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I like to think that you are either consuming culture or contributing to it – if all you are there to do is consume, you may be better off in a place less forei

by lemax 3y ago

I like to think that you are either consuming culture or contributing to it – if all you are there to do is consume, you may be better off in a place less foreign. I've found that taking the time to integrate with the people, learning the local language and overall just trying really hard to fit in with the rhythm around me has melded quite a different experience for myself. I have tried hopping around the world, doing a month at a time here or there and I've had mixed results - in Lisbon I felt like just another one in a pack of people taking the charm out of a small city that has a lot of resent toward digital nomads and the like, from younger folks to old. In Vienna and around Switzerland less so, as english didn't make me stick out like a sore thumb and there is much less of an influx in those places. On the other hand, during my last trip I stayed about 4 months in Buenos Aires, taking language courses with a teacher, working a bit less, and making lasting friendships with several people. Argentina felt very welcoming, but I think my efforts helped tremendously. If all you have time for is work, good luck in an Iberian or Latin city – these are slow places that do not have sympathy for people who revolve their lives around work as a city like New York or Zurich may. As culture becomes more global, cities that are glossed over with the amenities digital nomads demand will all look one and the same. You can go to a city center in nearly any part of the world and get a pretty latte and an avocado toast, or go to a cute cowork. But why travel at that point?

witchesindublin 3y ago
You touch on a major reason where a lot of American digital nomads fail, and that is that it takes A LOT to integrate into a foreign culture. Europeans tend to have a lot more contact with diverse cultures and are more likely to understand that they will suffer from not being about the integrate fully into a foreign culture, but I think that Americans assume that they will be fine wherever they go. Asia in particular is a place where lots of Americans go and end up failing, but it can also apply to Europe and Latin America to an extent.
- balls187 3y ago
  You're painting with very broad strokes. I would say perhaps Europeans as a whole have much more experience living in a foreign country than Americans do. But as an American with significant travel experience globally, I have yet to visit a country that is as culturally diverse as America.
  - witchesindublin 3y ago
    This never makes any sense to me. Have you been to any country in Southern Europe? Parts of those are akin to the Mexican border with nationalities from all over the world - for example Portugal has a half-Indian prime minister and most of its immigrants are from Latin America, Middle East and Africa, with a number from China via Macau.
    - balls187 3y ago
      What do you consider southern europe, as a red-blooded American, I suck at Geography. But, I have been to Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. And it was all full off Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and Turks, respectively. Colonialism does mean many european countries do count among their ranks people who aren't "native" to europe, but America is a land of immigrants. Full stop.
      - witchesindublin 3y ago
        Southern Europe has much more visible minorities than most of the US, especially the smaller and medium sized towns. Not sure where you have been. Most Indians I have met usually have negative views about racism and diversity in the US.
        balls187 3y ago
        > Southern Europe has much more visible minorities than most of the US, especially the smaller and medium sized towns. Sources?
    - chinchilla2020 3y ago
      I've lived and worked in the US and Germany. I've travelled all over Europe at this point (except Italy, notably). Most of Europe is not very diverse. It took me a while to overcome the culture shock of what is essentially a European monoculture. The most diverse country I encountered in Europe was probably Spain. What do you mean by "mexican border"? I think you are talking about preconceptions based on the news cycle. At work in Europe, you will get weird comments if you are not a white person. I never encountered anything like that in the US.
- rocketnasa 3y ago
  > You touch on a major reason where a lot of American digital nomads fail, and that is that it takes A LOT to integrate into a foreign culture. I find they are disappointed because the wealthy are often the first to travel and live multiple-house nomad lifestyle. Which is nothing like being a nobody who has only average income. An actor traveling all over the world with a personal assistant and businesses arranging everything is who they hear about most as the nomads of the world. As they are the big sports stars, film stars, book authors, musicians - doing their show. But a lot of musicians and such will tell you that it is by no means easy to live on the road and to follow your own path. Back in the 1980's, George Lucas and Joseph Campbell really tried to make this knowledge clear to people. Campbell: "They've moved out of the society that would have protected them, and into the dark forest, into the world of fire, of original experience. Original experience has not been interpreted for you, and so you've got to work out your life for yourself. Either you can take it or you can't. You don't have to go far off the interpreted path to find yourself in very difficult situations. The courage to face the trials and to bring a whole new body of possibilities into the field of interpreted experience for other people to experience -- that is the hero's deed." Most people in 2023 wave around light sabers and have never bothered to study any of the things Lucas filmed about the mythology interpretation and human history of experiences. “One must travel, to learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any significance for me before, take to themselves a meaning.” ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

