A survey of global expatriates carried out by Berlitz Consulting has revealed that among those about to start, already working on or recently returned from time living and working abroad, understanding the culture of their destination is more highly valued than speaking the language.

In the survey, 83% replied that understanding the country’s culture was essential to success as an expat worker, while just 66% thought learning the country’s language or perfecting their skills in that language was essential.

And 15% responded that the language was the most difficult challenge to meet in working abroad.

There is disparity between an expatriate worker’s view of time spent abroad and the opinion of their family, the survey shows.

The average score out of 10 for workers responding to the question of how positive the experience abroad has been from a personal standpoint was 8.4. For their spouses, this fell to 8 out of 10, and from the point of view of the family as a whole this dropped to 6.8.

Japanese expatriate workers were the least satisfied of those surveyed. While across the board, workers currently abroad reported an average satisfaction of 8.2 out of 10, these fell to 6.4 for Japanese respondents.