Americanexpatinfrance's Blog

According to BBC, those who speak two languages fluently may have added brain benefits. Excerpts:

A project at Bangor University aims to explore the benefit of being bilingual.
Researchers will be recruiting 700 people aged between two and 80 to take part in the £750,000 programme.
Prof Virginia Gathercole said the obvious benefits included being able to converse and to participate in two cultures.
But she said there was also evidence of non-language benefits, such as the ability to protect the brain from ageing.
“The very act of being able to speak, listen, and think in two languages and of using two languages on a daily basis appears to sharpen people’s abilities to pay close attention to a aspects of tasks relevant to good performance,” she added.

This Expatica article, based on the 2010 Hydrogen Global Professionals on the Move Report, states that for expats, finding work abroad is easier than thought. What are your experiences?

Expats find jobs despite ongoing economic crisis

“…You may have heard the saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” It appears that is exactly what elite professionals around the world are doing. A newly-released survey says top-level professionals, earning an average of USD 125,000 (EUR 98,000) per year, are not slowing down when it comes to looking for work outside their home countries. The same group of mid- to senior- level professionals also says they are still finding jobs, despite the global recession.

According to the 2010 Hydrogen Global Professionals on the Move Report, more than 3,000 professionals from 76 nations said they were actively looking for work abroad or had already found jobs outside their home countries. Of that group, 60 percent said the global recession had no impact on their job search.

More women work abroad….the study included men and women from Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East; most over 31 years old. According to this report, while more men were willing to work abroad; more women were actually working abroad….”