How living abroad rewires your brain.

I lived abroad for a while as a foreign exchange student. I have to say that the biggest challenge more than anything is the language barrier. Unless you are moving to a country where everyone speaks your own native language, I feel you will really have a hard time. I lived in Japan for around 4-6 months. It was difficult and rewarding at the same time. I have to say living abroad can be scary, but I realized that every human being acts the same. The most difficult part is overcoming that miscommunication gap. It’s already difficult enough to interact with people with different personalities, even though you speak the same language. I study a bit of psychology, too. Not only do you have to adapt to the language, but also have to understand a person’s thoughts, emotions, motivations and personality. It’s challenging, but rewarding.

This was such an interesting video. I feel as if I’m constantly defending the desire for living outside of where you’re from

Amazing cinematogprahy Adam! I think it's important feel foreign because for a lot of people, they have a bias and privilege about their place in the world. Just because we have lived in a place for a long time, we sometimes assume we own the place, our values, our groups and culture are the 'correct' one. Thing is everyone was foreign once.

Help. I'm brown I feel scared moving to Ireland. I know I don't belong there I know most people therew ill see me as the brown person ,the foreigner. I can't live without the friends I've made already even if my home city (Karachi) I wasnt accepted initially as I am actually Irish born my family moved to Pakistan we're gonna move back this year. To the Irish people I'm sorry I know I don't belong there.
I only now managed to make friends here in Karachi otherwise even here I was alone for so long I spent most of my childhood without friends from the age of 7 to 15. Im currently 16
I dont want to lose all of that now the pain of living in Karachi was worth it.
Could someone anyone please just give me advice what the fuck do I do?
I'm worried as hell I don't want to move to Ireland even if i was born there I know at the end of the day I'm an outsider.
I know how pathetic I sound but this is my reality.

34 here, still chasing my dream job and I'm moving abroad for the first time this year. But it's not just for my dream job chase, it's for me, I wanna know who I am instead of just settling with the usual expectations from society, and I wanna learn how to deal with life, myself and the world on my own.

Awesome video man! This is so inspiring

I just turned 18, I wanna start solo traveling before I go to college!! (Im going to college 8000 miles across the ocean in New Zealand!!!!) This honestly really inspired me and comforts me simultaneously <3

We write our own story and starts living our own journey a way to happiness 😊

MESTREECH HEYY!!!

I loved this video mate. Living abroad changes your habits, way of thinking, rewiring you. In a way you feel more alive. It helps you to reframe your beliefs, values. You can then choose to settle in the country that fits you best and have the sensation that you rule your life and not that life rules you. It' s literally a gift to open your mind, it' s transformative. I wish this experience to anybody who will watch this video from the bottom of my heart.

Originally from the Netherlands, lived both in Australia and Greece during the last 10 years. One thing that I really did not take into consideration before taking the leap, is how your identity become tied to different places as the years pass by. This experience is so complex and difficult to navigate at times, but makes life so much more interesting as well. As it turns out I now have the tendency to make friends that lived in different places. Thank you very much for this video, kind sir. It truly resonates.

For example, I am an Indian who believes in mediterranean way of living.
That is, Work to live, not live to work!

I hope to move somewhere in southern Europe someday.

The not belonging is a huge one.

Feeling like a world traveler, as GOD intended

Dont you have a partner ?

Been planning over moving aboard next year

the message of this video feels so dreamy and aesthetic (pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and try new things to feel foreign to feel different), as someone from the third world, i can assure you most of the third world will never have this kind of privilege to discover themselves. Was it the positive feedback loop of you trying new things and leaving your home at the age of 18 that made you think the way you are or was it because you left your comfort zone and discovered that you like trying new things (there is no correct answer its most likely both) either ways i don't know what hurts me more. You saying to putting oneself in a foreign situation to really feel different and foreign or the fact that most of the world doesn't even have the luxury of resting for a day let alone discover something new about themselves.

Loved the videography, wish you all the best :]

“You don’t need to cross a border to feel foreign, you just need to do one thing that unsettles you.”

I think I will try to dedicate more time to learning French in the coming year.

Thank you for the video❤️.

