One of the most common questions I encountered back in Australia when I told people I was moving to Taiwan was ‘have you travelled much?’

The last time I left Australia was back in 1993 on a family trip.

The reaction I got when I told people I was moving abroad was thus usually one of surprise. As the conversation progressed the questions ‘won’t you miss home?’ and ‘how will you cope?’ inevitably came up as well.

To perfectly honest these weren’t even considerations when I was convincing myself that moving overseas was right for me…

…how naive.

I’ve only been in Taiwan a relatively short time so far and whilst I haven’t been struck by homesickness (I’m not really that kind of guy), some days have left me worse for wear.

Despite loving the lifestyle and the locals in Taiwan, being a museum exhibit every time you go outside does take its toll at random times. I’m by no means an expert on staving off home sickness or culturally adapting to a new environment but these tips are my way of coping with living abroad.

Today I thought I’d share them with you.




1. Bring something small with you that you can carry around

A small item you can carry around that has some significance of your life back home has without doubt had the strongest impact on my personal coping with living abroad.

It can be something you wear, something you can carry around in a wallet, an accessory or if you can make it work even an item of clothing.

For me it’s a ring given to me by an ex-girlfriend. I’ve had it roughly two years and whilst the romantic significance of the ring is all but dead it’s been with me everywhere over the past two years.

Be it family, friends, my relationship at the time or just life in general, for me the ring has come to signify all my happy memories of life back in Australia these past few years.

For those moments where nothing seems to make sense, cultural frustration gets the better of you or the feeling of alienation hits you like a ton of bricks nothing makes the feeling pass quicker then reaching down and just t0uching my ring with my other hand.

I don’t exactly know the psychology behind it but I’ve found the memories bound to the ring certainly help.




2. Music

Most people identify with music in one form or another. In Taiwan everybody listens to crappy computer produced romantic ballads sung in Chinese, so it’s nice to be able to tune out and listen to some real music every once in a while.

Unfortunately for the meantime that means pumping music out of my EEE PC’s thumping tiny inbuilt speakers. Getting a proper set of stereo speakers with bass is pretty high on my priority list.

Whether it’s an ipod, a laptop or old school audio cds, music can take your mind away after a hard days work. If I’m listening to something really engaging there’s moments where I just forget I’m even living abroad.

If you’re not into music a good substitute is reading some books. If books aren’t your thing either (what’s wrong with you?) to a lesser extent movies and television work as well.

I find the cultural connection isn’t as strong with movies and television though as 99.9% of what I watch is from the US and I’m not American.




3. Eat familiar food

One thing I love about Taiwan is the food. Much to the amusement of other expats living here I’m quite happy to eat a rotation of beef noodles, suckling pig and pork belly 24/7.

I’ll just simply never get sick of it. And if I do there’s an abundance of ridiculously cheap Taiwan buffets offering a daily massive variety of foods I can pick and choose from.

Every once in a while though I find it helps to get back to culinary familiarity. For me this usually takes place in the form of a visit to the local KFC. Whilst I do like KFC I can’t really justify regularly paying $120 TWD (approx $4 AUD) for a Zinger burger meal when I can pay $50-$60 TWD ($1.50-$2 AUD) for a substantial Taiwanese meal.

It’s definitely not the price I go there for but my visits to KFC offer a sense of familiarity. When I go to KFC I know what to expect, I know the menu and I know I’m not going to have any language problems ordering.

What’s more is most of the customers there tend to be young people and they’re (usually) far less inclined to stare at me with their mouths open and full of food as I walk in.

This familiarity (which is only needed once a month, maybe twice) helps remind me of eating back home. Not that I ate KFC all the time back home but for now it’s the closest dining experience to eating back home I’ve got.

Ironically there’s probably more Asian food in Melbourne then KFC but like I said, it’s not about the food.




4. Don’t try to recreate your life as it was back home

When I moved to Taiwan I had it stuck in my head that once I’d settled down with a job and a nice place to live I’d immediately begin to recreate the life I had back home.

Not necessarily how I lived but more things like routine. I wanted to cook my own meals in bulk, watch movies and television via USB through a DVD player, get an aquarium up and running etc.

I wanted to do this as quickly as possible because I figured if home sickness did kick in, recreating my lifestyle back in Australia would be my best chance of beating it.

Shortly after arriving I realised it’s just not practical and have since actually started to enjoy the change in lifestyle living abroad offers. Some things I’ll still recreate, such as watching divx on a big TV and the aquarium – but I’ve accepted that they don’t need to be done straight away.

In the long term it’s just something you’ve got to accept. I’ve met people in Taipei who’ve asked me how I cope not living there. They always seem to be amazed at foreigners getting by outside of a western lifestyle.

Their loss.




5. Embrace being different

This is one that’s going to be difficult for some people and simply just not do-able for others. Embracing being different is paramount to getting along here.

Accept the fact that people are going to stare. They’re going to cover their mouths and whisper to their friends when you walk past and randoms are going to strike up conversations with you to show their mates how down with foreigners they are.

Nothing you do as a person is going to change this. So why fight it?

I don’t like being routinely stared at as much as the next guy but I’ve come to accept it. I kind of grown to like the fact that I dress a little differently, don’t have your stereotypical Asian male haircut, wear boots instead of thongs everywhere, know what deodorant is and ride a bicycle that looks nothing like the Giant bikes that dominate Taiwan.

In bars and social situations being different definitely has its advantages.


Going crazy from living abroad is definitely something I can see happening to those that don’t look after themselves or just simply aren’t wired to adapt to it.

With a the techniques I’ve shared above though I’ve found that missing home or wondering what the hell you’re doing living halfway across the world can be minimised.

Getting used to the cultural differences and lifestyle change is paramount to enjoying your time abroad. Once you’ve got it sorted you can then get on with actually enjoying yourself and living life.

And really, at the end of the day that’s what living abroad is all about.

Related posts that might interest you:

1. 10 Things I miss about living in Australia