Expats learning to love lockdowns via endless online offerings

Wherever expats are located during these difficult times, lockdown doesn’t have to be so devastating due to the many essential, free online services.

Expats living and working overseas are on the front line as regards the effects of the huge number of lockdowns now taking place in the majority of world countries. Not having the freedom to move about, meet up with colleagues and friends and join in social events is tricky enough for citizens of each country where lockdowns have been introduced, but for expats without close personal contact with their families back home the effects can be far more serious. Basically, isolation for those enduring total separation from their loved ones back home can be especially acute and difficult to bear.

For the first time in the world’s long history of plagues and deadly viruses, the internet is the communication provider which at least softens expats’ pangs of worry and concern for those back home. In addition, a plethora of free services and online events can help prevent depression and fear by scheduling everything from online music lessons through free ballet classes and university-level education to home-based workouts, concerts, yoga sessions and socialising at virtual events.

For parents attempting to work from home whilst their kids are off school, child-friendly videos, audio books and even three-month language courses for young people are all easily available via the click of a mouse. For adults keen on opera, New York’s Metropolitan Opera and several other European opera houses are streaming their performances, along with the UK’s National Theatre and several world-famous symphony orchestras. Housebound expatriates with creative skills can study art, potential authors can meet other like-minded souls at the London Book Group and Britain’s National Theatre is performing its online version of Jane Eyre.

For younger expats, New York’s King of Mango is giving remote dance classes, and virtual university courses can be taken in a huge range of subjects including data science, communication, programming and business studies. Class Central gives a view of all the courses now available online, and the plethora of online offerings may well become the way forward in a post-coronavirus world.