different, but you can’t beat Japan’s clear four seasons. If you’re in Paris, the winter weather is very long from November to late April, with the feeling that it may be spring from May to June, summer from July to August. My personal seasonal feeling is that September-October is the fall when the tree-lined road begins to fill with fallen leaves. (However, due to global warming, the severity of winter has softened compared to 30 years ago …)
Depends on how to think
Pros and cons of living abroad for a long time. Recently, I started dreaming in French and I feel a little creepy. However, I think it depends on your own way of thinking whether you want to make life in a foreign country good or bad. There are a number of inconveniences in living as an unfamiliar immigrant, and of course, if you have the vitality to turn it into strengths, your foreign life is more than half successful!
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