Connecting: Expat Skill Par Excellence?

Posted on 02. Oct, 2009 by Emmanuelle Archer in Blog, Expat Life, Musings & Inspiration
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You may remember that a couple weeks ago, as we were exploring some unexpected benefits of culture shock, I listed some traits that make expats in general a cool bunch of people to be around.

Well, another one occurred to me recently, while I was hosting an expat meetup. I watched complete strangers effortlessly break the ice and get deep into discussion of their life stories, their hopes, their dreams, and sometimes their fears.

It was a beautiful thing to see – instant fellowship, immediate connection. Skip the small talk, go straight to the meaningful stuff. All because we had gone through similar experiences, had faced the same challenges and had had our share of eye-opening moments while living abroad.

If that ability to reach out, establish rapport and connect in a meaningful way is not an amazing asset, I don’t know what is.

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Emmanuelle

Image by Micah J. Walter, via Flickr Creative Commons