Archive for April, 2008
Tips For Communicating With The Locals When You Can’t Speak The Language
Image by assbach
Editor’s note: This is a post by the other original Location Independent Professional – Jonathan – who’s been elusive and mysterious on this blog until now. He’s an artist not a writer (or so he says), so go easy on him!
When I get nervous I tend to speak faster and my voice seems to raise by a few octaves. I just about manage to get away with this when I am conversing with a fellow English speaker, but how can I expect someone with limited English language skills to understand me?
Not only that but I’m one of those people who feels rude and embarrassed about not being able to speak their language – which makes me even more nervous, even higher-pitched and even less understood!
Unlike Lea, I don’t pick up languages after just a few lessons and since becoming location independent 18 months ago I have had to really think about how I communicate with other people when I can’t speak their language and they have a limited understanding of mine.
These are a few of the things I’ve learned about how to communicate when you’re both speaking a different language…
If you enjoyed this post, maybe you'd like to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don't miss any future posts. Thanks for visiting!
5 Things That Will Help You Settle In Quickly When You Lead A Nomadic Lifestyle As A Web Worker
Photo by MumbleyJoe
With our arrival in Thailand last week, it is the 8th place we’ll have lived in during the past 14 months for a period of 4 weeks or more. You might say we’ve become accustomed to hitting the ground running, sussing out our new surroundings and getting used to a new way of doing things!
It’s figuring out the simple things that can prove a challenge – things like…
- Figuring out how to fill up with petrol – self serve or not? To tip or not?
- Working out how supermarkets work – weigh fruit & veg before checking out? Handing in handbag/other shopping bags to security before you enter the store?
- Checking out the TV channels and working out which ones have the best movies on.
- Figuring out the driving rules and whether tooting your horn is rude or friendly.
Moving round as a modern nomad can be unsettling and stressful – you begin to crave routine, you seek out the familiar and you find yourself constantly comparing one place to another. Achieving a sense of feeling settled might be the very thing you were trying to escape when you left home – and yet it may well be the thing you find yourself constantly striving for whilst you’re away.
(No, I’m not feeling homesick – nor unsettled – but it struck me recently that no matter how well this lifestyle suits us, it can be pretty stressful when it comes to moving on!)
There are a number of things however, which will help you get settled in and accustomed to your new surroundings more quickly… Read the rest of this entry
Review: Earth Class Mail – Receive Your Postal Mail Online
I’ve seen a number of lists around the blogosphere recently from other LIPs, web workers and modern nomads who’re catching on to some of the more essential tools to replace the conveniences of having a permanent base.
I’ve mentioned Earth Class Mail before – it’s the mailing service we’ve been using for a year or so now to help deal with snail mail whilst we’re overseas. In fact, Earth Class Mail (ECM) also promote the fact that having an ECM address is ideal for other things too, including:
- People who move house frequently and don’t want to keep changing their address with numerous services (that would have been us even before we became LIPs!!!).
- RV fans who live on the road with no fixed address.
- Business travellers who don’t get home frequently enough to check the mail.
Having used it for a while now I thought I’d post a brief review and a description of how the service works, for those of you who are looking for a service which lets you get your mail from anywhere.
How To Deal With Friends And Family Who Rain On Your Parade When You Decide To Travel The World As A Web Worker
Photo by Paco CT
Carol Burnett, the award-winning American actress once said “When you have a dream you’ve got to grab it and never let go.”
Our LIP dreams, hopes and aspirations can be fragile, don’t you think? They need to be carefully protected against “attacks” from various people, including friends and family who only have your best intentions at heart.
In fact some of the most unhelpful, confidence-sapping comments come from those closest to you. Having been on the receiving end of some of these myself over the past year, two questions have been nagging me recently.
The first, is “Why?”
Why is there this need to burst my location independent bubble? It’s not as if I have this wild and desperate dream to build a teleporting device with three satsumas and a string of liquorice.
Secondly, “What can I do to protect myself emotionally from these comments?”
The answer to my first question came to me when I worked out that as I described my dreams and plans of becoming location independent to my friends and family, they were imagining themselves to be doing the same and then projecting their own fears onto me, the most common of which include the following:
- Fear that my job or career prospects will evaporate.
- Fear for my safety.
- Fear that I will run out of money and I will need bailing out.
- Fear of the unknown.
- Fear that my nomadic lifestyle will have serious repercussions from which I will struggle to recover.
- Fear that I don’t have the skills or contacts to survive outside a corporate environment.
- Fear that they will miss you and feel alone.
- Fear that they won’t be able to cope if things don’t turn out the way they want.
What emanates from these fears is a need for them to gain control and create some certainty. They do this either by trying to create doubt in your mind – in the hope that you’ll think twice about your decision; or they pester you endlessly for information to help cure their fear of the unknown.
Either way it can become very frustrating and tiring unless you know how to protect your location independent dreams. Here are a few tips to do that…. Read the rest of this entry
