I came to Belgium for the work-life balance, but quickly realized Belgians are not as open as other Europeans I’ve met. And that’s making things more difficult for me.
I moved from Taiwan to Belgium because of a job opportunity: I got in touch with AIESEC, an organization that helps young people from different universities get jobs all over the world. The organization arranged interviews with companies in European countries like Denmark, the Czech Republic and… Belgium. Choosing a job made me choose a country. Nowadays, I am working as a software engineer and web developer.
In Taiwan, people only get seven days of annual leave per year, and they always work overtime. So, there is no work-life balance.
Chris Jiang
Currently, I do not think I would ever move back to Taiwan. I will still visit my family, and I truly believe it’s a beautiful place to visit as it’s really a convenient and easy country for tourists. However, when you enjoy the convenience of Taiwan, you have to realize that a lot of people are responsible for that convenience. That takes a toll. In Taiwan, people only get seven days of annual leave per year, and they always work overtime. So, there is no work-life balance. The people there spend more time at work than they do at home. That’s not the way I want to live my life.
In my search for that good work-life balance, I ended up in Belgium. Moving here, however, was not as easy as I thought. Before I moved here, I studied in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, for a year. I met my best friend there, a girl from the Netherlands who was really nice to me and welcomed me into her life. So, after Hungary, where I felt like everyone was very welcoming and nice, I thought: “A Western country, it must be like this, super easy to get connected, super open.” So, when I came to Belgium, I was surprised that it wasn’t like this at all. I try to talk to people on the street or in coffee shops or even at the bus stop. It never goes well. Usually, they immediately reject or ignore me. Sometimes, they act nice, and we exchange our socials, but then when I send them a message, they ignore me or they’ve already blocked me. It is really frustrating. But I still believe that if you don’t even give it a shot, you will never meet new people. If they reject you, you lose maybe 3 minutes, and that’s okay.
A western country, it must be like this, super easy to get connected, super open.
Chris Jiang
It can get really lonely to be so far away from your family and childhood friends. Definitely for me, since I am having such a hard time making friends here in Belgium. I have made some good ones, but there are still some low points I had to get through by myself. In those moments, there is no one, literally no one besides yourself to cheer you up because they are all far away in a different country.
Thanks to moving here, I discovered that you have to learn the reality in this society. It’s not like you imagine that everyone likes each other and goes up to each other like: “Hey, I like you, let’s be friends.” But sometimes loneliness is okay. I think loneliness is necessary. It’s not okay to keep feeling this forever, but you have to experience it sometimes. You can learn from this experience, and it will make you cherish the things you get.
I also know that if I never left Taiwan, I would definitely now be hating myself. So, even though leaving my family and friends was really hard, I just learned so much from leaving my home country. I really learned the world doesn’t revolve around me. When you’re so far away from everything you know, there is so much you have to learn and discover for yourself and, more importantly, fix it by yourself.
You have to learn the reality in this society. It’s not like you imagine that everyone likes each other and goes up to each other like: “Hey, I like you, let’s be friends.”
Chris Jiang
Currently, my future plans are vague. I think I’ll give Belgium at least one more year. If I’m still lonely after that year, it might be time to move to another country. But I’ll still stay in Europe. I still want the work-life balance that is here, I just want a more open and social community. I have been learning Dutch since September, so I might move to the Netherlands then, to live closer to my best friend, but also because I feel like the people are maybe a bit more open than the ones here in Belgium.
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