On being foreign

In America, being foreign is status quo. Most, if not all, people hold their original roots overseas. In an idyllic, utopian sense, this is what America stands for—a free nation where people of any ethnicity can come and make a new home.

However, there are others who find home oppressive and foreignness liberating. They seek unknown lands and the urge to feel like an outsider trailblazing new paths. Their quest to become foreign themselves is nothing new. Because of the globalization of industries and ever-expanding educational systems, it has become easier than ever to live abroad. And with the current instability of the economy, especially in the US, it is a common alternative for adventurous Americans who would like to try a new lifestyle.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 700 million adults, or roughly 16% of the world’s population would like to permanently move to another country. Top destinations include Europe, America, Canada and Singapore. Yet, if all of us who can afford this international transition actually takes the leap, that leaves only the least desired destinations as a place where one can truly live as a foreigner. Thus, to get a strong sense of what it means to be foreign, you have to go to Africa, the Middle East, or parts of Asia where foreigners are few and far between.

Japan is a country where being foreign is a place marker for your role in society. In such a hugely populated, homogenous culture with a set of societal standards and rules that are staunchly obeyed by the Japanese people, foreigners maintain jobs and social status of a foreign class. Most expatriates living in Japan are working in English education, translation, or for a foreign corporation. It is more than difficult to assimilate as a foreigner when one will never be fully accepted as part of the native class; however, perhaps the challenge is what makes this lifestyle worth living.

In terms of language, Japanese is one of the harder languages to master if your linguistic base is in English or another Germanic/Latin based language. With characters rather than letters and a grammatical structure almost polar opposite from English, it takes nearly a decade to have fluent conversational skills and literacy. That fact alone separates the leavers from the lifers.

Communication is essential for those looking to be successful in a career or just handle daily life like choosing which brands to buy at the grocery store. If you’re without basic communication for an extended period of time, you start to feel stunted and your scope of understanding the culture is as obsolete as your ability to make a dinner reservation. Icons and butchered English can become commonplace for your communication standard, but after a while, one wishes for more.

However, there are some freeing aspects of a far removal from a functional member of society. Similar to a baby and their fresh view of the world, expatriates see everything about this country as an adventure and a challenge to overcome. Those who seek such a lifestyle often feel invigorated with daily minutia that was once boring. Life is exciting and with constant change brings new eyes for old and a sense of accomplishment at even the simplest of tasks.

By social standards, Japan is a law-biding country where people think of the greater good of the group rather than individual success. Citizens are conditioned to believe that their contribution to society must be equal and on par with everyone else’s. Any American-bred expat would consider this an assault on personal freedom; therefore, a balance must be made by foreigners attempting to respect and ultimately assimilate to a Japanese way of life while maintaining a personal identity that may have only been useful in a past life.

Again, on the other side, expatriates may enjoy this anomie and loss of self-identity. In Freud’s theory of melancholia, he explains that people often seek difficulty to harness a pain in which they feel is pleasurable. Similar to exile, expatriates want to live a life they are forced into. Yet, the reality of their situation is that it is by choice, and in today’s ever-growing globalized world, it is a popular choice at that.