Would you ever consider moving to continental Europe? And if so where?

South west of France would be nice

In Belgium, Brussels is regarded as neutral ground, so both languages are tolerated by both sides. The further away from Brussels you get, either North or South, towards Holland or France respectively, the signs get monolingual. If you attempt to use French North of Brussels, you will get a firm ignoring and any foreigner who does so will be politely told, once, that they don't speak or use Walloon/Wallonie/French so either English or Flemish is acceptable. The same prevails in the South. I worked with people from both sides. Most just shrugged and didnt really give a **** but others took it really seriously. I asked one Walloon, jokingly, if he loved French so much, why didn't they unite the South with France. He was horrified, "Oh, God,no!, they are worse than us!".......Apart from that, you could live easily in either side if you made the effort to speak a bit of both languages and it was common to find people who spoke the first tongue and good English and some German. They also make great chocolate, beer,coffee and have great places to see and places to go.

Brian? wrote: »

Eindhoven

Haven't been to Eindhoven but did visit Haarlem, thought it was lovely. Heard great things about Utrecht too...

Brian? wrote: »

I’ve lived in the Netherlands 2.5 years and it’s incredibly difficult to learn the language. 6 months at a language school and I got the basics down. But every time I try to speak it out in the real world everyone switches to English as soon as I try. Most people’s English is better than mine here, so they don’t want to listen to my mangled Dutch.

Everyone in Holland faced that problem.

Just keep going.

If your Dutch is at a level that it's delaying transactions then you need to improve.
So do a few things.

Find a Dutch person , for me it was a colleague that agreed to only speak Dutch with you. This will get you speaking more and improve your speaking manner, as in get rid of hesitancy and boost confidence.

I was lucky that one guy in my work heard i was in Dutch lessons and said from now on we'll only speak Dutch . It helped greatly. He was very patient and it was slow at first but within a short time it improved as my fear of the language eased.

Secondly, if a stranger, like a shop assistant speaks English back to you, which is impolite, then just pretend you don't speak English, ask why are you speaking English to me? I said I was from Romania once, and hoped the person didn't speak Romanian (as you'd never know in NL) and tell them you're learning the language. Worked a treat.

Also, just say "I spoke to you in Dutch why did you speak English to me?" Sounds confrontational but Dutch don't mind directness and they will generally speak Dutch back then especially if you say you're trying to learn.

Clearly your Dutch needs to be at a decent level for this.

It's all about confidence and presentation and as you improve your accent and pronunciation will improve also.

I left 16 years ago and even now when I go back nobody speaks English back to me anywhere. They hear an accent but also hear a level of confidence and ability to know that you understand.

So just keep going, you'll get there.

murpho999 wrote: »

Everyone in Holland faced that problem.

Just keep going.

If your Dutch is at a level that it's delaying transactions then you need to improve.
So do a few things.

Find a Dutch person , for me it was a colleague that agreed to only speak Dutch with you. This will get you speaking more and improve your speaking manner, as in get rid of hesitancy and boost confidence.

I was lucky that one guy in my work heard i was in Dutch lessons and said from now on we'll only speak Dutch . It helped greatly. He was very patient and it was slow at first but within a short time it improved as my fear of the language eased.

Secondly, if a stranger, like a shop assistant speaks English back to you, which is impolite, then just pretend you don't speak English, ask why are you speaking English to me? I said I was from Romania once, and hoped the person didn't speak Romanian (as you'd never know in NL) and tell them you're learning the language. Worked a treat.

Also, just say "I spoke to in Dutch why did you speak English to me?" Sounds confrontational but Dutch don't mind directness and they will generally speak Dutch back then especially if you say you're trying to learn.

Clearly your Dutch needs to be at a decent level for this.

It's all about confidence and presentation and as you improve your accent and pronunciation will improve also.

I left 16 years ago and even now when I go back nobody speaks English back to me anywhere. They hear an accent but also hear a level of confidence and ability to know that you understand.

So just keep going, you'll get there.

Same here. I still speak Dutch any time I go back and no-one responds in English. I have friends who've lived there for 25 years and they can't have even a basic conversation, they did try and they've spent huge money on private lessons over the year but somehow they can't master it and have pretty much given up now.

