moving to holland

rapp

Hello,

I am thinking of moving to holland with my dutch girlfriend of 3 years. I lived with her in holland before for 6 months however work was very scarce for non-dutch speakers. That was near Nijmegen/Arnhem in the south east. German was more common than english it seemed.

Anyway I dont have any degree or college qualifications so i know that might be a big problem but does anyone know where I could look for work or what part of holland to move to? I've a lot of work experience in various low end roles such as building pcs for dell, warehouse and forklift stuff, factory work, data entry etc.,
Your input is much appreciated.

pickarooney

There seems to always be demand for qualified forklift drivers, although unfortuntately the more 'manual' the job you apply for the greater need to speak at least enough Dutch to pass safety standards check. Factories etc. are probably the places you're most likely to learn the language on the other hand as nearly all offices with even a small number of non-natives will use English as their business language. Is there particular reason to move to Holland without having a specific city/area in mind? Somewhere like Utrecht or Groningen might be worth shot - not Amsterdam-expensive but nice, decent-size cities to live in.

rapp

rapp wrote:

Hello,

I am thinking of moving to holland with my dutch girlfriend of 3 years. I lived with her in holland before for 6 months however work was very scarce for non-dutch speakers. That was near Nijmegen/Arnhem in the south east. German was more common than english it seemed.

Anyway I dont have any degree or college qualifications so i know that might be a big problem but does anyone know where I could look for work or what part of holland to move to? I've a lot of work experience in various low end roles such as building pcs for dell, warehouse and forklift stuff, factory work, data entry etc.,
Your input is much appreciated.

Thanks for the info pickarooney, the reason for the area not being important is that my girlfriend has worked for 2 companies previously with shops/facilities all over the country. She would get a job at them again no problem. Also the country is so small that visiting family would take more than 2 hrs by train.So if a certain area increased my chances it would have a big influence.

pow wow

Utrecht has a high proportion of English speakers (big uni there) which may help you initially - as would any other larger city.

BuffyBot

Would the obvious answer not be to try and learn the language?

Alun

I'd say if you have a Dutch girlfriend and you say you lived there yourself for a while already, learning the language shouldn't be too difficult. I lived there myself for 13 years :eek: and I became pretty fluent quite quickly, although I had lived in Germany for a few years before that which probably helped.

The thing though is to persevere, Dutch people will use any excuse to show off their English, although with a few exceptions, you'll not get much further than pretty basic conversation, and to be able to really build friendships and also to really integrate in a working environment, you'll have to learn the language. Just resist any attempt by them to answer your first feeble attempts at Dutch in English .. it's difficult, but as long as you make it clear to them that you're trying to learn the language, they should be willing to help. And what about your girlfriend, can't she give you a few lessons before you go?

As to areas to live in for good work opprtunities, anywhere in the Randstad would do, or what about where I lived .. Eindhoven? A university town, a few large employers such as Philips, DAF and AMSL, easy access to the rest of the country, close to Belgium and Germany. Well, I enjoyed it

Ik wens je veel succes!

Onur

Hi Ya Rapp,

I am Dutch originally and can tell you that The Netherlands is doing very well at this moment, there is a’ lot of work available in different sectors, off course speaking Dutch is a good advantages but not a must. lots of Polish workers come to the Netherlands to work in factories and in the farming industry.

I would say don’t go to the big cities the most jobs there are high level and require more education and skills, the rental and living prices are also higher there, if i where you i would in to living somewhere in Brabant, like Roosendaal, Breda, these small cities are cheap in living and have good excess to everywhere, for example you could drive or take the train to Rotterdam in 30 minutes but also could look for a job in Antwerp (Belgium) that is only 20 minutes away. anyway good luck with your search for work. if you have any particular job interest let me know i will have a look for you on the net,

ps: look at this site (together with your girlfriend) here you can find all the statistics for work and income per region and see what kind of job is offered the most there, Good Luck

Onur


http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/table.asp?STB=G1,G2&LA=nl&DM=SLNL&PA=70803ned&D1=0,7-8,13&D2=a&D3=6-13,16&D4=a&LYR=G3:5&HDR=T

pickarooney

Alun wrote:

.. Eindhoven? A university town, a few large employers such as Philips, DAF and AMSL, easy access to the rest of the country, close to Belgium and Germany...

...and a dreary, ugly, soulless, concrete kip of a place, in all fairness.

rapp

Thank you all for the replies - good info in all of them, i am going to try learn the language but im just worried it may prove difficult and take a long time as languages wouldnt be my favourite hobby.

My girlfriend is from arnhem originally but because its near the german border I thought i would have a lesser chance of finding a job without dutch. To onur thanks for the lin, i had no idea holland was doing so well right now.

Alun

pickarooney wrote:

...and a dreary, ugly, soulless, concrete kip of a place, in all fairness.

I thought it was alright, but then I hated Amsterdam as well, so make of that what you will. Each to his own.

rapp

Onur wrote:

I would say don’t go to the big cities the most jobs there are high level and require more education and skills, the rental and living prices are also higher there, if i where you i would in to living somewhere in Brabant, like Roosendaal, Breda, these small cities are cheap in living and have good excess to everywhere

Would you classify arnhem or nijmegen as being too big?

rapp

Alun wrote:

I'd say if you have a Dutch girlfriend and you say you lived there yourself for a while already, learning the language shouldn't be too difficult. I lived there myself for 13 years :eek: and I became pretty fluent quite quickly, although I had lived in Germany for a few years before that which probably helped.

Hi alun could you tell me approx. how fast you became fluent or efficient enough to hold a fairly decent conversation?

