That Foreign Feeling

Literally Literary and The Writing Cooperative prompt.

I told my friends on Labor Day weekend that I was moving to Taiwan to teach English. They laughed it off and didn’t believe me at the time. That was a bit over 10 years ago.

10 years that I spent living in Taiwan and Singapore. 10 years that I traveled to over 25 unique countries and states. 10 years that I had the pleasure of meeting countless friends from countless countries and went on countless adventures.

I’m now what people in the biz like to call an expatriate. It took me many years before I fully realized what that term truly means.

The one underlying commonality of being an expat? We’re all bound by our cultures and upbringing. When you’re in a country that isn’t your own, that goes the same for their backgrounds too.

I first noticed this in my early days living in the middle of Taiwan, in a remote area known as Chiayi. The people were amazingly friendly, and no one spoke English. Hell, many people didn’t even speak the official national language.

It was a true adventure.

“Hi, I’d like to go to Tainan,” I said in Mandarin to the receptionist at the bus station.

“What?” she asked back in the same language.

“Hmm, I. want. go. Tainan.” I said slowly in Mandarin much more carefully.

“English?” she said in a strong accent.

“Sure!”

She excitedly ran to the back to bring out another colleague.

“Yes?” the new receptionist asked me in English.

“I’d like to go to Tainan please,” I said with a smile in English.

“What?” he asked back in Mandarin.

I sighed.

I was so excited to tell all my friends and family about my adventures in Taiwan when I first went back to Canada. The thing is, they weren’t.

Bored one day after arriving home, I went shopping with one of my friends from university. We went into a big box store that sold some kind of apparel likely made in the broader region of my newfound home in Asia.

“This is weird,” I told him after 5 minutes inside.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“No one’s staring at me,” I said.

“What the hell does that mean?” he inquired.

“Well, it’s just that in Asia, there are not so many white people in some parts. You’re kind of like a D-list celebrity in those places.”

“You got weird, man.”

I sighed.

Living in Singapore in my early thirties was also an amazing experience. There are a huge number of expats there, from many parts of the world.

British, French, Dutch, Australian, you’ll see plenty of people from these countries if you walk downtown.

But alas, not many Canadians.

“Hey John, that’s really weird what our buddy did the other day,” I mentioned one evening over drinks with a British friend.

“What the hell did he do this time?”

“I’ll tell you if you don’t say you heard it from me.”

“Chatham house rules, mate.” He hastily said.

“That sounds like a cool house but I don’t see how it’s relevant here.”

“…” he looked at me blankly.

I sighed.

Working in an international company in an international country also had some interesting consequences. An odd skill I picked up over the years was helping translate English to English.

Why’s that? Accents, accents, everywhere!

Indian, Australian, South African, French, American, Portuguese, you name it. It was a constant feature of working, calling, and meeting people from all over the world. And I enjoyed it.

“So what’s this new proposal you’ve been working on?” A co-worker in the New Zealand branch asked me during a video call.

“Well, I’ve been researching the hell out of this new service line that we can potentially move into,” I said, “do you want to hear about it?”

“Ya, naw, ya,” he responded.

“Oh, okay, let’s move on to the next item then.”

“Mate, I just said yes…” he said in shock.

I sighed.

Traveling around Asia is also pretty cool. Insanely gorgeous views of valleys, lakes, oceans, and sunsets. It makes it hard to leave sometimes. I also tend to enjoy the weather more than I did in Canada. Many parts of South East Asia have warm weather all year round, and I absolutely love it.

This leads to a common occurrence though. Whenever I meet someone new and they find out I’m from Canada, the topic of coldness inevitably pops up.

“You must really love cold weather!”

“Not really,” I often say.

“But you’re from Canada!”

“Yea, but I choose to live in the nice warm tropics of Asia.” I’ve repeated countless times.

“So…?”

I sigh.

Living an expat life is certainly an interesting life. One of my favorite aspects of it is the new experiences I get to see, every single day.

I wouldn’t trade it for the world right now, and I’m looking forward to many more years of the same lifestyle. That is — a lifestyle that’s different every day.

‘Rant’ over. © J.J. Pryor 2019