Living abroad can be a lonely affair.
I’ve been fortunate to choose destinations where a distant family member or long-lost friend happen to live – and are close by when I first arrive. Others aren’t so fortunate and, hurried overseas at the whim of their job and/or better half, are faced with the prospect of fitting in fast or looking forward to an uncertain future.
Back in 2010 (was it really that long ago?), I wrote about my own struggles with trying (and failing) to fit in. I’ve learned a lot about myself since then and the coping strategies and mechanisms at my disposal upon arriving somewhere new. One resource that often comes highly recommended is InterNations, an expatriates community for people living and working abroad.
I usually shudder at the thought of expat meet-ups, groups of lost souls reminiscing together about the motherland. However, InterNations is first and foremost an online community – you can join the regular meet-ups if you want, but you can also use it to connect with friends and business contacts online. Less pushy and more ‘take us as you find us’ – that’ll always get my vote. And because you can only join by invitation, there’s a higher level of personal trust where privacy is protected – again, all good with me.
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Malte Zeeck, InterNations co-founder |
Co-founder Malte Zeeck offered to talk about how his life story contributed to the creation of InterNations. Here he is on how it all began.
People often ask me how I came up with the idea for InterNations, the community for expatriates and global minds. The answer is simple: I love travelling, discovering new places and meeting people from other cultures. If you have the opportunity to see the world, to live and work in many different countries, this can be one of the most challenging but also the most rewarding experience in your life, and you should definitely make the most of it. And that’s exactly what InterNations is about: It helps the global citizens of today to connect, to exchange information, to stay in touch and organise meet-ups wherever they are in the world.
The idea for InterNations is directly linked to my own life story. Ever since spending a high school year in the United States, I’ve never looked back. I went on to study economy and film at universities in Switzerland, Italy and Brazil, and because my appetite for exploring the world still wasn’t satisfied, I worked as a flight attendant during my studies. After graduating, I ventured into the world of TV journalism, as it seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine my love for travelling and my passion for meeting people from different cultures. I worked for various TV stations shooting documentaries in countries such as India, Brazil and Spain.
During all this time spent travelling and working in different countries, I soon realised that it’s the people that matter most. I love meeting new people and introducing them to other people I know, but I also want these personal relationships to last through time and space, if you know what I mean. The fact that I might be living in Australia next year shouldn’t mean that I will never see or hear from my friends in Germany again. On the contrary, maybe they could even help me find my feet “down under” by introducing me to some of their friends or business contacts over there. This is how I believe globalisation should work, and this is how InterNations works. It’s a global community with a local approach.
So we came up with the plan to produce the Expat Magazine and our Country and City Guides. The former is a collection of articles on general topics revolving around the expat lifestyle. Its various categories, ranging from culture shock to working abroad, cover many aspects of expat life and help people deal with the challenges arising from such a nomadic life style. The Country and City Guides, as their name suggests, provide location-specific information. So if you know that your next expat assignment will take you to Sydney, you can search for that destination in our Guide section and read up on everything related to living in Sydney, which can be extremely useful for your preparations.
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The Sydney InterNations Community |
Our Local Community for expats in Sydney currently has around 3,500 members. It is coordinated by two volunteers, our local InterNations Ambassadors Axel from Germany and Marina from Russia. They organise one official InterNations event per month in various locations across the city. Our members use the events to network and to socialise. The events are a great opportunity for newcomers to make some contacts in the expat community because everyone there is usually very friendly, open and happy to meet new people.
The motto of InterNations events is “Nobody stands alone” – after all, we’ve all been in a similar situation before!
Thanks, Malte. If you’re interested in joining the InterNations community, please leave a comment below and I’ll gladly send you an invitation so you can start to connect globally with other like-minded souls wherever you are in the world. Alternatively connect with me on Twitter at @russellvjward.
Have you experienced organisations like InterNations and were your experiences positive? Are you aware of other similar resources out there?
Anyone who’s traveled overseas alone has experienced isolation in some way or another.
I love the notion of having a ready made international support network, and the meaningful relationships that would result. What a fantastic idea!
Michelle
http://www.theyeariquitmylife.com
They sure have, Michelle, which makes this resource so useful – and it’s portable so no matter where you end up in the world, you can continue to connect with past contacts plus engage yourself with the group in your local destination. It’s a great concept.
I think it depends so much on the culture and language. If you go to the country where people speak English and cultural habits are similar you feel more at home. When you’re somewhere where people speak strange language you can really feel lonely. Even if there’s so much to see or do.
This definitely is the case. I’ve experienced mainly English speaking countries as an expat but, when I have spent time in foreign langauge speaking places, it adds to the alienation unless you get out there and really try to involve yourself. In my mind, organisations like InterNations can only help in that situation.
I realize that my contribution to this post is quite late, but I recently began reading and started from the very beginning. Every post I’ve read so far up to this one have rendered me obsessed! I am a Registered Nurse from and currently residing in Oklahoma, USA, but am beginning to make preparations to migrate to Sydney in a year or so. This blog has been invaluable thus far, and I will be an avid follower after I catch up to current posts! This organization seems to be something that could prove quite useful; therefore, if you are still involved, I would very much appreciate an invite! You are an incredible writer, I am looking forward to what else you have in store.
Mads.
Hi Madison, great to have you on the site and I’m pleased you’re enjoying the posts! I’m no longer able to send out invites from this site as this was from a while back but if you send them a contact message and say you know me from In Search of a Life Less Ordinary, I am almost positive they will welcome you in 🙂 Thanks for your kind words and I hope you stick with it here at ISOALLO!