What will happen when you decide to move abroad?

Moving abroad might sound simple, but once you do it you realize it is a huge step that brings completely new experiences. Study exchanges are usually easy because people re-locate to study for the same reasons. Which mainly include meeting new friends and studying together.

It is a completely different situation when you decide you will move to a new country because of a new internship, a traineeship, or even for a new, permanent job.

You have to search for a new apartment for yourself. Also, you have to figure out how the health security system works. And you have to know where to open a bank account and be aware of multiple tiny details which you wouldn’t even have thought of before.

How to find new people when you move to another country?

Once everything is settled and you start a new job, you realize that you spend so much time at work that your social life starts to suffer. But sooner or later you get to the moment when you ask yourself: “Where and how do I find new friends here?”

One option is that you are extremely sociable and you can easily make contact with other people in cafés, in bars, or even in the middle of the street.

If you are not that person, and you find it a bit harder to just step up to a random stranger.  We have a solution for you. Here are five simple, free apps that might help you to skip the first step and go straight to the second – meeting people with whom you have something in common.

MeetUp

MeetUp is both a mobile app and a website that brings people together in thousands of cities to do more of what they want to do in life. It is organized around one simple idea: “When we get together and do the things that matter to us, we’re at our best.” And that’s what Meetup does. It brings people together to do, explore, teach, and learn the things that help them to come alive.

Once you create your account, you can start browsing among topics that you are most interested in. Join online groups that seem interesting and start visiting events that people are organizing.

You might find people to:

• run marathons with,
• join an amateur cooking class,
• go for a city stroll,
• dance the night through,
• or even create your own MeetUp event.

With 30 million members and a presence in 182 countries, you are guaranteed to fill up your free time with some extremely interesting people.

Wiiith

Wiith calls itself “the newest of friend-hunting apps”. The main purpose of Wiith is to connect people in close proximity who have shared interests. In case you are not the most organized type and you prefer a bit of adventure, its idea is to be spontaneous rather than structuring your agenda weeks in advance.

Wiith creates groups of people by filtering information. Trying to form groups by people’s interests – but it never forms groups that are bigger than six people. This means you might have a better chance to get usefully acquainted by meeting only four to five people at once. \Rather than 15 or more as you might at MeetUp.

Hi Jay Language Exchange

It might be that you want to learn a new language when you move to another country. But you don’t know where to start or cannot find a suitable language course. The Hi Jay Language Exchange app helps you to find a native speaker and meet him for a cup of coffee in your favorite café.

With the app, you can easily search for native speakers nearby, set up meetings, and take part in group meetings. And while talking with foreigners you will not only improve your speaking skills and learn the local culture, but also make your new community.

Nearify

Nearify is known as the app for discovering events. Every day it recommends a personalized list of events at the location of your choice. Its best advantage is that you can browse trending events for the weekend, weekdays, or major holidays in advance so that you can plan your free time ahead.

After downloading through a filter search from more than 2000 topics, it helps you find events that will interest you the most. Also, it shows you people from the Nearify community who will take an interest in the same event. You can connect with them and quickly find new ‘partners in crime’ to join you.

Meet My Dog

Do you own a dog? Meet My Dog is an app that helps you and your dog to find new friends – it gives you the ability to discover, connect, and share information with other dog owners wherever you are. You can quickly find out where other people love to take their dogs, share photos of you and your dog, and even chat in real-time.

One of Meet My Dog’s best features is ‘Check-in’. When on a stroll with your dog, you can “check-in” at the location where you and your dog are. Your new friends receive a notification so they can find you easily, and you are quickly up for a double date!

Keep in mind that these apps can help you, but don’t spend too much time browsing on the phone. In order for them to work, you actually have to make a move and go out.

PS

Bear in mind this words of Professor Dunbar:

Creating friendships costs a lot of time. How willing someone is to help you depends on how warm your friendship is. And this depends on how much time you spend with them. If you divide your limited time among many people, you will have weaker relationships. This is the difference we see between extroverts (who have many weak friendships) and introverts (who have fewer, stronger friendships). More about friendships read here.

Support us!

All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.