People who travel to another country to live, work or study for a period of time often suffer badly from homesickness. Why is it? What are the best ways to reduce this problem?

For overseas students and expatriates, homesickness has always been common. I believe that most people who travel away from home for any length of time will feel homesick at the beginning because missing their own home and country is a natural reaction.

However, I think it becomes less of a problem as people adapt to the new environment and start to enjoy new relationships and experiences. Today many young people study abroad and for them it is probably their first time away from family, friends and everything that is familiar.

The country they have moved to may have completely different culture and language, so they need to adjust to this and learn how to communicate in the ways. This can be very tiring, but until they can do so, they will feel out of place and unable to form new relationships.

Professionals who have moved abroad for work may have left older parents behind, or even young children. For them the separation can be worse because they feel so far from the people they feel responsible for.

I personally think that people should try and prepare themselves for study or work abroad. They need to learn the new language and try to be as adaptable and independent as they can. At the same time, however, they need to set up ways of communication quickly and easily with people back home, by using emails for instance, so that they know what is happening there and do not need to worry. If people are aware of the problems, they can do a lot to reduce their homesickness and make their stay abroad a positive, exciting experience.

To conclude, the initial problem of getting oneself to fit in the new environment is what cause homesickness among people who live far away from their home country. The best solution is to be aware of the upcoming changes and prepared to embrace differences.