It is not often that I promote someone else on my blog. But I make the exception because of a site that I mentioned discovering the other day,-- and my promise to come back to issue of expats -- and then there is an article in particular that I wanted to share with you byClair Whitmer, Editor of Expatica, The Editor's Diary and when you read Clair's article on The Case for Franglais: Is French a has-been language? you will see why I have done so! A wonderful comment on the Franglais and an informative look at the evolution of the French Language.
And, as it seems time for confessions, in breaking one rule, I am also admitting to have broken another rule of mine -- namely to stay away from anything expat- -- expatrification, expatimus and -mi, expatisisms, expatisation, expatophile, expatphobia, expathropy, --- in fact, create you own list of words containing the letters 'e-x-p-a-t-' and you will know what I am talking about.
No -- I have not been rejected or ejected by an expat. Nor have I suffered abuse as child from an expat. Nor have I been insulted, harassed, libelled, labelled, or levelled by an expat. In fact, some of my best friends are expats! But. But -- when I packed my bags and boxes, packed my car and set off on the road to a new life in a new country, I did it with a specific plan in mind. And expats are not included in that plan - for a very simple reason.
Over the years I have lived and worked in many countries around the world and I noticed one denominating factor amongst expats -- i.e. people who are living and working in a country other than their 'own' -- specifically those who seek each other out, who congregate during the lunch hour and swap news about 'home', those who subscribe to Sky News and BBC Online or The New York Times Online, or The Herald Tribune -- or any news and television service that will tell them about what's happening 'back home' - wherever that 'home' may be. You find them browsing through books in their mother tongue in little specialist shops, you find them searching the shelves in supermarkets for ingredients for recipes that no one but their childhood friends had ever heard of. You find them wondering every month how come their phone bills can be so high, until they look, in total surprise, at the list of International Calls. Those who are so busy yearning for 'home' that they are completely missing anything and everything around them.
Because believe me, that is exactly what happens. Have a look at the number of sites and the blogs devoted to making the lives of expats more tolerable and productive, alleviating the home-sickness and easing the transition for expats. Expats have become Big Business. And this business has become vitally important in the global cross-border and cross-cultural migrations.
The readers who know me well, know that I am a believer in 'being present'. We must have our short term goals and our long term goals, love history and tradition, but live in the 'now'! Be aware. Capture the moment, enjoy what it brings you, take full advantage of all the possibilities and opportunities the present presents.
Anyone who is so engrossed in self-pity and longing and nostalgia for another place and another time, miss the happiness and life experience that the here and now presents.
But it is more than that. Imagine if all the hundreds of thousands of emigrants over the years had considered themselves 'expats' - in the modern sense of the word. Who would have built the infrastructures and the economies of our first world, had those people not adopted their new countries as their own, taken pride in helping build those countries, devoted their lives to those countries?
Living in an area of France where the result of the 100-year war is not always very clear, and an area which -- since the beginning of time, it seems, -- has been inundated with expats, makes it difficult to stick to my resolve. And because many of them are friends and lovely people, it makes it even harder. So -- needless to say, I do not go out of my way to look for expat activities, publications or contacts.
And so it was that, quite by chance, and bonne chance it was too, I stumbled across the Expatica website. And I loved it! The people who seem to inhabit this site are not people who mope about their 'home' countries, but obviously people who enjoy their new adopted home, who very much live in the moment, and who grab every opportunity that comes their way, who revel in everything life in France has to offer them and who do not stand back when it comes to contributing to their new communities.
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