Anyone here live in continental Europe? How's it going?

ancapailldorcha

I've been finding myself wondering what it must be like to live on the continent lately, particularly when it comes to differences in culture, work-life balance and the language barrier. Anyone here live in a European country aside from Ireland and the UK? How's it going over there? Was it a good move?

ZX7R

I moved to eastran Poland love it here, the winters can be a tad long but the weatherthe rest of the year is normally splendid, the war in Ukraine is a big worry as is inflation.

The language is difficult but my communication is fair but my understanding of it is very good.

Food is interesting not everything is to my liking but coming around to liking things that I didn't at the start.

Polish have a wonderful culture and interesting history.

The village I live in welcomed me and try to include me in all social events and activities. There is much more social community events than in Ireland.

Get to see much more wildlife and nature than in Ireland.

The only thing I Don't like or don't like seeing is a lot of abuse of achoal that just seems to be accepted.

Health care in my opinion is very good a long waiting list is about 3 months public, matter of days of you go private.

Plenty of work if you want to work, wages are not great but you can't really compare lrish wages to polish wages.

Jim2007

What do you want to know? I have lived and worked in mainland Europe (Switzerland) for more than three decades, I've been here so long that it's home to me and I could not imagine living anywhere else. Since there is no way of telling what the alternative might have been so there is no way of knowing if it was a good move. I'm happy here and that is all I can say.

The language barrier is completely on you, people will make an effort at the start, but if you don't make the effort and pick up the language then they'll eventually grow tired of you and leave you to your own devices. I made a very deliberate decision to avoid the expat community like the plague and so I had no choice but to pick up the local languages. My French and German are pretty terrible, but I can understand and make myself understood. In any case in the German part of Switzerland, where I live the locals do not speak what we call written German [the German learned in School and spoken in parts of Germany], but dialects, which are kind of sub sets of German peppered with their own vocabulary and grammar. There is no written form and not classes to go to, you just have to pick it up. As a result I understand three dialects very well, can figure out most of what is said in a few others and have not got a clue what is being said in some of them, just like everyone else.

I'm retired now, but the work life balance was excellent. The pace of work in much more intense than in Ireland, but once you have done your 42.5 hours, you are done and you get out of there. And once get out at the end of the day, you don't take work home and you certainly will not be contacted outside of work hours no matter what the emergency is. As a manager it reflects badly on you if your people are regularly working OT as it taken to mean your are not capable of managing your team, likewise if you need to contact someone out side of their working hours it reflects badly on you.

Don't know what more I can tell you.

ancapailldorcha

Emm... mainly how things are in other countries with regards to healthcare and housing. I'm 35 so I'd like some stability but I'm just about young enough to be able to move reasonably easily. Wouldn't say no to learning another language but it feels pointless sitting in front of a screen learning something I'll never use.

Seen some jobs in Lausanne years back but wasn't interested as I figured Switzerland would be too expensive for anyone not working in finance.

That's interesting about the work-life balance. I don't feel so passionate that I'd be wanting to do US levels of hours in a role every week. I need my evenings and my time to myself.

As for the language, I can't help but feel that immersion would be key. I've done various courses over the years and forgotten most of what I'd picked up simply because I didn't use it.

Appreciate the response. Never really considered Switzerland.