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Q: When exactly does one become a "long term expat"?
I've seen this phrase thrown around this site and elsewhere, but I am still unclear on what exactly define a "long term" expat. After how long living here does one qualify? Are there other qualifiers?
I know that at 8ish months I'm probably not one yet, but just curious.
I would say that it has more to do with one's attitude towards the Chinese environment that you are living in rather than a certain amount of time. So generally speaking you could say that when you have gotten used to living in China and you are planning on spending at least the next couple of years here, then you are a long term expat.
In my mind a long term expat is someone without a return ticket. Those of us who get's shipped of by en employer will often have a fixed period, I hear two years a lot, and then it is back to the office that sent you.
If you have no plan of going back you are a long term expat.
My opinion of a long-term expat is one who's had the rose-colored glasses permanently removed and can function day-to-day without becoming an alcoholic, asocial (psychopath/sociopath) and neither condemns nor approves of the status quo.
Scandinavian:
not fair of you to exclude all the well functioning alcoholics
Sinobear:
Well guys, there's more to it than that. If you take the AA definition of an alcoholic, then we're all there. I was going to go into a diatribe about the "human rights" bs that gets brought up here over-and-over, but we're too intelligent for that. Then there's the long-term expat vs. "old China hand" thing. No time for that as I am behind in my Chinese beer as a preservative experiments.
Scandinavian:
actually I never touch alcohol, so I think AA would not clude me in
Sinobear:
As Humphrey Bogart once said (and I've combined two of his quotes here), "Don't trust a man who doesn't drink and the problem with this world is everyone's three drinks behind." Whatever floats your boat (or liver).
