Geopats Abroad : Chats with expats, immigrants, and locals

Stephanie Fuccio | Expat of 20+ years

Geopats Abroad is about what helps us feel grounded while in our life abroad.  For eight years of my serial expat life, I interviewed people about the things that helped them understand, adjust to, and feel more connected to the places they were living. The original Geopats Abroad podcast ended in 2022, but the conversations still hold up.  Living Abroad, Culture, Identity, and Belonging In these conversations, you’ll find stories from expats, immigrants, international students, long-term travelers, and people whose lives don’t fit neatly into one place. The driving force of the podcast is my own curiosity and desire to connect with other internationals globally. This isn’t just an audio project, a podcast, a YouTube channel, an Instagram profile, a Stationary Store or a Substack. It’s a very personal project. It’s part of who I am and who I was while recording these conversations. Some episodes are practical. Others are deeply personal. Most explore the small and big things that help us make sense of a new place and feel more at home in it. What Geopats Abroad Explores Each season of Geopats Abroad approaches getting comfortable in our new places from a different angle. Season 1: Guests looked back at something they had written during an earlier period of living abroad, including emails, blog posts, and social media posts, and reflected on how they saw that experience differently later. Seasons 2 and 3: Language learning. Season 2 focused on foreigners learning Mandarin Chinese, while Season 3 featured native Chinese speakers talking about learning English and other languages. Seasons 4 and 5: Online communities that helped people feel more connected and at home in a new place. Season 6: Books that helped people understand the places they were living in. Season 7: Conversations about learning languages other than Chinese. Season 8: Coffee and the role it can play in connecting to a place. Season 9: Podcasting globally: how it’s similar and different. And of course, how it can connect us to each other in our new culture.  Season 10: A mixed season covering music, photography, returning home, and other parts of life abroad. Season 11: Immigrant kids who later became expats, exploring how growing up between cultures shaped the way they experienced living abroad as adults. About Stephanie Fuccio: Serial Expat Since 2003 I’m Stephanie Fuccio. I’ve mostly been living and working outside the U.S. since 2003 and have lived in Asia, Latin America, and Europe during this time. My own experiences with culture shock, identity, belonging, language, and building a life abroad shaped many of the questions behind Geopats Abroad. The podcast grew from my curiosity about what helps people feel grounded in a new place, how we build connection far from where we started, and how living abroad changes the way we understand home, culture, identity, and ourselves. Geopats is my ongoing archive of those conversations

