Most of the foreign teachers here aren't permanent people. I've been doing this for almost 10 years, and I've seen so many people come and go. When you aren't permanent, you can be whoever you want, because you know you're going home in the end. I think that's the attraction of coming here in the first place.- a quote from Dong-ha, an ex-pat bar magnate in Korea, as reported by Rolf Potts in his Expats in Asia series running in Slate.com. Interesting enough to merit a quick read.
And don't forget to check out the comments section. Here's a sample, from MarkEHagg:
I think you've hit on a major reason the whole expat experience holds so much charm for young writers. Living in a hermetically sealed bubble world, ignorant of the language that structures every social event taking place around them, expats become inveterate bullshitters. Who's to know? The folks back home haven't witnessed any of the expat's narrative exploits, and the expat himself hasn't really understood what's happened to him, since he's not even really interested in communicating with the culture that is currently sheltering him from his "real life."
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