In the contemporary era, elderly
people
tend to spend their
retirement
life moving to foreign countries. From my perspective,
this
tendency can not only bring many benefits
such
as lower living expenses or unique experiences, but
also
it is undeniable that these
people
might face several disadvantages of language barrier and feeling homesickness.
On the one hand, it is noticeable that many retirees are opting to live abroad for the advantage of economic savings. There is a common tendency for old
people
usually choose middle-income countries,
such
as Thailand or Vietnam, to live the rest of their lives because of many affordable and favourable living conditions
such
as accommodation or food.
For example
, a person might pay 100 dollars per month for a small apartment in France compared to one who only needs 20 dollars a month to live in a Vietnamese duplex house. Settling abroad is not only money-saving but
also
enhances
people
's enjoyment of new experiences. Many elderly
people
tend to spend the majority of their time before devoting themselves to working,
thus
in their
retirement
period, they would like to make up for the youth by living abroad to experience more and learn other cultures, and
languages
. Living in Vietnam,
for instance
, many English speakers in
retirement
would like to take up once-in-a-lifetime opportunities becoming teachers a new experience.
On another hand, it can be seen that spending one’s
retirement
abroad finds many challenges.
Firstly
, it may be too late for many old
people
to pick up new
languages
due to
the huge amount of time required to master a language. Japan can be seen as a case, is one of the toughest
languages
in the world, and demands around 5 years to fluent in
this
language. It is true that not being an expert in native
languages
might lead to the elderly’s feelings of being overwhelmed and isolated for not getting in with new environments.
Besides
, they might have been homesick since living far away from their homeland for the long term, without support from their immediate families or close friends in different geographical regions.
In conclusion, there are both positive effects and negative impacts that come
along with
the tendency for the elderly to move to new countries.
While
they can save an amount of pension to settle down abroad and enjoy new experiences, it is possible to meet the challenges of fluent
languages
or feeling homesick.