Abroad- old fashoined?

[emsr2d2]

At its most basic level, "abroad" simply means being in any country other than the one you live in normally. Someone who lives in Paris is abroad whether they're in Belgium or Australia.
As far as overseas goes, I've realised that I seem to use it for places I consider to be a long way away from the person's normal residence. If a friend of mine from the UK was working in France (just an example), I'd say they were working abroad. If that person went to work in, say, Dubai, I might say they were working overseas or abroad. I'm not suggesting that other BrE speakers make the same distinction but, unconsciously, I do.

I've also just realised that I might make another distinction - between people who go to work abroad of their own volition and those who are sent there to work by their company. When I elected to move to Spain, I simply said I was going to work abroad. When one of my friends was seconded to her company's office in Athens, I told other friends that she had been sent to work overseas.

As someone said earlier, any foreign country is over a sea if you start in the UK, so I'm pretty sure I don't consider the actual crossing of a body of a water to be relevant when I choose a word.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . What do US universities call 'overseas students'? . . .

As Jut says, our term is international student.

To us, an overseas student would be someone studying in a school overseas — like most of the students who use Using English.

 

[Ashraful Haque]

Wow, I've been using overseas/abroad as if they mean totally two different things. I guess I need unlearn what I learned.



It reminds me of this quote- "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

 

[Tarheel]

Is "abroad" old fashioned?

I don't know if "abroad" is old-fashioned, but I prefer to be more specific.

Abe: Have you ever been outside the country?
Bob: No, I never have. I'd like to visit London someday though.
Abe: Have you ever met a Canadian?
Bob: Yes, I have. And they didn't have a trace of an accent.
Abe: They?
Bob: Yes, there were two of them. One of them said, "We're Canadian."
Abe: That's interesting. How did that come up?
Bob: I'm not sure.
Abe: Do you think some Canadians are sneaking in without telling people they're Canadians?
Bob: It's possible.

;-)