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on Living Abroad

Posted by xJane on September 18th, 2008 at 9:47 am · 4 Comments

I’ve always said that a few years abroad should be required for Americans. But recently, I’ve been meeting people who’ve spent those few years abroad but who remain remarkably closed-minded, and provincial. Maybe it’s mitigated by the years abroad, maybe the years abroad did nothing and they would have ended up this way anyway, or maybe simply living in the US is toxic to a global way of thinking.

Tags: Musings

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Elaine // Sep 18, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    I think it might be all the years of brainwashing…”my school, team, church, town, state, country is the best” sort of thing that gets instilled from infancy.

    I remember, years ago, when I was getting ready to make a visit to England. I got, “Aren’t you scared to leave the US?” “The Commies (this was before the Berlin Wall and USSR fell) will kidnap you and brainwash you.” And other choice warnings, all delivered with a straight face and frightening conviction.

    I still say that travel abroad is good for the soul as well as the intellect and the conscience and am glad that I went to a university that has (or had; I don’t know how that stands now) a study-abroad requirement built into most majors. I, alas, couldn’t afford to go and got my multicultural credit from having worked as a tutor to students from literally all parts of the globe for several years.

  • 2 Steve // Sep 18, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Most of the people I’ve met who’ve lived abroad like I have seem to be generally more open minded than those who have never traveled. I know that living overseas really helped me to have a much broader empathy for how other people live.

    It could be location, too- I live in Los Angeles which tends to be an island of relatively liberal views, but most of that is anecdotal anyway.

    I agree with Elaine- travel abroad is good for the intellect, the conscience and the overall ability to see new things.

  • 3 Brian // Sep 18, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    I don’t like to do this, but I’m going to go way off topic.

    Having read this post after the Microloans post, it first drives home the extreme standard of living that even the “lower class” in America and other Western nations enjoys. My wife and I both come from divorced families, both parents being fairly low income, yet I’ve had the privilege of going to Ireland, while she spent months abroad in Egypt, Italy, and France. We now live under what would be considered the poverty line, but our kids eat, and have clothes, and we have the internet and a (mostly) functional car.

    So what do you do about this, when you care? How do I draw the line? And there’s so much to care about. Time abroad is a wonderful thing, but it costs money, and consumes fossil fuels. Is there a cut off point when I say, “Sorry, this is too wasteful of resources.”? Is it determined by the level of culture or exposure I get? Would my money be better spent staying home and funding a hopeful entrepreneur in Africa? Or better yet just providing basic food and medical care to a few dozen children who know what REAL poverty is? I know I’m not cut out to pull a Francis of Assisi, but where on the spectrum between him and, say, Uncle Scrooge, do I feel comfortable?

    Anyway, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t intend to smear travel or anything of the sort. It just all got me thinking, and then typing. It’s late, and I don’t have the answers to my questions, not that I do any time of the day. :)

  • 4 xJane // Sep 19, 2008 at 12:04 pm

    Brian: you raise absolutely valid points. Perhaps for those of use who have already been abroad, it would indeed be better to spend our money helping those abroad (without using precious resources traveling, unless the benefit of the one outweighs the use). I think that it is more important to educate those who have not yet traveled and that this education (and the ongoing benefits of it) outweighs the cost of resources (that means you’re free to go to Rome as long as you bring the kids ;) ). Each of us must make these decisions for ourselves, and they’re not easy ones to make, you’re absolutely right.

    I also like your analogy to what means “poor” in this country. I definitely grew up in an American lower class family (which became very obvious to me when I started dating my American upper class husband…). My parents still often act as though they are in that situation, although they now have a house large enough to accommodate most of their children, filled with things as every American house is. What really pisses me off is my sister, who enjoys waxing lyrical about how poor she & her family are (this is why I should call her, since my cell phone has “free” long distance)—despite the fact that she owns a home, a car, buys organic/local, and her husband is an attorney.

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