I have moved back to Poland after few years in England, having good jobs in both places. I generally agree with your analysis. However, one point I am personally struggling with is that whatever you build in new place you are throwing away with your next move... Circumstances do shape us, it's just for people who stay in more or less the same place for the majority of their life the circumstances rarely change so heavily that you can clearly see your evolution. With a sudden re-rooting of yourself though you are forced to adapt rapidly and you can notice impact of that on who you are. But is it good to change who you are all the time? For me, at this point of life, I am leaning towards no. I have experienced that, and even felt better in my own skin while in UK, but still... it seems to me that this is running away from commitment... You are learning constantly and experiencing new things, true, but are you able to give anything back in that scenario? or build something lasting? And how much energy you need to put into just adapting to a new place and not into building something outside of your own person? I came to understanding that we can grow vertically and horizontally and with constant moving you experience tremendous growth (is it always growth? it is a change for sure) horizontally but not vertically (in a sense of deep understanding of who you are and what is your purpose - as that shifts all the time). Everyone has different needs in that regard, and that also evolves with time and experiences. We only have one life, moving a lot is a way of experiencing multiple lives to some extent but I am afraid it will always be just a glimpse of a life that people who live there all their life experience. That being said I definitely recommend living abroad for a period of time to anyone, just to experience that liberation from circumstances you were born into. World would be a better place if we were less attached to preconceptions instilled in us during upbringing.

I had often heard the quote "Wherever you go you take yourself with you". I had believed it my whole life, that I as a person couldn't change what was my inherent nature and that moving away was never gonna fix my loneliness. But never going anywhere scared me. It wasn't just a want to see the world, it was a fear of being born, living and dying in the same 2km radius. 1.5 yrs ago i took the first small step and moved away for college (not common where I am from, especially for girls). Not abroad but the other side of my country.
Honestly, just these 1.5 yrs have changed me in ways I cannot describe. Taught me things I never thought I could learn. I didn't take myself with me when i left home, i took a version willing to change and lean from the world. I still have 2.5 more years to go but I am already planning my next move. I'll be moving abroad. I'll be trying for exchange programs, studying and doing research. I'll be leaving myself behind once again and meeting a new me in a foreign country.
This is all too wordy and weirdly poetic but the feeling is difficult to capture. Maybe im just young and eager but it was good to see that the need to see a new sky and to keep going on and on doen't go away. The video was very inspiring. Hopefully I'll be back here in a few years typing as a different me.

the start of the video got me :D

Years ago I lived in Taiwan for three months and I love that feeling! I’ve lived in one place for too long and last year I lived in Italy for a month, it reminded me how much I love feeling new. I definitely have that displaced feeling but know I can create a new routine anywhere

…..in South Korea right now. Challenging is an understatement.

Your editing and shots are amazing !

Great message .

This is a beautiful video, kudos to you and you make me want to travel!

It absolutely rewires your brain! Especially if you learn the language(s) and then start thinking in your new language

Binge watching a bunch of moving abroad videos because I’m moving to Germany for my masters in about 2 weeks and I’m just like “why tf am I doing this I’m so nervous” lol 😅

It all comes down to novelty. The more novelty, the more present and alive we are.

This one is so good, I gonna watch it a couple of times.

I've been travelling a long time and this is very recognizable.

@faz3😊❤

Visiting a country whose culture and language I’m really familiar with through media and movies, I thought I would fit right it and already knew what it’s like. There is some truth to that, people are surprised at how well I speak the language, they assume I was born here while I’ve only been here a few months. But the kind of self-discovery I’ve had, I did not see coming. And though it might be obvious, I’m also surprised at how much more there is to a place than what can be read about or watched on screen, or perhaps even experienced as a tourist. There’s a knowledge, that living in a place at least semi-permanently gives, both about the place and yourself, that nothing else can.

Great content

love the insights! but i'm kind of curious: you mentioned parenting, but this nomad life is kind of a solitary thing, isn't it? i wonder how you manage both family and travel. i have a great desire to travel more, but money (lack of hehe) and ageing parents are two of the things I just can't work around it.

i’m 22. all my life i’ve also feel like an outsider. i moved to college to a different city, then moved to a different country for the masters, and then I moved again for work.
i guess you can imagine how hard is it to make friends, since you’re constantly shifting places. i yearn for a routine, an stable situation, but at the same time i don’t want to keep myself static.
it’s really a complex feeling.
really well put video, man. big props. you gained a follower.
cheers

Thanks for this.

Surprised to realise I learned more about myself after 2 months abroad in Europe than I did about anything else. Priceless.

watched this expecting it to have millions of views. great video! my time abroad is so hard to describe but you explained it so eloquently!!