Beyond Bounds Blog

What do you do in your free time in your home country? Do you play sports? Video games? Watch TV? Write a blog? Sing? Whatever it is you do in your home country, it is even more important that you keep doing it when you go abroad. This may sound counter-intuitive, because it would seem that it would be more beneficial for you to participate in activities that most locals participate in. The truth is that anywhere in the world you go there are locals doing things that you like to do, perhaps even more often.

I love music, and especially singing. I’m not particularly the greatest singer and often sing out of key, but regardless I find it really fun. In the US there isn’t very much kareoke, so any singing that I do is pretty isolated with my guitar at home alone. No one else wants to hear my screaching voice.

Kareoke is to Asians what football is to Americans - it seems that every get-together is centered around that activity (when I was growing up we played tackle football almost every weekend). If I mention kareoke, even jokingly, everyone here in China gets really excited and plans get settled quickly. The environment is great because it is low-stress and I can sing off-pitch all I want and everyone will just cheer me on. This is not limited to just singing. There are plenty of people playing sports - I play soccer and basketball quite often. I have a friend who plays Magic cards with locals every weekend.

Activities facilitate communication, and through activities that you love to do you will learn language faster. It will be easy for you and come naturally to learn the language and make friends as your strong feeling toward that activity will pass on to those you are playing with. You will learn a new way of thinking about the same activity that you’ve already been doing at home, and probably will gain a new appreciation for that activity. In China, basketball is played with more passing and shooting, so I had to adjust my style and become more agile on defense. In video games, players are more technical and less creative, so I was forced to break my old routines and try to find creative ways to catch them off guard, while in the USA I was considered a stronger technical player.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try new activities that you aren’t used to, but if you don’t like them, don’t force yourself. I don’t like hiking - I’m not very “one with nature”. I don’t like to play badminton or ping pong. Many people here do these things, but I don’t have to and rarely do: doing so will make learning language and living abroad feel too forced. Living abroad and learning language should be fun and feel natural - so take what you love to do and put an international twist on it.

This isn’t limited to living abroad or learning language. When you move to a new city, start off by jumping into things you love - the feeling of “home” will come back very quickly. Look up clubs and events pertaining to your interests. If you are leaving high school for college, find people who are doing things that you love to do at your new campus and you will find that you don’t miss home so much :). If you are interested in another culture in your area, see if they enjoy doing similar activities that you do. When I was in college, the Chinese clubs had kareoke, dancing, and beach events - all things that I enjoy. It isn’t hard to make friends when you’re having fun.

Find the courage and get out of your apartment - go find people that like to do things that you like to do, even if it’s just chat. I’m performing a Chinese rap song in front of 1600 people tonight - should be a blast! Get out and just do it; it’s not as scary as it seems.