I did 6 hours of classes a week provided free by the Gemeente and spent a lot of time reading and watching TV to compensate for being in an English-speaking environment at work. I love languages so it was more of a hobby than a chore, and within a year I was able to speak it fluently. It's so worthwhile to be able to speak it, even if you can quite easily get by without. When I moved there we didn't even have mobile phones let alone a variety of translation apps at my fingertips, so motivation to learn it was definitely higher back then.

Bobblehats wrote: »

With a big bag of Cannes

An underrated pun! Or I’m just too easily amused.

Cannes is a rather weird place. It’s the French version of Hollywood, with its very own star-studded Walk of Fame, ‘Rodeo Drive’ (high-end boutiques etc.) and all. Moneyed ta feck. But the beaches (sand) are better than in Nice or many other places around (rocks and shingles).

Austrians are actually very friendly. They have great grub too. Tad pricey though.

I've been living in Gdansk for over 3 years but will be moving back to Ireland in the next few months.
It's a beautiful area of Poland. People are nice and so are the food and drink. Nice warm summers and not too cold winters.
It is also relatively cheap although the cost of living is increasing. I work in IT so wages in this area are higher than the average wage here.
Reason I'm moving back with my wife and son is the educational sector is a mess and and the government are a little bit crazy.

Zascar wrote: »

Does it have to be mainland Europe only? I moved to Dubai 2 years ago and couldn't be happier. Tax-free income, fantastic weather, amazing service, loads to do, rent cheaper than Dublin. It's incredibly safe, fantastic infrastructure and (Covid aside) a great place to travel to anywhere in the world from. Big Irish community out here and for good reason. I can't see myself ever coming back at this rate.

Well yes, as that's what the thread is about.

As for Dubai, been there, ok for short term but long term for it it's too hot, tacky, money driven and I wouldn't like to live in a fairly strict Islamic culture and I also do not like UAE's regime and human rights record.

Also, about it being "safe". People say this all the time but I would argue that the whole of Europe is very safe and Ireland has a very low crime rate and is very safe despite what many people like to say.

I’m from a place originally where half a day’s drive/Train will bring you to Venice, Vienna, or Budapest, to name just a few. I’ve lived in Ireland 20 years now, and as fantastic as life here is, of late I really get the call of the continent more and more. The climate here is killing me, it’s way too humid (it wasn’t always the case, but in the last few years I’ve had some slight breathing problems and cottoned on to the fact that they clear up once I’ve been away for my hols!?) and I’m missing my beloved Central Europe something awful now. The lockdown is probably exacerbating it.

So anyway; a chalet in the Alps (Salzburg region will do fine) for snow activities, a townhouse in Lugano or similar for a bit of urban living, a house in the olive grove on an island in the Adriatic for the summers (love hot summers!), and a palazzo in Venice for the in-between seasons. That’s the fantasy wish list and I’m sure I wrote about it before!!

The reality will be staying in Ireland til the child is reared and then leveraging some assets and hopefully a bit of inheritance to make a base of some kind on the continent a reality. May end up doing the full circle and going back home to live.

Brian? wrote: »

I know how the vowels are all supposed to be pronounced, the problem is getting the sound to come out of my mouth.

The oo in Koop, is not pronounced the way I say boat in English by the way. I say bowh, because I'm from Tallaght.

Switching to English is everyone. My Dutch colleagues have straight up told me they don't care if I learn Dutch and would prefer to speak English to me. I think it's funny you assume they'll love to help me, when the complete opposite is true. I've met people who have been extremely rude about my attempts at Dutch, not direct, really rude.

I keep persisting, but i wonder why sometimes when the Dutch would prefer it if I didn't.

Well in fairness if you know how boat is pronounced, which was just an example. then you know the sound and you need to use that and not how you'd say it with your Tallaght accent.
It's similar to the sound of moat or vote.

I'm surprised at what you say about your Dutch colleagues as that was not my experience when I was there. Dutch people speak Dutch together and like their language and even know if I go back , having moved away in 2005, people just speak Dutch to me even though I clearly have what they'd call a "engels" accent.

I'd be happy for the rest of my days in Germany.. been there many times and haven't found anything negative so far.
But loads of positives compared to this lawless island