Sitting in your lounge and gazing out on your windswept and rain soaked garden it is easy to imagine yourself enjoying a new life in a new country, but just how does the picture in your mind's eye compare to the reality after you have moved abroad? Well, this question is not perhaps as easy to answer as you might think.

Probably the greatest problem is that there are so many variables to think about and so many factors which are simply unknown at the beginning. It is very easy, for example, to believe that the fact that you do not speak the language is unimportant as, in the short term at least, you will probably be able to get by in your mother tongue and will always be able to pick up the language in the longer term. But just how easy is it to learn a language and just how easy is it to learn the particular language of your chosen country?

You might also be excited about the prospect of all that exotic food, but just how is a perhaps substantial change in your diet going to affect your health? You might very well have experienced some wonderful restaurant food on holiday trips but is this really the sort of food you will be eating on a daily basis when you are cooking for yourself?

All of these problems are of course minor when it comes to comparing them to trying to adjust mentally to living in what is not only a different country, but possibly a very different culture. The things which you have thought of as both curious and fascinating when on holiday could well present you with considerable difficulty when they are part and parcel of your daily life.

Many countries with a sizeable expatriate community develop a large support network, which often includes an expat club which holds regular meetings, organizes events and outings, distributes its own newspaper and a great deal more. Initially this might seem to be very comforting but it is often worth thinking about why the expatriates in the country have found it necessary to create such an extensive support network. Indeed, when you look at the extent to which the lives of many expatriates revolve around the activities of the expat community you could find yourself asking why they chose to live overseas in the first place.

In point of fact a significant number of expats find that, once the novelty wears off, they regret having moved but have frequently burnt their bridges and now find themselves with no alternative other than to remain where they are and make the most of their situation.

This is not of course the case with all expats and, as an expatriate myself, I can tell you that there are many of us who are more than happy with our decision to move abroad and would not wish to turn the clock back. For many hundreds of people every year the decision to move overseas turns out to be the best decision they have ever made and one which they certainly do not regret. By how can you tell which group of expats you are likely to fall into before you make your decision?

Regretably, you can never of course be sure, but there are several things which you can do to increase your chances of your decision being one which you will be glad you made.

The most important thing that you can do is to try the water and this means living in your country of choice for a reasonable period of time before cutting your ties with home. But the critical word here is 'living'.

It is no use merely visiting the country a couple of times each year on holiday, staying in a hotel and eating in restaurants. Ideally you need to spend at least a year in the country and cast off any idea of being on holiday. You have to make a conscious effort to live as you would want to live in the long term, steering clear of tourist areas and activities and becoming part of the local community. Live just like a local, doing your own cooking and making the time to learn something of the local history, lifestyle and culture, while at the same time starting to learn the language.

By steering clear of the expatriate community and integrating yourself into the local community from the very beginning you will soon find out whether or not you would be making a wise choice to move overseas permanently.

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