The help Anne sort out overseas living thread

[Anne the Man]

So I've set myself a deadline of getting out of the country by the end of this year, but I don't know where I want to go yet. Since NZ is a million miles away from everything I figure I'd be living overseas for quite awhile. Where to go? What to do? I think I can keep my job at Scoop if I go overseas, will have to ask my boss. It'd possibly be easier to meet people if I got a job wherever I end up, but the job market is shit everywhere and I doubt I could get much work above minimum wage, let alone a real job/chance to do journalism. That said, I probably would need another job anyway given that NZ dollars don't go far.

Anyway, I'd like recommendations--where might suit me? One of my best friends knows people in Britain so I could get a head start by finding her people, and I know a couple friends over there anyway, plus benefits of going around Europe. My dad thinks I would love Barcelona, only reason I'm apprehensive is because of the language barrier. I could come visit some of y'alls in the US and get involved with Octopi stuff, but your country alarms me more than ever lately.

[JamesSchneider]

I'm on my mobile, so I'll be brief, but nowhere has ever treated me better than Northern Britain in general and Glasgow in particular. Small diverse city, easy access to everywhere, great arts scene, unobscene living cost. Look in to it.

[alistarr*]

Are there any journalisty reasons you might look to certain areas? Any places that would help you in writing about whatever it is you want to write about (whether or not you can earn money from that)?

[Bernard]

Japan! Teach English as a sideline, make the small bux, eat nice things.

[Babar]

Japan! Teach English as a sideline, make the small bux, eat nice things.

Have you done this, Bernard? I know N. Ink had a similar gig in the better Korea.

[Good Intentions]

morgan used to do this as well (might be still doing it, for all I know).

[Trousers and Pat]

living overseas can be really damn hard but it's 100% worth it.

[Nick Ink]

Japan! Teach English as a sideline, make the small bux, eat nice things.

Have you done this, Bernard? I know N. Ink had a similar gig in the better Korea.

I did, and I now train people up to do it themselves! So Anne could come to Brighton for a month, be trained in the wise and mysterious arts of ELT by Yoda Ink, and then jet off to fight the dark side/teach in Korea.

edit: re Barcelona, I would urge you not to worry about the language barrier. I didn't know a damn phoneme of Korean, nor a single person within a 1,000 mile radius (and I lived in a city of 1 milliion inhabitants, approximately 3 of which were non-Korean), but I ended up having the best year of my life, meeting my wife and also one of my best ever friends. Roll the dice!

[ellaguru]

So Anne could come to Brighton for a month, be trained in the wise and mysterious arts of ELT by Yoda Ink, and then jet off to fight the dark side/teach in Korea.

Now that sounds like a genius idea!

[ellaguru]

My sister taught English in Korea. Just two summer terms, because she was a real schoolteacher at the time as well, but she had a good time.

[mixed cats]

I have three or four friends who did the teach English in Japan thing, and one friend who is doing it in Korea now (and signed up to stay an extra year). All reports say it's awesome.

[jess]

One of my best friends is coming back after doing it for about 5 years now. She's obviously really liked it, enough to stay, although I think she would stress that you need to be ok with the fact that you will be working and living in a highly patriarchal, collectivist society, so you're going to have to check a lot of your feminist ideals and probably other values too at the door if you want to get along with people and not to be frustrated all the time. Honestly, from her description of the cultural stuff she's dealt with, I have no desire ever to live for any extended period in a culture like that and think it would drive me a bit crazy (visiting was awesome though), but obviously a lot of people like it just fine. It also I gather depends on what kind of program you're in, and the extent to which you actually want and need to fit into the culture particularly well.

[Bernard]

Interesting, Jess. I guess I had assumed that people would see you're a foreigner and not expect you to follow their local rules closely, so long as you weren't violent or obscene or anything. I found that in India, people pretty much wrote me off as a foreigner and had little expectation that I'd walk, dress, or speak like a normal person, but as I write this I realize I have generalized from one little suburb to not only a whole country, but to all countries, so scrap what I just said!

[Nick Ink]

My experience was:

Year 1: Through the looking glass, bewildered and in love with how different everything was.
Year 2: More used to things. Start complaining about annoying cultural differences
Year 3-4: Accept annoying cultural fifferences and stop complaining
Year 5+: Realise that many cultural differences were only annoying because of my own cultural conditioning, and question and in lots of cases reconsider my opinions and assumptions on big issues (e.g. collectivism, feminism)

[justinh]

Living abroad rules, but I would spend time thinking about the logistics of moving to your preferred destination.  It might be fairly easy for a New Zealander to move to the UK, but Spain might be a little different in regard to the visa that you would need and your ability to find work and a place to live.  Also, Spain has about 20% unemployment, so it might be particularly difficult finding work there. 