  1. 08/25/2022

    A German American Household & Life Abroad in China and Thailand: S11E4

    Send us Fan Mail Can growing up with an immigrant parent change the way you experience life abroad as an adult? Chelsea grew up in Tennessee with a German mother, then built an expat life in Asia, giving her a new perspective on what immigrant parents pass on to their children. Listen for: How children of immigrants can experience expat lifeHow assimilation affects heritage language and cultural identityWhat culture shock reveals about adapting abroadHow living abroad can change how adult children understand immigrant parentsWhy some Americans choose long-term expat lifeHow third-culture kids develop identity across culturesHow Can Growing Up as the Child of an Immigrant Shape Expat Life? Growing up with an immigrant parent can make life abroad feel possible because another country is already part of family life. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Chelsea describes growing up in Clarksville, Tennessee, with an American father and a German mother from Aachen. Her family traveled to Germany about every two years, often staying for a month, making international travel and cultural differences familiar before Chelsea became an expat. After graduating with a history degree in 2010, Chelsea started questioning whether restaurant work or a conventional desk job suited her. Teaching English abroad let her test a teaching career while seeing more of the world. Chelsea moved to Nanjing, China, in 2011, beginning a decade abroad. Her immigrant-family background didn’t prepare her for every challenge, but it made living outside the United States feel imaginable. How Can Living Abroad Change the Way Adult Children Understand Immigrant Parents and Assimilation? Living abroad can make an immigrant parent’s culture shock easier to understand because the adult child finally experiences being the outsider. In Geopats Abroad, Chelsea explains that her German mother moved to the United States without speaking English and focused on assimilation. She eventually chose English rather than German as the family language, although German food such as schnitzel, Jäger sauce, cucumber salad, and goulash remained part of Chelsea’s childhood. Chelsea’s perspective changed when her mother visited her in China. Chelsea could speak enough Chinese to manage daily life, and people in her neighborhood knew her. Watching her mother become the confused newcomer helped Chelsea reinterpret childhood conflicts about why their family did things differently. Chelsea realized that she and her mother had once been learning how to be American at the same time, only at different ages. Expat life gave Chelsea a new understanding of assimilation, culture shock, and what her mother had navigated while raising children in the United States. How Do Expat Parents Raise Third-Culture Kids Across Countries, Languages, and Cultures? Expat parents can raise third-culture kids by making room for several languages, cultures, and identities at once. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Chelsea had moved from Shanghai to Bangkok for a three-year international-school contract. Her 18-month-old daughter had been born in China and was beginning life in Thailand. Chelsea is American with German family roots, while her husband is from Cameroon, a French-speaking country. They were considering teaching their daughter French, but Chelsea didn’t want to prescribe one cultural identity. She wants her daughter to keep what feels meaningful from the cultures around her and communicate comfortably with people from different backgrounds. Chelsea’s immigrant-family history and expat life shape how she approaches raising a third-culture child across countries. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Tennessee | Clarksville | Aachen | Germany | Nanjing | China | Shanghai | Bangkok | Thailand | Cameroon | immigrant parents | children of immigrants | assimilation | heritage language | cultural identity | culture shock | expat life | living abroad | third-culture kids Original publication date: August 27, 2022  🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources 🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description 🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

About

Geopats Abroad is about what helps us feel grounded while in our life abroad.  For eight years of my serial expat life, I interviewed people about the things that helped them understand, adjust to, and feel more connected to the places they were living. The original Geopats Abroad podcast ended in 2022, but the conversations still hold up.  Living Abroad, Culture, Identity, and Belonging In these conversations, you’ll find stories from expats, immigrants, international students, long-term travelers, and people whose lives don’t fit neatly into one place. The driving force of the podcast is my own curiosity and desire to connect with other internationals globally. This isn’t just an audio project, a podcast, a YouTube channel, an Instagram profile, a Stationary Store or a Substack. It’s a very personal project. It’s part of who I am and who I was while recording these conversations. Some episodes are practical. Others are deeply personal. Most explore the small and big things that help us make sense of a new place and feel more at home in it. What Geopats Abroad Explores Each season of Geopats Abroad approaches getting comfortable in our new places from a different angle. Season 1: Guests looked back at something they had written during an earlier period of living abroad, including emails, blog posts, and social media posts, and reflected on how they saw that experience differently later. Seasons 2 and 3: Language learning. Season 2 focused on foreigners learning Mandarin Chinese, while Season 3 featured native Chinese speakers talking about learning English and other languages. Seasons 4 and 5: Online communities that helped people feel more connected and at home in a new place. Season 6: Books that helped people understand the places they were living in. Season 7: Conversations about learning languages other than Chinese. Season 8: Coffee and the role it can play in connecting to a place. Season 9: Podcasting globally: how it’s similar and different. And of course, how it can connect us to each other in our new culture.  Season 10: A mixed season covering music, photography, returning home, and other parts of life abroad. Season 11: Immigrant kids who later became expats, exploring how growing up between cultures shaped the way they experienced living abroad as adults. About Stephanie Fuccio: Serial Expat Since 2003 I’m Stephanie Fuccio. I’ve mostly been living and working outside the U.S. since 2003 and have lived in Asia, Latin America, and Europe during this time. My own experiences with culture shock, identity, belonging, language, and building a life abroad shaped many of the questions behind Geopats Abroad. The podcast grew from my curiosity about what helps people feel grounded in a new place, how we build connection far from where we started, and how living abroad changes the way we understand home, culture, identity, and ourselves. Geopats is my ongoing archive of those conversations