Around the country this week(ish), MTV and college students are descending upon beaches everywhere. I took my vacation last week too (hopefully it wasn’t too obvious). This blog isn’t a travel blog, but I have been inspired. Let me tell you why.
I spent part of last week on a beautiful tropical island. One morning at breakfast, my travel companion and I ate with two other tourists, one of whom was a young man who was enrolled to take the Foreign Service exam.
He said the Foreign Service, “seems like a good way to travel.” I’ve been thinking about that sentence; it’s a widely held belief, but is it true?
This week I’ll be looking at the Foreign Service and travel, so stay tuned for posts on:
- Using Travel to Better your Understanding of the World
- The Foreign Service as a Phenomenal Way to Travel
- The Foreign Service as a Terrible Way to Travel
- The Dangers of Foreign Service Travel Blogs
Today, though, I’d like to hear your opinions. Officers, have you enjoyed traveling the world? Hopeful future diplomats, is travel a big part of your motivations? People who read for IR thoughts, has travel helped you better understand the world? Do you have to travel to understand, or can you learn by reading and study?
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for exploring this! I am a FS hopeful and travel is a huge motivating factor. I will be interested to hear what FSOs have to say about this!
For way of context, here is who I am: I’ve passed the OA, am almost through with medical clearance, and am mid-way through security investigation. I’m hoping to be in one of the late-summer A-100 classes.
Regarding travel, I’d say that traveling around the world is a terrible motivation for joining the Foreign Service. Yes, you get to go to different countries around the world, but what about once you get there? There is a job to do, a very serious one. Now what if “travel” is just one of your many motivations, as I suspect it is for most candidates, is there harm in that?
Also, I’ve heard from a DIR that in the SOI or OA, you list one of your motivations for joining as “travel,” it generally doesn’t reflect well on your candidacy and shows that you might not be seriously considering what this career entails.
Personally, I think that many people don’t understand the difference between *travel* and *living in a foreign country*. They are two phenomenally different things. I like to travel, but I also enjoy living and working abroad, and as I said above, they’re different things to me.
I think that many folks probably see the foreign service as a way to get to go visit cool and exotic locales. Those are likely the same folks who would quit after being assigned to somewhere like Bangladesh, Nigeria, or Pakistan. For those folks, the FS is about traveling - the job they would be doing is merely secondary. In reality (as far as I understand, at least), the FS is about the job you do, and the fact that you are doing it in a foreign country is somewhat incidental.
Working here in Korea I have indeed gotten to explore Korea…but far less than if I were just visiting. I’ve been here for 10 months, but I’d almost be inclined to come back again for a vacation here, to see all the stuff I have missed, which is most of it. I *have* learned quite a bit about Korean culture, but what I have learned is all the ins and outs of interpersonal communication/relations with Koreans, both at work and not. I know *why* they do certain things certain ways, but…I couldn’t tell you much about their traditional culture, for instance.
I’m not saying that if you like to travel that it is a bad idea - on the contrary, you do seem to get to experience other places. But, in talking to Marc, who lived in various parts of Africa from age 6 to 16, it seems it is a rather restricted experience.
Is that accurate?
For what it’s worth, one of the reasons I’m considering applying to the FS is because one of the things I have discovered about myself in my time working here in Korea is that, frankly, foreigners working in foreign countries have a lot of hurdles to leap, and a lot of difficulties to overcome, and they need every bit of help they can get. Something I haven’t written about on my blog is that I’ve been assisting with the formation of Korea’s first Foreign Teachers’ Union. Korea is pretty famous in the education community for corruption, not paying its teachers, holding them hostage to various degrees, etc, and I have experienced some of this myself. Living here has made me realize that really, few things are appreciated more than a helping hand when you are floundering in a country where you can barely even communicate.
I see the FS as a way to potentially aid in that, and so…that’s one of my reasons. It has to do with travel, yes, but it isn’t about traveling.
This is fascinating. As is the rest of your blog.
These more grounded posts are equally interesting as your higher view reports/analysis.
Even my husband, who works for the IC, thinks your content is germane, articulate, and contributes to a more knowledgeable discussion - for both the various communinities/factions (he thinks a blog from State is infinitely interesting, unvarnished from all the official speak he normally runs up against) and amongst the population at large (and I’m pretty sure he means me - who isn’t involved in gov at all - for that one).
Keep going with this. You have a well-educated, seasoned voice that should be heard more widely.
(And like so many ostensible reasons for doing anything, hearing the reality of a job is wholly engaging.)
I should have written “blog written by A GUY from State.” Given everything, I should be careful to acknowledge your own clarification that your blog doesn’t represent any agency or any views/beliefs/policies of any agency, and my original phrasing doesn’t represent your stated position nor my understanding of this blog. (cya, cya, cya)
Sorry for the original omission.
The distinction between travel and “living in a foreign country” is important (although there are also certainly many jobs with State that entail a lot of travel.)
Obviously, you have to do the work, but if you (and your family) don’t enjoy living in foreign countries - what’s the point?
Anyone considering a career in the foreign service (and after Congress passed the omnibus spending bill, now is a good time to be thinking about it) should also realize that living in a foreign country as a diplomat can be a different experience than living in a foreign country under other circumstances.
Some diplomats integrate more into the local community than others, but in general there are whole categories of people (Peace Corps Volunteers, Fulbright fellows, journalists) who are much less isolated and have a better idea of how life is for the citizens of a given country. On the other, the support network that diplomats have has its pluses.
