I'm not always sure how to answer this question. At what point does a trip turn into living somewhere? Is there a set length of time? Also, does it matter how you spend your time in the place concerned? I watched a programme called Tribal Wives, in which each British woman featured spent a month living with a tribe with a totally different lifestyle from her own. The women stayed with local families and were expected to fit into the same routine and do the same work. That must have been such an immersive experience that I'm tempted to say it counted as living in another country. On the other hand, if a tourist spent a month in a resort, relaxing and sight-seeing, I'd probably count that as a holiday rather than living abroad. But I'm not sure. What do you think?
Personally, i count living in a country as working/long term studying there. I spent 5 months travelling around India, but didn't "live" there. But i worked in Spain for 4 months and it was home.
And to answer the post question, i've lived in 16 countries a couple of them twice (Canada, US, Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, China, Japan. Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Croatia, Spain and now Yemen)
I think it is easy enough to define for yourself whether you are 'living' somewhere or just travelling.
For example I 'lived' in HK for a month many years ago. I say lived because I moved there with the intention of staying longer, found a place to live, had paid employment. Then, due to outside reasons I left. But for that month I was living there (and as a result did virtually no tourist stuff at all).
On the other hand I spent 6 months travelling in Africa but I certainly didn't 'live' there. I went to travel and that's what I did. I didn't attempt to settle, find work, find a house etc. Different mindset.
Not including my aborted attempt to live in HK I've only lived in 5 countries. Australia, Singapore, UK, China and Japan.
In my book it is 3 months, earning money, having a house/flat and with a view to staying longer.
So far have lived, from 4 months to 10 years (having escaped England, the asylum of my birth), in Scotland, Singapore, Saudi, Sudan, Spain and Ecuador.
Dave
I agree with #2's definition. I've spent probably close to a year in Thailand in total, but wouldn't call it "living" there, because I haven't ever worked there, or paid taxes, or bought kitchenware, or any of the other stuff I would associate with living somewhere.
By contrast, I went to a small town in California one summer during my student years to work in a direct sales job. I only lasted one month in the job, which was awful (I had intended to stay for three months), but since I went there on a work visa, was there entirely for work, paid rent on an apartment etc., I would definitely classify it as living there.
As for the original question, I have lived in 5 countries so far: England (my country of birth), France, USA, New Zealand and now South Korea.
I'll play devil's advocate here and say two years. And I agree that you need to work in a culture to really get a sense of it.
Just a few months means the sheen has not yet worn off the newness and routine problems of daily life have not yet started. Even when you are working somewhere, most places give a newbie a lot of slack - but after six months or a year - they expect you to perform as you should and you begin to have to deal with differing cultural expectations about work and work relationships.
It takes a good six months to a year for income and lifestyle to reach some sort of equilibrium and for something to become a grind. Like the noise in your neighborhood - or the unreliable water heater that was funny at first, but the landlord still hasn't fixed it. Or the fish smell that comes up the stairwell every morning as your downstairs neighbor has a restaurant but gets the deliveries to their apartment at 3AM every day . . . All things that can seem quaint and even mildly humorous - until you have dealt with them for a longer period of time and either adapt or don't.
It also takes your neighbors a bit of time to get over the foreigner in the 'hood thing and begin responding to you normally.
Generally once you have been somewhere for a couple years - okay maybe only eighteen months - you do know your way around, you can thrive in the work environment and you have learned how to solve life's daily mysteries in a happy and satisfactory way.
Just mumbling outloud on this as I often find my perspective of a place changes considerably if I spend a couple years or more there. Another threshold might be five years . . . And - don't take anything I say seriously . . .
trusted partner
