Greetings,
Mr. Marin. A lot of US kids have been going to other countries and staying there a long time (some permanently) for years courtesy of the US military. "customs, ideas, lives, and dreams" are routinely ridiculed, ignored and eliminated. .
I understand what you're saying with regards to our military presence around the world.
In Seoul, South Korea, there is a US military base right in the middle of the city. Our Korean liason for our project last month told us that while crime is almost non-existent in Seoul, most of the problems that there are occur around the US bases. But he went on to say people don't get too upset about it. "After all," he said, what can you expect from a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds stuck on a base with nothing much to do."
That's why I said I didn't know what age would be best for international exposure. In 1994 friends went with us on one of our narrowboat cruise/Land Rover-trip-to Scotland vacations. Their 5-1/2 year old daughter came with us. She had a wonderful time--- what kid wouldn't with four adults at her beck and call.
Today at almost 24 years of age, Virginia Tech graduate, and embarked on a promising career, she still talks about events and things she saw and people we met on that trip, things that we and her parents have forgotten about. And she's interned with a company in the UK and hopes to go back to work there someday.
So that one trip obviously made a huge impression on her. Far greater than any of us would have imagined.
So the trick is to work out at what age international exposure would have the greatest benefit on a kid. Other than the example I just cited, I don't have the answer.
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