Thanks so much for your comments! Ya’ll are right about travel vs. living in a place. They’re very different, and I think jc brings up an important part that the FS may not be the best way to do either. Living in a place has the distinct advantage of allowing you to really get to know people, which is something I love. Travel, on the other hand, can expose you to so much more of a place. It’s odd.
To clarify my original post in light of the distinction others have drawn between living in a country and traveling. Most of my experience abroad has been living abroad rather than visiting as a tourist. I didn’t mean to sound flaky or naive by equating the two.
So, to rephrase: Living abroad is a huge motivating factor for me. I’d love to hear more perspectives about how living abroad as a FSO differs from living abroad under other circumstances.
“How is living abroad as a diplomat different than living abroad under different circumstances?”
Well, I guess that depends on what the different circumstances are.
One question to ask is: “if I have lived abroad, have I known diplomats and what was my impression of their lives?” I certainly have known Fulbright scholars who considered the diplomats that they encountered to be clueless about the local culture - and not particularly interested in learning. My experience as a student was very different from my experience working in an Embassy. A lot of diplomats have lived abroad as students, English teachers, PCVs, missionaries, etc. and likewise found those experiences different. On the other hand if you are going out to work for a large multinational corporation, the experience might be less different.
To be fair, not all of this is tied specifically to diplomatic status. Some of it is tied to age and growing up.
It’s one thing to be young and carefree, meeting people, being spontaneous, living in a country/culture that you find particularly fascinating. Perhaps you’ve settled into a place and stayed there several years.
It’s quite another to be middle aged, working fifty to sixty hours a week (not counting evening engagements) trying to maintain a family life (remember that you are the one that chose this lifestyle, not the family). Some of the spontaneity is gone. It doesn’t help that you are moving every two to three years which makes it harder to make local contacts (outside of work contacts) - so very soon you start socializing primarily with the rest of the ex-pat community.
If you’re in a developing country (And most posts are) you’ll likely live in a fairly exclusive neighborhood. Perhaps you will have servants (remember you’re working fifty to sixty hours a week and entertaining is an unwritten part of your job description) so you don’t even do much of your own grocery shopping.
Add to this that more likely than not, the Embassy finds your housing for you, helps move your stuff, deals with landlords and fixing things when they break - so you don’t deal with local craftspeople (but with Embassy local staff).
If you’re working for an large international corporation maybe it would be similar - although most of those jobs would be in developed countries (in which life as a diplomat might not be so different from other expats’ lives).
What that leaves as unique specifically to Embassy life might be shopping at the commissary (no one forces you to do that, but if the kids demand peanut butter …) and security restrictions. As a diplomat you may be told there are times and places you can’t go; you may be forbidden to use public transportation.
One of my friends at post is having a really hard time reconciling her experiences in the Middle East as a language student with her experiences as a diplomat. You just have to know from the outset that you can’t be a crazy undergrad in this job. While it may be harder to meet the Everyday Local as a diplomat, I’ve found it more than rewarding to meet some interesting movers and shakers in my position, not all of whom are just important government functionaries.
The commenters here are absolutely correct, there’s a difference between living in a country and just visiting it. I have found it very easy to travel on long weekends, though part of that is my proximity to a major hub airport, enabling me to find convenient weekend flights to anywhere within three time zones. You shouldn’t be seeking this job if you can’t stomach living overseas, but the ability to travel easily to see other foreign places is a fringe benefit that I think most of us enjoy to the fullest!
It is amazing what a large percentage of FSOs don’t actually seem to like foreigners, or living abroad. There is the huge cohort who spend 8 years in DC then 1 tour overseas (as short as possible) then back for another 6-8 years in DC. And many embassy folks spend all their time with Americans, don’t make any efforts to make friends with the locals, or get out and about. My tandem spouse and I joined the FS because we wanted to experience other cultures and meet the locals.
I survived my first assignment in the visa hell-hole of Santo Domingo by making friends with 2 Dominicans, who - to this day - are some of my best friends. I consider them family and they definitely adopted me wholeheartedly when I was there and have hosted my daughter for vacations and summers. I saw parts of the DR I never would have seen, met their relatives, and did lots of crazy and fun things.
We are one of the few FS families I have met who has sent our child to local schools. 90% go to the American or Intl School. We want her to make local friends too. We sent our daughter to an Indonesian kindergarten — the first-ever non-Indonesian in that school. We were “adopted” by a couple of families who showed us the ropes and included our daughter in the 5-year-old social circle of birthday parties and playdates. We saw a side of Indonesian culture that no one else in the embassy did.
We sent our daughter to the top local private school at our next post — 97% nationals. That was not as successful, due to the extremely closed social customs of the country, but it was still our first impulse.
We never choose to live in embassy housing complexes, but rather in regular neighborhoods where we can meet the neighbors. You work with the people at the embassy, socialize with them, the last thing you need is to live with them too. If you want a familiar setting and want to live in a “little America”, stay in the US, you’re not cut out for the FS.
We’ve been invited to a dozen weddings, christenings or other birth rituals, had our local friends ask our advice about their teenagers, been introduced to our friends’ parents and grandparents. Of course, we done our standard representational entertaining of our professional contacts, but we have also opened our home to our local friends to show them our culture. Join a club, attend cultural events or find some way to interact with the nationals. It takes more effort, but you get way more in return.
Delilah