Moving to another country is not only a change of address. Along with this change of address come many other personal changes, especially if you are moving with your family and children. Unfortunately, due to lack of knowledge, there is a very important detail that needs to be considered by parents in the education of their children when their family moves to another country, which is how you will deal with the cultural influences in your destination country, since such a decision will impact your life and the life of your children as well. Let me explain...

It is a fact, and science explains it very well, that throughout our lives we consciously or unconsciously seek to adjust ourselves to the groups in which we are inserted; on the other hand, we are subject to the influences of these groups, and this is even stronger in childhood.

This fact can be easily observed in the way children and adolescents speak, where at home their parents have a certain vocabulary, but at school and when living in other social groups, these same children and adolescents start to speak according to their peers and no longer as they learned from their parents. And when this happens, if parents understand that the language of their peers is not the most appropriate, they begin to correct their children, and so on.

In other words, the environment in which we are inserted has the power to influence us, and in this context, when moving to another country, parents need to be aware of this change of environment, facilitating the adaptation process of their children, while defining how they want to conduct their children's education. To make it clearer, I will give a simple example: the Brazilian culture is more cooperative, while the American culture is more competitive. If the family is moving from Brazil to the United States, or vice versa, how will their children's education be directed?

It seems simple, but in the everyday situations of children at school, in any country, these traces of the culture in which one is inserted will influence the formation of these children and knowing how to deal with the conflicts that arise when the cultural shock happens is a determining factor for the success or not of the experience.

It is exactly when culture shock emerges that many people give up on living abroad. Thus, each culture has its own norms that dictate accepted and expected behaviors, so it is important to know not only the culture to which you are moving, but also essential elements of your culture of origin that you consider important and want to retain in yourself and in your children's education.

Having this knowledge allows you to make the cultures compatible, as well as lessen the impact when culture shock occurs. It is in these moments that you can see in practice the importance of intercultural training when a family decides to move to another country.