If I were going to live in Europe I would try living somewhere cheap, like Eastern Germany (Berlin is one of my favorite cities, and one of the cheapest cities in Western Europe).  Especially if you can keep your job and work remotely.  And speaking of working remotely, I'm currently working an American job from Australia, and although awesome, connection issues and time differences can make things frustrating at times.  I feel like I have to work extra hard to keep up, since it takes me much more time to do routine tasks than it does from the US office. 

[Good Intentions]

Living abroad rules, but I would spend time thinking about the logistics of moving to your preferred destination.  It might be fairly easy for a New Zealander to move to the UK, but Spain might be a little different in regard to the visa that you would need and your ability to find work and a place to live.  Also, Spain has about 20% unemployment, so it might be particularly difficult finding work there. 

The visa isn't a problem, not as long as the Schengen Agreement holds, since New Zealanders receive 6 month resident visas upon request. Employment is a different matter. East Germany wouldn't be a bad idea.

[Anne the Man]

Still want to help me out in Brighton, Nick? I'm still thinking UK, early to mid next year. Brighton or Bristol I guess; the latter sounds like the British equivalent of Wellington. (I don't think I want to go on to Korea though, at least not in a context of living there; Jess' concerns would be mine too.) I want to sort out what sort of work I could do before going over, if possible, or at least have some idea. I wish I could get paid to write articles, and I wish even more I could get paid to research/write my book, but I don't know that either will be feasible. Trying to get help from people who have contacts over there.

[Nick Ink]

Still want to help me out in Brighton, Nick? I'm still thinking UK, early to mid next year.

Anything I can do, of course I'd be delighted! :-)

I've never been to Bristol, but it's obviously a major city with all the pros and cons that brings. Brighton is smaller (200,000 people) but has a much more distinctive character. Things Brighton is famous for: Quadrophenia, dirty weekends, the lovely South Downs, quirky alleyways with cool independent shops, gay and lesbian scene, the Pier, appallinglly behaved Friday night stag/hen party enttourages, foreign students, the Royal Pavilion, direct rail link to London (80 minutes away), Fatboy Slim, the UKs only Green Party MP, a fast-improving football team with a nice new stadium and really cool English teachers.   

[alistarr*]

I seem to recall Bristol has a couple of pretty solid record shops. It's also pleasantly slopey. Both are close enough to London to make London trips fairly hassle-free, but their side of the country isn't as good for getting north if you wanted to do that.

Jobs are not exactly plentiful here at the moment, of course.

[Bernard]

Still want to help me out in Brighton, Nick? I'm still thinking UK, early to mid next year.

Anything I can do, of course I'd be delighted! :-)

I've never been to Bristol, but it's obviously a major city with all the pros and cons that brings. Brighton is smaller (200,000 people) but has a much more distinctive character. Things Brighton is famous for: Quadrophenia, dirty weekends, the lovely South Downs, quirky alleyways with cool independent shops, gay and lesbian scene, the Pier, appallinglly behaved Friday night stag/hen party enttourages, foreign students, the Royal Pavilion, direct rail link to London (80 minutes away), Fatboy Slim, the UKs only Green Party MP, a fast-improving football team with a nice new stadium and really cool English teachers.   

and cocktails at blanche house, if that's still a thing

[Nick Ink]

and cocktails at blanche house, if that's still a thing

Sorry!

"Please note that unfortunately the Blanch House that this review refers to is now closed . The hotel has re-opened however the cocktail bar is no more. This makes a Gin Monkey very very sad!"

[cold before sunrise]

try idealist.org for volunteer or paid positions. there have been several opportunities on that site i regret not snapping up. one was in your neck of the woods, doing a dive position in fiji where you get a scuba ticket and they have you document exotic fish migration patterns for an ecology company based out of london, automatic school credit and the favourite out of every group gets a paid internship. there was another job doing consensus data for school children in bhutan, where nobody gets to go since it's completely isolated, living with a local family (you have to win a draw for the chance to tour a small area reserved for visitors, can't usually get an insider view for any price). the opportunities seem to have shrunk in the last few years but i'd still suggest the canary islands or madagascar for the chance of a lifetime.

[Bernard]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! That is a huge bummer! Those cocktails were so delicious.

[Anne the Man]

Dudes, I found out about this mad scheme in Georgia, where they fly you from anywhere in the world to stay with a host family teach English to primary schoolers (can stay for 3 month semesters, or longer if you wish), then fly you to wherever else afterwards. You don't even need a degree, just two years of post-secondary study and not a criminal record. I kind of think I should do it; it'd be a start and get me over to Europe for free. Fucking crazy though, I'm wondering what the catch is.

What do people know about Georgia? All I know is they got fucked up by Russia in 2008.

[justinh]

They have a delicious and cheesy local cuisine.