Life Like Back Home!

It is a misconception that all those who stay abroad have adapted to the local culture.
I am afraid that nothing could be further from the truth. It is not uncommon for people who go abroad to want it to be like home.
An expatriate needs to be willing to adjust and be flexible in his or her new environment. After all, this is true for all of us in any situation, be it a new job, a new location, a new church or a new social group; whenever there is a change in environment, the need to fit in arises. Moving abroad necessitates adjusting to new customs and rules, a new climate and language, and several new administrative issues.
Cultural specialist L. Robert Kohls writes in his book “Survival Kit for Overseas Living” that the success rate of overseas adjustment among Americans is not nearly as high as it might be. Years ago, before I ever went overseas, I was in the habit of reading Time magazine regularly. After coming to Turkey in 1979, I tried to continue this in order to stay up-to-date with the issues back home. Of course, when I first came to Turkey, the Internet was very limited and media was not as developed. If you wanted to stay in touch with the news back home and world news, you had to get access to printed periodicals such as Time magazine or the International Herald Tribune. Nowadays, in most places in Turkey you can find excellent Internet service.
I wonder if any of you reading this ever visited the US Consulate General in Beyoğlu when it had a small library, and you could use the facility. The İstanbul British Turkish Association also had a library that members could use. Neither of these libraries exists now. Back then, every week or so I would go and spend a couple of hours using the American Consulate library facilities. After having only resided in Turkey for a couple of years, I remember reading an article in August 1984 in the International Herald Tribune that had a great impact. The article stated that one-third of all Americans who take up residence in foreign countries return prematurely because they are unable to adapt to day-to-day life.
Anyone who is on an international assignment will place priority on the aspect of work adjustment in order to be successful. Indeed, upon arriving abroad, expats usually need to settle their working routines fast in an effort to effectively adjust to new responsibilities, requirements and expectations, as well as a new organizational environment. In research conducted by B. M. Firth, G. Chen, B.L. Kirkman and K. Kim in 2014 for their study “Newcomers Abroad: Expatriate Adaptation during Early Phases of International Assignments” (Academy of Management Journal, 57, 1, 280-300), the researchers hypothesize that motivation- and stress-related constructs will be predictors of expatriate work adjustment.
Those who go abroad without any cross-cultural training usually struggle more when attempting to adjust. Certainly, in the Middle East there is high turnover of expats in the fields of medicine and education. However, it does not have to be somewhere as different as the Middle East; even in countries with more familiar cultures, such as in Europe, you will find that people return home before completing their contracts.
You've probably heard or overheard some American saying something to the effect of “The trouble with other cultures is that people don't behave the way they are supposed to,” implying, that is, like us.
Surprisingly enough, this problem does not just exist among us Americans who work abroad; to be fair, it occurs among other nationalities.
Perhaps you saw a special BBC Entertainment program about the royal wedding, in which one Brit being interviewed said something about it being exciting to see how the colonial countries…, then quickly corrected herself, “the Commonwealth members…” The British and others were famous for not crossing cultures but changing them.
The failure to understand and adapt to other cultures can have severe career, political and diplomatic consequences. In fact, we are seeing the effects of this today in the Middle East and North Africa.
Research indicates that those who are successful in their careers abroad are those who are able to make positive adjustments over time.

CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON (Cihan/Today's Zaman)