My Eye-Opening First Day Experimenting with ChatGPT as an Expat

Living abroad has taught me that sometimes the best discoveries happen when you’re procrastinating on actual work. Today was one of those days. Instead of tackling my overflowing inbox, I stumbled down the rabbit hole of ChatGPT – and honestly? My mind is still a bit blown.

My Initial Experiments

Like any reasonable person avoiding responsibilities, I started with the ridiculous. First, I asked it to write a poem about a dead dog in Swahili (don’t ask why – expat life does strange things to your sense of humor). Then came a Yorkshire-accented ode to a dead tree and a three-legged dog. The results? Surprisingly spot-on and weirdly entertaining. But here’s where things got interesting: I’d just spent three grueling hours researching content for work, and this thing churned out something eerily similar in about 30 seconds. Cue existential crisis.

Naturally, I had to test its limits. Could it write like a 10-year-old? Check. Could it deliberately include exactly three grammatical errors in an essay about dogs? Absolutely nailed it. As a former teacher, this made my stomach drop a little. I could already picture students everywhere discovering this digital homework fairy – from the struggling ones looking for a quick fix to the clever ones who’d use it as a sophisticated starting point.

Practical Applications for Expat Life

Once I got past the “holy cow, robots are taking over” phase, I started thinking practically. How could this actually help someone like me, stumbling through life in foreign countries? Turns out, quite a bit:

• Those panic moments when you can’t remember if the toll road from Barcelona to Valencia takes card or only cash? Instant answers.
• Wondering if there’s actually an expat community in that random Spanish town you’re considering? It knows things.
• Trying to explain to your local friends why British humor is funny? It can translate cultural concepts (though results may vary).
• Need to quickly understand local slang before embarrassing yourself at a dinner party? It’s got your back.

The Limitations I Discovered

But here’s the thing – and this is where my skeptical expat brain kicked in. When I started testing it with stuff I actually knew about, the cracks began to show:

• It confidently told me Tom Hanks was in a movie he definitely wasn’t in. Like, absolutely certain about it.
• Asked about some technical stuff for my day job? The response was beautifully written absolute nonsense. It’s like that friend who sounds smart at parties until you realize they’re just really good at BS.
• It completely missed context that any human who’d lived abroad would catch immediately – like why you don’t schedule meetings during siesta time in Spain.
• The free version especially seems to give you the diplomatic, surface-level answer to everything. It’s like asking a politician for their honest opinion.

A Tool, Not a Replacement

Here’s what really hit me: this thing writes better English than half the native speakers I know. It can switch between formal business language and casual chat faster than I can switch between Spanish and English after a few wines. For those of us constantly navigating language barriers and cultural differences, that’s actually pretty huge. I’ve already used it to draft a few emails when my brain was too fried to remember if it’s “yours sincerely” or “yours faithfully” (spoiler: it depends).

What really got me thinking was realizing that kids growing up now will never know a world without this. Meanwhile, here I am, still occasionally getting lost despite having GPS on my phone. As expats, we’re constantly adapting – new languages, new customs, new bureaucratic nightmares. This feels like just another adaptation, except this time everyone’s learning together.

My Verdict

After spending way too much time playing with this thing (sorry, boss), I’ve landed somewhere between “cautiously optimistic” and “mildly terrified.” It’s like having a really smart intern who occasionally makes stuff up but writes beautiful emails. Useful? Absolutely. Trustworthy? That’s a hard maybe.

For my fellow nomads and expats, here’s where I think it actually shines:

• Those 2 AM moments when you need to draft something coherent in your second (or third) language
• Quick and dirty research about that random town your partner wants to move to next
• Breaking through writer’s block when you’re trying to explain your visa situation to family back home
• General “what’s the deal with…” questions (but seriously, fact-check everything)

But here’s the kicker – every time we use it, we’re teaching it. It’s learning from our questions, our corrections, our weird expat problems. In a way, we’re all unwitting teachers in this massive global classroom. Whether that’s exciting or terrifying probably depends on how many coffees you’ve had today. As someone who’s made a career out of adapting to new places and situations, I’m choosing to see it as just another tool in the survival kit. Use it wisely, question everything, and maybe don’t rely on it for your tax advice. Trust me on that last one.