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The challenges of living and working abroad- Part I

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Every time I come back from holidays in my home country, I seem to think of the challenges of working in another country, where your mother tongue is not spoken, the system is different, and people’s mentality little resembles the one I was used to. In my case, this other country is the UK.

Challenges of living in the UK

  1. Language: the most obvious one. Although my English seems to be good enough, and I never had particular problems finding work in the UK, I have to face the truth: I will never speak like a native. Yes, my language skills have been improving day by day, and yes, people say I speak well, but I do occasionally find myself unable to communicate 100% of what I want to communicate because of language restrictions, and this can be annoying.
  2. Different lifestyles: when I first came to London and the UK two years ago, I just couldn’t get used to some things that are commonplace here, such as people going to pubs on early mornings on the weekend, people sunbathing wherever they could find a few feet of green grass, night clubs not staying open all night long, and theatres and restaurants staying closed on Sundays. Over time, the above no longer seem strange to me and I have trained myself to think and behave like a good old Londoner.
  3. Different mentality: it has been equally difficult for me – and it still is in some cases –  to get used to some widespread UK beliefs, such as that taking a gap year is a must for every graduate, that alcohol is an essential ingredient for fun, or that Big Brother is still worth watching and caring about after way too many seasons. To be fair, I do feel envious of people who are able to take a gap year out of work or after university to go travelling, and I do think alcohol may add to the fun of an event as long as it’s consumed in reasonable quantities. But I still don’t get what the big deal with Big Brother is.

As for the challenges of working for the UK higher education industry, stay tuned. Part II is coming soon.

Read more articles about The Global Postdoc, University Careers

Written by Christina Tsirou

I work for Roehampton University in South West London as the Research and Business Engagement Officer. The Research and Business Development Office, which forms my department, was created recently, and therefore I am the first holder of the above mouthful-of-a-role. This is very exciting, as I get a lot of freedom in forming tasks and developing areas of responsibility for the post. At the same time, it is also very challenging, as how things will be organized and work in practice remains to be seen. Together with the rest of the team, I contribute to various aspects of the so-called “third stream income generation activity” on behalf of the University. Third stream income is a relatively new term, meaning revenue that comes from outside the traditional sources of government funding and tuition fees. Some sources of third stream income can be Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, IP Commercialization, business start-ups and spin-offs, Development and Innovation Grants, executive courses, and partnerships with the private and public sectors. I am also heavily involved in the team’s efforts to encourage entrepreneurial thinking and work across campus by coordinating internal and inter-collegiate events and workshops for both students and academics. Finally, part of my work is devoted to fostering strong links with the local community, mainly through relationship-building events.

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