What is a slowmad? We are not expats, because we are not going back to our origin country at any point. We are not nomads, because we stay long term in the countries we choose. We are not immigrants, because we know we are only visiting that country temporarily. We are slowmads, which are slow nomads. My family has lived in Dominican Republic for one year, Japan for 2.5 years, and Portugal for 1.5 years. Could you see yourself becoming a slowmad? 🆘🇺🇸 #TikTokEncyclopediaContest

I've been feeling more and more confident with using this term, slow-mad on my page because that's what I call myself. I call myself a slow-mad, and some of you are wondering what the heck is that? And that is because there's this whole debate in the moving abroad space about what to call ourselves. People do not like that some people call themselves expats, an expat being someone who leaves from their country of origin and is there in the new country temporarily. That's for most commonly people who are moving because they're like diplomats or military members living in these foreign countries temporarily. So in those spaces where you're just going to live there for two or three year assignment, most of those people are calling themselves expats. But on this app, people do not like that word. They want everyone to call themselves immigrants. An immigrant is someone who moves to a country and is intending to stay there forever. They're going to acclimate, they're going to move all of their money, they're going to learn the language. An immigrant is someone who is planning to stay in that country. I am neither of those things. I am not out of the country temporarily because I'm not going to go back to the United States. And I am not currently integrating into the countries that I have lived in so far, which have been Dominican Republic, Japan, or Portugal. Right now I call myself a slow-mad. Because I am not a nomad, a nomad gives this idea that maybe you're moving quite often. Maybe you're staying in hostels. It has a younger connotation. Nomads are typically people who have a higher pace of their moving. I am a slow-mad, which is a slow nomad because as we've lived in these different places, my kids went to school for a year in the Dominican Republic, at an international school. My kids went to two full school years in Japan, at an international school. My kids are now here in Portugal in their second full school year at an international school. This is my concept of what I call myself because I am none of these words. I am not an expert, I am not an immigrant, I am not a nomad, I am a slow-mad. We do intend to move on from Portugal to a new country. Not sure where yet, but my living concept is called a slow-mad. I hope that helps you understand why I'm starting to use that word more and more to describe my situation and it also describes lots of other family situations that do similar things to me where they move based on the school year and they live their longish term but they are definitely not nomads, not immigrants and not experts. that helps.