But even within the western world, even within Europe I've seen people going to a different country and immediately looking for people, restaurant and news source from their original country.

Go and spend some time on a country like China. You have the exact same problem but in reverse - westerners sticking with an English speaking social group, living in areas with large numbers of other westerners and so on.

The human experience is really quite universal.

Many English-speakers who live in China quickly find that any attempts to mix freely with local Chinese people is inevitably followed up by hard-to-refuse invitations to personally tutor their sister's or manager's young child in English. It's easier to draw the line so that these "invitations" don't come.

I know the type of situation you're talking about but it's also a cop-out of an excuse.

Firstly because there are plenty of westerners in China that are perfectly happy getting by completely in English regardless of anything else. 'Not wanting to turn in to a part time English teacher' doesn't account for the large number of westerners who have been in China a few years but still can't communicate in Chinese beyond 'knee how' and 'shay shay'.

Secondly, it's easy enough to say no to those situations, you just need to learn to say it the Chinese way, with a non-committal 'maybe' sometime at some undetermined point in the future.

Finally it's also possible to build a local social circle with people who aren't interested in English - my Chinese improved the most when I did this.

Yeah, citation definitely needed.

One of these groups is emigrating to places far from home in large numbers. The other is not.

No. A lot of us seek to immerse in a different culture by studying in a foreign country.

Citation not needed. This is merely ignorance

> Western (European/American) culture advocates "getting out of your comfort zone"

Citation extremely needed.