Frommer's travel site today quotes a study in the May edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, indicating that people who have lived outside their native country may develop more creative minds. The full study is here.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I know that in my own life the times I lived outside the USA forced me to become a more creative thinker. At age seventeen I moved from Montana to Thailand for a year. That was an extreme shock, but after the initial cultural drowning period I loved every minute of it. It was a wonder in every way to see that the world was more than downtown Billings, MT.
Later, I lived and worked in Russia for several years. I often say that everything I learned about business I learned while watching communism stagger towards becoming capitalism. It wasn't all pretty, but it was without a doubt the most formative business experience of my life.
The APA study concludes with this thought:
It may be that those critical months or years of
turning cultural bewilderment into concrete understanding may instill
not only the ability to “think outside the box” but also the capacity
to realize that the box is more than a simple square, more than its
simple form, but also a repository of many creative possibilities.
I can easily see that picture. And I agree completely.
Interesting view. I live abroad and don't have command of the local language. As a necessity I have had to become more creative in certain situations where previously I would have employed the simpler solution in my home country.
Posted by: Ian Munro | November 06, 2009 at 05:23 AM
This is nothing to do with 'abroad' but being outside of the stifling overwork culture of the western english speaking world, which seems inimical to creative thinking.
Read Tom Hodgkinson for a wider view...
http://idler.co.uk/
Posted by: Bedd Gelert | June 25, 2009 at 01:34 PM
Wow! You were in Thailand, where I live now and where I bought your book last year... And you worked in Russia, which is where I was in March. And we both draw on scraps of paper! Let me know if you come around again to Thailand. We should meet up.
Posted by: Account Deleted | June 16, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Very interesting post. I've traveled a lot for my career and lived briefly in Oxford and Paris. My experience visiting countries where I do not speak the language has been that this is a very visual type of learning - akin to what we do as kids. When I don't have to focus on the words, I study the context of the conversations and facial expressions much more. It definitely feels like it's using a different part of my brain.
Love your work. A request - build or develop a "Rosetta Stone" of examples. I'm one of the people who are great at editing, but not creating the first images.
I'll volunteer to give feedback!
Posted by: Allan Bacon | June 12, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Very cool -- thanks for the summary and pointer to the study. (I twittered this post.)
This finding makes sense. We know that the physical space people inhabit, has a very direct effect on their emotions and cognition. And we know that experience/doing is the best way to learn. So it makes sense that an extended immersion experience like living abroad would stretch people in ways that wouldn't happen in their home country.
Posted by: Mary Walker | June 02, 2009 at 11:48 PM
I think one thing is for sure that people living abroad could learn more. I've been living in different cities since I was 18. Now I'm living in Singapore. God knows where I'll be living in the future.
P.S. I'm a fan of your book! Didn't find the book in Singapore. I bought it in Hong Kong last Oct.
Posted by: Cynthia Zhai | June 02, 2009 at 01:39 AM