Alun

rapp wrote:

Hi alun could you tell me approx. how fast you became fluent or efficient enough to hold a fairly decent conversation?

I reckon about 6 months, but bear in mind that I already had pretty decent German, had lived in Germany for 7 years working for a Dutch firm and working with Dutch people prior to moving to Holland. A lot of company literature, such as newsletters and the like was in Dutch, despite the fact that many of the employees of the German subsidiary had been recruited directly from the UK, so I'd been 'exposed' to the language for a while before moving there, albeit unknowingly. I think this probably helped a lot.

I did a 4 week intensive course when I was there, split into a 2 week session when I first arrived, and then another 2 weeks later as a refresher/top-up which very definitely helped. The company paid for it though, and it wasn't cheap!

As a language, it's not one of the most difficult in my opinion. The pronunciation is at least consistent (unlike English!), but some sounds are difficult to master for some people. The grammar is relatively simple, no difficult cases like in German for example. I guess it also probably depends a lot on whether you have a 'feel' for languages in general.

rapp

Alun wrote:

I reckon about 6 months, but bear in mind that I already had pretty decent German, had lived in Germany for 7 years working for a Dutch firm and working with Dutch people prior to moving to Holland. A lot of company literature, such as newsletters and the like was in Dutch, despite the fact that many of the employees of the German subsidiary had been recruited directly from the UK, so I'd been 'exposed' to the language for a while before moving there, albeit unknowingly. I think this probably helped a lot.

I did a 4 week intensive course when I was there, split into a 2 week session when I first arrived, and then another 2 weeks later as a refresher/top-up which very definitely helped. The company paid for it though, and it wasn't cheap!

As a language, it's not one of the most difficult in my opinion. The pronunciation is at least consistent (unlike English!), but some sounds are difficult to master for some people. The grammar is relatively simple, no difficult cases like in German for example. I guess it also probably depends a lot on whether you have a 'feel' for languages in general.

I know where you are coming from as I did honours level german for the leaving cert and when i did wind up in holland i saw many many similarities between the languages.if reading a newspaper passage i would get the general drift of the story and suprised people by guessing what a lot of words meant. I do think dutch is very simple grammar wise and word wise - as in a lot of words are very different from each other making it easier to remember and they dont seem to have 5 words when one will do. Its just the pronounciation that i would be worried about. Then again i had one witch of a gaelic teacher and that harsh hacking langage might help in learning to speak those dutch g's. Thank you gentlemen for your assistance.

rapp

Onur wrote:

Hi Ya Rapp,

I am Dutch originally and can tell you that The Netherlands is doing very well at this moment, there is a’ lot of work available in different sectors, off course speaking Dutch is a good advantages but not a must. lots of Polish workers come to the Netherlands to work in factories and in the farming industry.

I would say don’t go to the big cities the most jobs there are high level and require more education and skills, the rental and living prices are also higher there, if i where you i would in to living somewhere in Brabant, like Roosendaal, Breda, these small cities are cheap in living and have good excess to everywhere, for example you could drive or take the train to Rotterdam in 30 minutes but also could look for a job in Antwerp (Belgium) that is only 20 minutes away. anyway good luck with your search for work. if you have any particular job interest let me know i will have a look for you on the net,

ps: look at this site (together with your girlfriend) here you can find all the statistics for work and income per region and see what kind of job is offered the most there, Good Luck

Onur


http://statline.cbs.nl/StatWeb/table.asp?STB=G1,G2&LA=nl&DM=SLNL&PA=70803ned&D1=0,7-8,13&D2=a&D3=6-13,16&D4=a&LYR=G3:5&HDR=T

We are thinking about apeldoorn now, could you find some sites that deal with that area for me onur?

jon1981

http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.asp?action=page&page=news&topic=csuk

check this out

Alun

rapp wrote:

We are thinking about apeldoorn now, could you find some sites that deal with that area for me onur?

Apeldoorn is quite a nice place from what I remember of it. Close to the Hoge Veluwe, a nature reserve, quite a bit of woodland around, then you've got the royal family as neighbours too at Paleis Het Loo !

www.apeldoorn.nl .. all in Dutch I'm afraid, but your girlfriend can help out I'm sure.

rapp

jon1981 wrote:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/k.asp?action=page&page=news&topic=csuk

check this out

Your a legend () im also john born 1981, I've done exactly the type of work the they do in the warehouses there, and i currently work in dell. I don't have customer services experience but I'd like to think I can communicate!

rapp

Alun wrote:

Apeldoorn is quite a nice place from what I remember of it. Close to the Hoge Veluwe, a nature reserve, quite a bit of woodland around, then you've got the royal family as neighbours too at Paleis Het Loo !

www.apeldoorn.nl .. all in Dutch I'm afraid, but your girlfriend can help out I'm sure.

funny thing is i can read and figure out 70% of the site. I just got a software -learn dutch program too.

Heady Glamor

Bump.

Hi folks,its looking likely I will be too moving to Holland in the coming weeks.My girlfriend lives in Den Haag so im looking to relocate in and around that area (Rotterdam,Delft etc).I speak no Dutch at all unfortunately.I am just wondering would anyone have information on how much the economy has changed in the last couple of years and how difficult would it be for someone like me to get a job.I am a carpenter by trade so site work is what im mainly looking for but warehouse/factory work is more than acceptable.


Im also looking for info on the VCA safety certificate which (I think) is needed to work on building sites over there.I can either do the course in Holland or on the Internet.The website which does the course are saying not all employers will look for it,as its €350 to do I would like to know how common it is to be asked for it ??

any info will be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Gary

Faith+1

You'd be better off starting a new thread Heady Glamor, this is 4 years old!