Here’s How Living With Foreigners Changed My Life

As a languages graduate and lover of travel, living with foreigners has become a fundamental and almost natural part of my life over the past 4 years. It can be easy to fall into the trap of searching for fellow natives of your country when moving away from home, but I can say that one of my highlights of living abroad has been getting the opportunity to live with foreigners! Gaining an insight into how other cultures live their day to day lives has been such an enriching experience for me that I couldn’t recommend it more.

It’s not always easy, and you’d be surprised at how many differences you will come across, but there is so much to be learnt from sharing a living space with either one or several other cultures, that the occasional struggle is completely worth it. To follow I’ve included some of the distinctive characteristics which I experienced while living with Spanish, French, Belgian, Mexican and Colombian people and how, all in all, they changed my life for the better.

1. Food

Probably one of the main shocks which I’ve found while living with foreigners has been comparing the different foods that we eat. In Spain I considered breakfast to be surprisingly light and often sweet, whereas in Colombia it was almost always savoury and pretty heavy. Before moving abroad I had always assumed that cereal was a universal breakfast food, until I caught my Mexican flatmate frying steak most mornings as early as 07:00 am…

Both my French and Spanish flatmates seemed to eat bread with most meals, meanwhile in the UK we are taught to see bread as the enemy (I still fail to understand how they ate so much bread yet stayed so slim). I was also confused to discover in Colombia that all meals were consumed with fresh juice as opposed to water, and my flatmate even told me drinking water with a meal made him feel as though he couldn’t afford anything else. One of the great things out of all of these differences, however, was that I was able to try so many different foods as well as learn how they were made!

2. Meal Times

Another strange observation I came across whilst adapting to the different eating habits of foreign countries was based on the hours that meals were consumed. In the UK our meals get bigger as the day goes on – average breakfast, slightly larger lunch, then dinner (the biggest meal of the day). I discovered that Colombians have a substantial breakfast, an ENORMOUS lunch (lasting up to 2 hours), and then a snack/small meal in the late evening (9 pm). Spaniards, on the other hand, have a fairly light breakfast, a big lunch, and then a substantial dinner, even later than in Colombia (10/11 pm)!

I’ve been ridiculed for having my dinner as early as 6 pm, as people often assume it means we Brits go to bed feeling famished; whereas I always think having such a late dinner would force you to wake up feeling full. Although I’ve found it fascinating to observe, in every foreign place I’ve lived I’ve always really struggled to adapt my meal times to match those of the country. I don’t know if it’s just something which is culturally ingrained in me as a someone from the UK, but I did try my best to conform when necessary, as at the end of the day it’s all part of the learning experience!

3. Cultural Habits

This was probably one of the most eye opening aspects of living with foreigners: realising that not everyone shares the same cultural habits. For example, in Colombia it was noticeable that time spent together with others as opposed to alone was an integral part of their culture – with a huge emphasis on family. I remember someone once telling me that their mother-in-law had told them off for bringing a book to the beach, as reading while part of a group is considered rude and anti-social, even at the beach! This is definitely one of the coolest things about living with foreigners!

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Being someone who genuinely enjoys my own company, I learnt that being surrounded by others can be just as nurturing and rewarding (to an extent of course, I still needed some “me time” as well!). While studying abroad in Madrid I couldn’t get my head around having class until 10 pm; whereas in Brussels I started class at 7 am. This was a shock to the system coming from a country where classes begin at 9 am and don’t finish later than 6 pm, but at the same time it allowed me to experience learning in a whole new way which I had never before considered.

4. Language Exchange

Living with people who speak a different language from you is like having free lessons on demand right on your door step! You might not necessarily be living with someone whose mother tongue you’re trying to learn, but even so, it’s fascinating to gain an insight into other foreign languages. For me personally, the single most beneficial thing which helped me to improve my Spanish was living with native speakers and having the opportunity to exchange everyday conversation.

I learnt the names of foods I’d never seen before, household objects I’d never thought to look up the translation for, and had many a late night chat in the kitchen about almost anything you could imagine. Being able to communicate with my flatmates and share information about our respective languages and cultures has been a truly life changing experience for me which I will always value dearly. There’s never a dull moment when foreigners co-live under one roof, that’s for sure!

What is your experience living with foreigners? How was your experience?

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