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Q: Do you say go back home or go back to 'native country'
-I've noticed that I never say "Go back home anymore." For me go back home means you are going back a life you had in another place. Fact is, I started an ESL job in Russia right after university, and I had already spent the summer in St. Petersberg. I have university memories, and obviously a childhood spent in the US.
-But I wonder at what point other expats like me have switched. I don't consider China my home. But I don't consider the US my home. My motherland, yes, but not my home.
-I've noticed a lot of posters who do say "go back home" or "what happens when you go back home after working in China." How about you?
-I feel homeless.
Go back home for me
I am enjoying my time in china, and even if i stay here a few years, the uk will always be home for me
Its where i grew up, its where my true friends and family are, and its where most of my possessions are, and so for me it will always be home.
I say Back home
for same reasons as littlemick except Aus is my home
Yeh, I know what you mean; I kind of say i'm going back home whichever direction i'm going. I mean, I don't say "I'm going home" when i'm off to McDonald's, I just mean when i'm flying back to see my folks, and then after the visit when i'm returning to China. Either way is back home. So it's kind of like my home is just absolutely massive now.....and I have to skirt around the Middle East to get from the kitchen to the living room.
Raskinik
Where do you feel you belong?
I just have a place where I live and that's "where ever I lay my hat"
Did I press something twice? he he
you can turn any house into a home, so home has nothing to do with a native country, well in china when ever they say im going home means they are going to the family home town
I guess I'll say 'I'm going to visit my parents and siblings'.
What is my native country??? Born in one country and eradicated to another since I was a kid. Changed citizenship. Never felt belonging to neither one of those countries. Leaving in China now and planning to stay for a long time with my Chinese partner, if everything works well...
I've spent most of my adult life traveling around the world so perhaps my situation is a little different, especially as both my parents are now dead. We've been in China now for just over 21 months and this is where my wife's family is, and this is where our 'main' residence is, (home). We haven't yet returned to the UK, and to be honest, I don't have any intentions of doing so.
But to answer your questions, I (talk about) going BACK to England, but I refer to China as home.
Right now I say go back to England, I think when I get closer to actually wanting to return I will start saying 'go back home'. Also, when I'm having a bad China day I definitely don't call it home. I go back to my apartment and watch Spaced.
I used to call it home but there is a moment in time when I felt a definite switch to feeling as though China was my home (after about 18 months). So now I call China home. That's just a feeling. Although when I'm in my motherland and I tell my friends that I'm just visiting and that I'm going home soon they REALLY don't enjoy that.
The difference mean less to me, and more to Chinese.
No matter, China can never become my native home.
