Why don't a lot of English people live abroad?

[Booneymil]

Hi! I was just thinking about something. I am Irish originally. I have lived and worked in around seven different countries at my age. I am 40. I love moving around and living in different places. I have been working in england now for two years.

At my large workplace, there are a lot of English people and a lot foreign people working there. So we have people from Spain, Poland, Italy, Australia, and Lithuania working there. Every one of the foreign people there have lived all over the world. I was chatting to the lithuanian woman, she has lived in Indonesia, in Sweden, Switzerland and in Italy.

I was chatting to the Spanish woman - she has lived in Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway. She told me she was from a wealthy family in spain so she had no need to move, she just had a desire to see the rest of the world. I was the same, I always wanted to see more of the world.

The English people in my workplace, there are about thirty of them.

Not one of them has ever lived abroad. A lot of them are old enough that they could have moved around the EU before Brexit happened. But they didnt.

I was thinking about it. Why? Why is it so different in England.

Exactly.
I travel extensively, I love seeing the world.
I also love coming home ❤️

I have lived in multiple countries as have probably half of my friends. I think it just depends on the circles you mix in. Agree the language barrier may be part of it.

Yeah, I think this is it. Our schools are really shit at teaching other languages, whereas other countries do it really well and from a young age.

Where did I belittle them?

I said it's just different life experiences.

I do find that living in one place makes people narrow minded. They just have less to talm about. Just in that they have seen very little of the world. And you learn and grow from living in different cultures.

For example if I talk to my Australian colleague, she talks about a lot of different things.

If I talk to my English male colleague, he has never left his home town, except to go on holiday to spain once a year for two weeks, so he just has a lot less to talk about.

I disagree.
They teach languages in Ireland, the same way that they teach languages in the UK. Not to a great level. And Irish people move all over the place.

I think its more to do with culture and now these days : Brexit**

This is where you’re wrong.
You’re assuming that never living abroad means you aren’t well travelled and have limited life experiences.

That’s not necessarily true. You’re a prime example of having narrow views despite being ‘well travelled’ .

I work with an Indian colleague who is getting married and he talks to us about the ceremony which is over 3 days and we've had discussions on the tension his fiancee is currently experiencing with his parents as she is expected to live with them when they return to India. She's not a happy bunny. Do you mean those kind of conversations make one fulfilled? This week all he wanted to talk about was Coronation Street as he's a massive fan.

All my English colleagues have waffled on about this week is seeing Coldplay, getting tickets to The Hundred final, a trip to Edinburgh and another had been on Eurostar to Bruges.

The Coldplay chat/photos was amazing. No doubt it would bore you as the colleague was English.

No you are not listening to what I am saying.

I am not saying they are bad people. I am saying that they have less awaresness of the world , which is true. Some of The English people I work with go on holiday to the same places every year. They go to towns in Spain that are full of English tourists.

Im sure their life is happy and thats fine. They just have very little awareness of the rest of the world. They haven't a clue about what happens in Ireland for a start.

They have never been there, even though it is the nearest country to them.

I wonder if it depends quite a bit too on where you work and live. I work for a multinational corporation and the majority of us, English and otherwise have lived in multiple countries, often retiring overseas.

No, you’re not listening. I’m not saying that you are saying they are ‘bad’ people. But you are making sweeping generalisations which just aren’t true.
You are assuming that anyone who hasn’t lived abroad is uncultured and ignorant towards other cultures.

I’ve never lived anywhere other than England. I have always lived within a 30 mile radius of where I was born.
However, my family are of Irish descent. I studied Irish history at university and I’m heavily involved in local Irish heritage groups.
I also travel extensively for leisure and work. So far this year I’ve visited India, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Italy, Iceland, and USA.

You need to understand that living abroad is only one way of experiencing different cultures.

I think people underestimate this. There are very few push factors that result in English people looking abroad for work - in many industries we have world class opportunities at home.

Where did I belittle them?

Then just one sentence later you repeat an earlier comment

I do find that living in one place makes people narrow minded.

Your lack of awareness is hilarious OP!😅

Why do you think you have to travel and live in a different country to learn about the world? There are people who can't travel for various reasons and I think it's shortsighted to think they can't learn about the world in any way other than travelling.

You said 'And you learn and grow from living in different cultures.'. I am curious - what have you learnt living in UK?

Op, as a matter of interest how old are you?

I'm not sure that's true... currently in Portugal and half the staff I've encountered are English. My brothers have worked abroad for years, I've friends teaching in Asia, school friends who did chalet seasons, my sons teachers just left to teach abroad and my best friends moved all around the world after uni. All these people though are... abroad! You won't meet them here in England because they're working abroad. The clue is in the question, go abroad and you'll find English people they're particularly in areas with international schools, ex pat communities (if you've ever been to bits of Spain they're rammed with the English), English speaking countries like Australia, northern America, UAE etc and lots of European countries have lots of English staff in tourist areas where they want English speakers - because we dont have the best language skills. We once went to Canada, travelled in a tiny plane across the Rockies and went to a tiny ranch in the mountains - run by a couple from Essex. No, you won't find these people in small towns in the UK, they're off wandering the world, working abroad or living in big cities with other worldly people. We relocated to a small town/village and loads of people have never left the county let alone the country, but I think lots of small towns/villages in other countries will also have home bodies who don't leave their local area too, less than half of Americans don't even own passports, let alone work abroad. Equally, so many posts on here recently about the UK being rubbish and wanting to live abroad....
I do think it's not the average person's experience in the way it is in some countries but I wouldn't say it's rare

We do. I'm on my third host country.

Erm……. to the non natives ( and natives , may I add ) it’s fucking amazing.

Free healthcare: the lot. Erm, then there’s the homes . Lovely heated homes and also free money and you don’t need to work.
Also… the schools. Your children will be placed in a school. And if you don’t speak the language , as in English, you can have interpreters, as well as correspondence written to you ( free of charge ) in your own language. England truly is a hospitable and kind host . Don’t think you get anything given to you like this anywhere else in the world.

Need me to carry on about what’s excellent in England?

And I am just anecdata on my own, but in my host country I have hoardes of compatriots.

I replied to you earlier agreeing with your premise and supporting you but now you are just sounding ignorant. I’d never move to a non-English speaking country without trying to learn the language to the highest level I could manage, even if I got an English-speaking job.

Languages!

I can do an English speaking job no problem obviously but how do I pay tax in Thailand? How do I get my car serviced in Argentina? Or find a dentist? Or explain to the hairdresser what I want? And frankly if I’m only seeing other people who speak English that takes away half the fun.

There is also career progression, family ties, issues with Children, health issues and so many other reasons

Me, nor any of my family have worked abroad. But then we all work in healthcare in one way or the other and so we can’t really, unless it’s Australia or New Zealand. To communicate with patients we absolutely would need a high level of competence in the local language.

I live in NZ and there are lots of English people living and working here.

Where did I belittle them?

Have a look back at your posts - I can't work out if you are ignorant or on a wind-up, but either way, I'm out. I bid you a good day.

I completely agree with this.
We were very poor growing up and I didn’t even have a passport. I was always fascinated by other cultures so learned about them by reading.

I work at a university and learn so much about different cultures from our speaking to our students and I always think our UK students are getting some international experience just by sitting in a classroom with people from around the world.