Living Abroad

On Jul 5, 12:29 am, thompstc <thomp...@> wrote:
> Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
> country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
> anyone have any advice?
>
> tcthompson.blogspot.com


I lived in Japan for 2 1/2 years.

Learn as much of the language as you can as quickly as you can. It's
worth putting other things on hold in the first month you're there to
get the language down quickly, since it will really add to your
experience. A lot of the expats in Japan don't speak Japanese at all,
and are really limited in their ability to converse with Japanese or
be involved in activities outside of the foreign community. In
Germany where a much larger fraction of the local population speaks
English, this might be less of an issue, but it's still a good idea -
being able to talk to everyone, read the papers, and attend German-
language cultural events will let you be much more connected to the
local culture.

Look up in advance the numbers for your embassy, and an English-
speaking doctor, lawyer, and pharmacist, and tape them up near your
phone. If there is an emergency, you don't want to frantically go
searching for them.

On 5/07/07 16:13, in article
1183644825.054786.19420@g4g2000hsf..co m, "Iceman"
<oneofcoldm> wrote:

> Learn as much of the language as you can as quickly as you can. It's
> worth putting other things on hold in the first month you're there to
> get the language down quickly, since it will really add to your
> experience. A lot of the expats in Japan don't speak Japanese at all,

I would think if you lived there you'd pick up "store" Japanese,
100-200 words after a year or so. But it has the reputation of
being a difficult language.

At least German pronunciation is easy, one uses all the letters so
there is not letter drop out as in English and French. French vocabulary
has a high overlap with English, more than in the case of German-English
so it is not hard to have a couple hundred of words with a short period
in French.

"thompstc" > Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your
home
> country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
> anyone have any advice?


Gore-Tex

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007, Earl Evleth wrote:

> It all probability you will have culture shock for the first
> month or two. The first week might be euphoric but then
> the culture shock usually sets in.

That's interesting, I was quite depressed the first few days: "My god,
what have I done?".

--
Yves Bellefeuille
<yan@storm.ca>

On 6 jul, 10:47, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
> thompstc wrote:
> > Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
> > country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
> > anyone have any advice?
>
> > tcthompson.blogspot.com
>
> Be careful about that "spending a year" bit. I came on a 6 month
> contract and stayed.

Let me guess ... there was a woman involved ... ? :-)

B;

jeremyrh.geom wrote:
> On 6 jul, 10:47, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>
>>thompstc wrote:
>>
>>>Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
>>>country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
>>>anyone have any advice?
>>
>>>tcthompson.blogspot.com
>>
>>Be careful about that "spending a year" bit. I came on a 6 month
>>contract and stayed.
>
>
> Let me guess ... there was a woman involved ... ? :-)
>
> B;
>
only one??

On Jul 6, 2:58 pm, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
> jeremyrh....m wrote:
> > On 6 jul, 10:47, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>
> >>thompstc wrote:
>
> >>>Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
> >>>country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
> >>>anyone have any advice?
>
> >>>tcthompson.blogspot.com
>
> >>Be careful about that "spending a year" bit. I came on a 6 month
> >>contract and stayed.
>
> > Let me guess ... there was a woman involved ... ? :-)
>
> > B;
>
> only one??

If it was two you'd be happy to run home to safety !!

B;

jeremyrh.geom wrote:
> On Jul 6, 2:58 pm, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>
>>jeremyrh....m wrote:
>>
>>>On 6 jul, 10:47, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>>
>>>>thompstc wrote:
>>
>>>>>Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
>>>>>country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
>>>>>anyone have any advice?
>>
>>>>>tcthompson.blogspot.com
>>
>>>>Be careful about that "spending a year" bit. I came on a 6 month
>>>>contract and stayed.
>>
>>>Let me guess ... there was a woman involved ... ? :-)
>>
>>>B;
>>
>>only one??
>
>
> If it was two you'd be happy to run home to safety !!
>
> B;
>
<G> not at the same time of course!

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:35:10 +0200, Tom Peel <lepdp@freenet.de> wrote:

>jeremyrh.geom wrote:
>> On Jul 6, 2:58 pm, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>>
>>>jeremyrh....m wrote:
>>>
>>>>On 6 jul, 10:47, Tom Peel <l...@freenet.de> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>thompstc wrote:
>>>
>>>>>>Have many of you spent a prolonged period of time outside your home
>>>>>>country? I'll be spending a year in Germany beginning in August. Does
>>>>>>anyone have any advice?
>>>
>>>>>>tcthompson.blogspot.com
>>>
>>>>>Be careful about that "spending a year" bit. I came on a 6 month
>>>>>contract and stayed.
>>>
>>>>Let me guess ... there was a woman involved ... ? :-)
>>>
>>>>B;
>>>
>>>only one??
>>
>>
>> If it was two you'd be happy to run home to safety !!
>>
>> B;
>>
><G> not at the same time of course!

For that you would need to be in Leiden with Jim Gibbering
--

Martin

On 5 juil, 17:30, Earl Evleth <evl...@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> On 5/07/07 16:13, in article
> 1183644825.054786.19...@g4g2000hsf..co m, "Iceman"
>
> <oneofc...m> wrote:
> > Learn as much of the language as you can as quickly as you can. It's
> > worth putting other things on hold in the first month you're there to
> > get the language down quickly, since it will really add to your
> > experience. A lot of the expats in Japan don't speak Japanese at all,
>
> I would think if you lived there you'd pick up "store" Japanese,
> 100-200 words after a year or so. But it has the reputation of
> being a difficult language.
>
> At least German pronunciation is easy, one uses all the letters so
> there is not letter drop out as in English and French. French vocabulary
> has a high overlap with English, more than in the case of German-English
> so it is not hard to have a couple hundred of words with a short period
> in French.

Bien qu'evleth se vante qu'il habite à Paris, il ne comprend pas
français.