by lemax 3y ago

witchesindublin 3y ago

You touch on a major reason where a lot of American digital nomads fail, and that is that it takes A LOT to integrate into a foreign culture. Europeans tend to have a lot more contact with diverse cultures and are more likely to understand that they will suffer from not being about the integrate fully into a foreign culture, but I think that Americans assume that they will be fine wherever they go. Asia in particular is a place where lots of Americans go and end up failing, but it can also apply to Europe and Latin America to an extent.

balls187 3y ago
You're painting with very broad strokes. I would say perhaps Europeans as a whole have much more experience living in a foreign country than Americans do. But as an American with significant travel experience globally, I have yet to visit a country that is as culturally diverse as America.
- witchesindublin 3y ago
  This never makes any sense to me. Have you been to any country in Southern Europe? Parts of those are akin to the Mexican border with nationalities from all over the world - for example Portugal has a half-Indian prime minister and most of its immigrants are from Latin America, Middle East and Africa, with a number from China via Macau.
  - balls187 3y ago
    What do you consider southern europe, as a red-blooded American, I suck at Geography. But, I have been to Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. And it was all full off Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and Turks, respectively. Colonialism does mean many european countries do count among their ranks people who aren't "native" to europe, but America is a land of immigrants. Full stop.
    - witchesindublin 3y ago
      Southern Europe has much more visible minorities than most of the US, especially the smaller and medium sized towns. Not sure where you have been. Most Indians I have met usually have negative views about racism and diversity in the US.
      - balls187 3y ago
        > Southern Europe has much more visible minorities than most of the US, especially the smaller and medium sized towns. Sources?
  - chinchilla2020 3y ago
    I've lived and worked in the US and Germany. I've travelled all over Europe at this point (except Italy, notably). Most of Europe is not very diverse. It took me a while to overcome the culture shock of what is essentially a European monoculture. The most diverse country I encountered in Europe was probably Spain. What do you mean by "mexican border"? I think you are talking about preconceptions based on the news cycle. At work in Europe, you will get weird comments if you are not a white person. I never encountered anything like that in the US.
rocketnasa 3y ago
> You touch on a major reason where a lot of American digital nomads fail, and that is that it takes A LOT to integrate into a foreign culture. I find they are disappointed because the wealthy are often the first to travel and live multiple-house nomad lifestyle. Which is nothing like being a nobody who has only average income. An actor traveling all over the world with a personal assistant and businesses arranging everything is who they hear about most as the nomads of the world. As they are the big sports stars, film stars, book authors, musicians - doing their show. But a lot of musicians and such will tell you that it is by no means easy to live on the road and to follow your own path. Back in the 1980's, George Lucas and Joseph Campbell really tried to make this knowledge clear to people. Campbell: "They've moved out of the society that would have protected them, and into the dark forest, into the world of fire, of original experience. Original experience has not been interpreted for you, and so you've got to work out your life for yourself. Either you can take it or you can't. You don't have to go far off the interpreted path to find yourself in very difficult situations. The courage to face the trials and to bring a whole new body of possibilities into the field of interpreted experience for other people to experience -- that is the hero's deed." Most people in 2023 wave around light sabers and have never bothered to study any of the things Lucas filmed about the mythology interpretation and human history of experiences. “One must travel, to learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any significance for me before, take to themselves a meaning.” ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad