Life here v abroad?

canavanbn@hotma

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare?
Do/did you miss home?
What did/do you miss?
Advantages and disadvantages?
Where have you lived?
Would you recomend living abroad at some stage?
Did you like Dublin when you came back?
For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on?
Do we 'down' Ireland too much?
Or is it overrated?
Just curious as to whether or not people actually miss Dublin when they go away?

Imposter

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare?
'Tis a dump
Do you miss home?
Yes and No
What do you miss?
Friends, family and the craic!
What do you not miss?
Scumbags, lack of security, high cost of everything, crap infrastructure (roads, public transport, telecoms), ridiculous cost of car insurance, crap health service, me fein attitude of a lot of people in the last few years (selfishness is good, but up to a point), lack of willingness/balls on the behalf of the government to tackle any of these issues
Advantages and disadvantages?see above
Where have you lived?Linz, Austria.
Would you recomend living abroad at some stage?Most definitely
Did you like Dublin when you came back?Am still away.
For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on?No
Do we 'down' Ireland too much?No not enough
Or is it overrated?yes
Just curious as to whether or not people actually miss Dublin when they go away?
You'll miss certain things. If it gets to the stage where you are homesick then you should move back and you'll have realised that you want to live there. Imo that'd be a good thing as you know you want ot be there rather than people who moan about the place but never leave.

I added an extra question.

irishguy

Imposter, did you have a problem getting a job in austria? and what kind of work do you do ?.do you speak german if not did you have a problem with the language. Just wondering cus i want to move to somewhere in europe prob france when i finish college but i dont speak much french and i was wondering how difficult it would be to get work without the language

kenmc

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare? Dirty.Full of undesireables-bums,druggies,scumbags,knackers (i.e. trackies and burbury).Unsafe.expensive.hard to get around.
Do/did you miss home?At times
What did/do you miss? I missed friends,family and the countryside - i.e. I missed IRELAND, but not dublin.
Advantages and disadvantages?Of what?Of dublin?friends and family live here being the only advantage.Disadvantages? too many to mention
Where have you lived?Eindhoven, Netherlands (18 months). Cork (6 months)- yeah I know it's not abroad, but it's outside dublin and this seems to be a dublin-centric quiz.
Would you recomend living abroad at some stage?Without a shadow of a doubt.
Did you like Dublin when you came back?Not particularly.No more than i did before I left.
For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on?I don't think so.
Do we 'down' Ireland too much?Yes *IRELAND* is a nice place - outside dublin.
Or is it overrated?IRELAND is not over-rated.unfortunately some people seem to associate IRELAND and DUBLAND.Once outside the pale, the scenery is beautiful and the people are nice and friendly, and prices are reasonable. Thats what I missed most while abroad.I live in dublin cos thats where the most of the work is for me and my girlfriend.Would dearly love to move down to galway or cork, but there's not so much work in the SW industry there unfortunately. When I have my millions made up here I'll move away.Or abroad.

irishguy

hey kenmc , same questions to you [above] cus i will actually be doing software eng when i leave college and i want to live abroad but i am not sure where yet

kenmc

ok, well I was sent abroad whilst working for my Irish employer - i.e. everything was paid for- flights, apartment, daily allowance etc, whilst still being paid into my irish bank account. In holland i didn't need to learn the language, cos they all speak fluent english. if it'd been france or germany then i'd need more of the local stuff out and about, cos they tend not to speak english so much. in work the main language is english, same as most companies in SW throughout europe - i know that there's companies in france etc where english is spoken as the working language, so from that point of view there's no worries generally. might be hard to find out about getting apts, visas, bank accounts etc though.

Imposter

irishguy wrote:

Imposter, did you have a problem getting a job in austria? and what kind of work do you do ?.do you speak german if not did you have a problem with the language. Just wondering cus i want to move to somewhere in europe prob france when i finish college but i dont speak much french and i was wondering how difficult it would be to get work without the language

I was quite lucky with getting a job. When I look back on it and consider the problems some friends are having I realise I was quite lucky to get a job when I did. Took about 2 months to find one. I work in software.

The language here is by far the hardest part of living here for me. Fortunately where I work most people speak english. At this stage i can understand pretty much everything, especially in relation to work.

To move to a non-english speaking country you've got to consider how they treat people who don't speak the language. France mightn't be the best place for this reason. You've also got to consider how much effort you are willing to put into learn the language. Compare the two and you should have a rough idea how you'll get on.

Tom Dunne

canavanbn@hotma wrote:

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare?

Do/did you miss home? No
What did/do you miss? Friends/family
Advantages and disadvantages? Better lifestyle, weather, everything cheaper
Where have you lived? Various parts of America
Would you recomend living abroad at some stage? Most definitely. Meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, eating new foods, it has to be done.
Did you like Dublin when you came back? Mixed emotions about Ireland (not living in Dublin, so couldn't give a toss)
For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on? Nope. Pros and cons of everywhere.
Do we 'down' Ireland too much? it's something I am very, very careful not to do. Irish people in general can be a little on the negative side.
Or is it overrated? as above
Just curious as to whether or not people actually miss Dublin when they go away? Clonakilty black pudding and Superquinn sausages are the only things I missed. Oh yes, and friends and family.

Ruu_Old

I'll answer this post in a few months moving to America on April 23rd

Punchesnpeaches

I worked in France for 8 months and from a language point of view it was tough going at times. You would be surprised at the efforts french people make to speak english to you, they do have a tendency to not understand you when you speak frend, could well be my appalling french though.

I think that a lot of french companies esp in areas like software eng conduct their business through english.

pickarooney

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare?
Apart from the people, very little to recommend Dublin.
Do/did you miss home?Sure, from time to time, but have no inclination to move back.
What did/do you miss?People with a sense of humour, some pubs.
Advantages and disadvantages?Holland - Advantages: Cheaper prices for everything, central location, social security, excellent infrastructure, forward-thinking mentality. Disadvantages: very cold people, complete absence of attractive women, very little scenery, food is abominable, salaries are low. France - Advantages: The food, weather, people, location (depends where in France, obviously), social security etc. Disadvantages: job market was quite bad. That's about it, really. Advantage of being anywehre outside Dublin is being away from filthbag landlords and scummer bouncers.
Where have you lived?Aix-en-Provence, France (3 years) and Eindhoven, Netherlands (3.5 years so far).
Would you recomend living abroad at some stage?Absolutely. At the very worst, you'll appreciate coming home and have satisified your curiosity. The possibilities are endless.
Did you like Dublin when you came back?Yes, for the few years the economic boom allowed me to live a decent lifestyle, make lots of friends and go travelling (first real job). Then that went downhill fast and I moved away again.
For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on?
Do we 'down' Ireland too much? I don't know. Do you down it much? I do think a lot of people underestimate what's outside Dublin.
Or is it overrated?Given that it was recently selected as the best place in the world to live in, I would say so, yes.
Just curious as to whether or not people actually miss Dublin when they go away?Occasionally and briefly.

As for getting a job, I was studying for most of the time in France, doing part-time jobs. It was very difficult to get a real job with no experience. As for Holland, I had one sorted out before I left. I've had 3 since then, so I suppose it's easy enough to get one, but not that easy keep one. They're very loath to offer permanent or even long-term contracts (or I'm just not worth keeping )
As for the language, I learned Dutch, but could probably have done most of my jobs reasonably well without it. I don't think I would have got on very well in France without speaking the lingo.

I'm planning to move back to France within a year, after a length spell travelling.

Mayshine

To those of you that are or have lived abroad how does Dublin compare?
Poorly, very much so

Do/did you miss home?
Not really

What did/do you miss?
Would only miss my faimily and the fact that I lived in greystones which is a pleasent little town

Advantages and disadvantages?
Singapore - NIce people, climate, infrastructure, location, cost of living is good, plenty of things to do at the weekend, met my girlfriend there. Good places to visit nearby at the weekend.

Disadvantages - I found a great girl their - Cannot critise it too much

Dublin - expensive, slow to get around, quite small city centre, overpriced entertainment, terrible roads and insurance, pretty unfriendly people at times (this is a shame as I alway remembered people to be quite pleasent in the past), and larger knacker contingent in the city centre. Safety issues at night. Oh and the general filth of the city and the language of people. Even though it is a large city population wise it still has the amenities of a small city.

Where have you lived?
Singpaore, Prague, Bratislava, Hong Kong

Would you recomend living abroad at some stage?
Of course

Did you like Dublin when you came back?
Not really, I prefered to stay out in greystones. I like the countryside down here

For all its ills, house prices, transport, overcharging etc. surely Dublin is a better place than we let on?
Hmmmm it 'certainly' has potential, however to realise it would require a will on a large proprition on the population which I am not sure exists

Do we 'down' Ireland too much? Or is it overrated?
Ireland is a great place, however Dublin has a lot of issues and is not a great city really.

Just curious as to whether or not people actually miss Dublin when they go away?
I never have/did.

Bri

Interested to know how many of you went abroad alone and how that was for the first few months?

irishguy

Mayshine, whats the story with working in Singapore? is it hard to get a visa/ job? whats the money like? its english speaking there isnt it?

Mayshine

Well it is my company that took me to singapore so once you have a job there or a compnay to bring you there then they take care of the visa.

WIthout a visa it is a pain, although I might be trying it out next month if my companay does not send me back. I have been talking to a friend who also works out there and is in a similar position to me. Seem like there are good well paid jobs for foreigners out there, it really does depend on you skill set though, for instance there are lots of decent local programmers but few decent team leads.

Problem is that you only get a 28 day tourist visa, so when looking for work you will need to renew it by leaving the country or find a local sponser

All english speaking out there for business and mostly outside of work also. Jobs can be well paid, stuff we were looking at was about SG$10k a month, all depends on what you do really

DW

Even though I was originally sent to SG by my company, I went alone. It was interesting experience for the first while but I would do it that way again. Having done other projects in other countrys where I go out with other from the team I find you don't really interact much with the locals, however when I went along I made a much better effort to meet people and as such built a number of good non-work friends

stagolee

I just read the thread here and im in a similar situation to the O.P.
I'm working in a security firm at the moment but I really want to leave the country at the end of the year and try something else.

My current plan is to learn visual basic (because its comparitavely easy as programming languages go) and also learn a bit of French, Italian or Spanish and try to get a job on the continent as a programmer.
To be honest the plan is not very well thought out at this stage and is far from final I might end up learning Chineese and teaching english in China or getting an MCSA and working as a network admin in Holland.

So my question for all of you is this: If I can get myself a VB MCP and a reasonable level of proficiency in a language which country would I be best off going to? or would I be better off getting a MCSA? or do i have much of a chance at all of getting a job with either?

Loco

stagolee wrote:

To be honest the plan is not very well thought out at this stage and is far from final I might end up learning Chineese and teaching english in China or getting an MCSA and working as a network admin in Holland.

So my question for all of you is this: If I can get myself a VB MCP and a reasonable level of proficiency in a language which country would I be best off going to? or would I be better off getting a MCSA? or do i have much of a chance at all of getting a job with either?

if your gonna teach english in asia, consider japan and korea, they pay far better and dont work you to the ground like in china.
this was said to me by americans who teach eng in china that i met in laos
thing is u need more qualifications in those places, the americans told me they were in laos to get false documentation so they could teach in korea and japan :P