As one who has not traveled to other countries very frequently, the word “expat” has never been a part of my vocabulary. I first came across the word in an email from a friend living in Puerta Vallarta who was describing some services for expats. At the time, I was too busy to look it up, but from context, I assumed it meant something like “a foreigner”.
Now that I’ve come across the word, I feel like it comes up frequently. It’s the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon at work.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also known as the frequency illusion, is a psychological effect that causes newly-discovered concepts to seem to pop up in an observer’s life with increased frequency. It is a combination of selective attention and cognitive bias that appears to increase the likelihood of an occurrence.Reference.com
Since arriving in Puerto Vallarta, I have heard it come up in conversation with other people a lot. The word also comes up occasionally in the feed of a Puerto Vallarta Facebook group that I’m a part of. Then on August 15th, the subject line for the Condé Nast Traveler newsletter that I subscribe to was “Best Cities for Expats”. I decided to finally look up the word to learn the exact meaning. Expat is short for expatriate.
ex·pa·tri·ate
NOUN
- a person who lives outside their native country:
Oxford Online Dictionary
Being in Puerto Vallarta, I guess I was bound to come across the word a lot, especially now that I’m an expat myself. A lot of the people I’ve met here are also expats, hailing from all over the US, Canada, Europe or other parts unknown.
Hello, I’m Stefanie and I’m an expat.