|
 |
Language-learning and migration plans | ||
Tags: Poll | Living abroad | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6000 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 25 of 32 19 January 2010 at 4:23am | IP Logged | |||||
|
20 years in a country ought to be enough for anyone. I really have no desire to waste another day of my life in the US. I think the survey missed an important option: "Seeking long-term residency in different L2 countries, with no plan to go home except (possibly) in very advanced age although not necessarily". (I mean who the hell knows what they'll be thinking and feeling in 50 years from now?)
I don't want to be stuck in any one country, even if I come to really like it. To stop and stagnate is to begin to die if you ask me. I'm disgusted by the very words "settle down", the purchasing of houses, the concepts some people hold that working at a single company 30 years to obtain 'retirement' benefits is somehow a good thing. These kinds of concepts are nothing less than the vilest curses of hell herself. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tpark Tetraglot Pro Member Canada Joined 7048 days ago 118 posts - 127 votes Speaks: English*, German, Dutch, French Personal Language Map | Message 26 of 32 19 January 2010 at 6:29am | IP Logged | |||||
|
I think there are enough interesting things in the US that you could spend many lifetimes there and not see it all. Each person has their own goals and desires, and for some people having a house and going bowling every Friday is their idea of Nirvana. If you own property, you aren't necessarily tied to a place forever - you can sell it, or even do a house swap with someone in another place. It is fun to visit other places but at the same time it is kind of nice to sit in the house in front of the fire drinking wine with your wife. I like language learning, but I'd have to have a more compelling reason than that to move.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6000 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 27 of 32 19 January 2010 at 6:41am | IP Logged | |||||
Indeed -- if you honestly feel that way -- by all means! Let me append a "for me" to all my statements above :) Language trumps all, wives or potential wives included, for me... I almost once went down the path of setting something before language, but the gods must have been smiling on me that day as it exploded into a terrible life-redeeming lie that taught me to never dream of such a foolish feat again. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hombre gordo Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5585 days ago 184 posts - 247 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Japanese Studies: Portuguese, Korean | Message 28 of 32 19 January 2010 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
I feel I have similar views regarding foreign residency. I will have to return to the old country (England) for about a year. I dont know if I will be able to hold out that long! Then after that I want out as quickly as possible! I dont think I will be able to tolerate it any longer! I have spend enough time there already and only really started to grow as a person or even to live life when I experienced life abroad. If I were to "settle down" and live permenently in England, it would only add dissatisfaction and frustration to my life and stop me from doing the things I want to do. For example: If I permenently resided in the UK, I would be overwhelmingly harassed by English everyday, be isolated from my beloved languages and would feel deep frustration stemming from the fact that I wouldnt have the chance to further my language studies. If I permenently resided in the UK, I would feel frustrated at the fact that I couldnt date beautiful Japanese girls. Here in Japan no problem! A fun date to a Karaoke joint or rotating sushi bar is just a phonecall away! Conversely in the UK I had never dated a girl not even once. If I permenently resided in the UK, I would be unable to grow socially, and would degenerate into my former self. Namely a total recluse teenager with virtually zero social skills. For some reason, Japan has been the only country where I have been able to maintain a normal social life. If I ended up having to live back home permenently, I think I would get really depressed. I have already suffered from depression for too long in my own country. I really dont want to commit my life to slaving away doing ridiculous amounts of overtime at some company in the UK just to pay the mortgage for some coarse alcoholic wife while at the same time wanting to kill myself everyday. By the way, is the etomology of "mortgage" "mortis/mortal/morir"? Edited by hombre gordo on 19 January 2010 at 2:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Muz9 Diglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 5526 days ago 84 posts - 112 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Somali | Message 29 of 32 19 January 2010 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I plan on leaving the Netherlands in the coming years. I want to live in an Anglophone country after I graduate, preferable Australia or the US. The reason for this is not linguistical nor economical but I just find Holland too small and dull/very predictable.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| victor-osorio Diglot Groupie Venezuela Joined 5434 days ago 73 posts - 129 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian | Message 30 of 32 20 January 2010 at 1:14am | IP Logged | |||||
Well, Datsuking, it seems for some people there's no eager to go outside and explore the world. I know many of them. Some people want to have just wisdom in their own land, if you know what I mean. They only want to know how things work in their places, and no how things work, beyond places (which is an utopia). Probably Elvisrules was talking about his perception of his own country, since he's writing from Belgium. So he's saying to you "here's not better". Everybody tends to think the place where they live is not the best one... is common, I wouldn't pay much attention to that. I just managed to travel abroad for the first time last year. I went to four different countries, one of them twice, in Europe (Europe is a nice place seems it mixes so many different cultures in such a tiny space). You cannot believe how much I learned and how much I gain from that experience. The trees are different, the style of the cloud is different, the languages around you are different, the people around you are ethnically different. And the most important: they built a way of seeing the word and living in it totally different to the only one you have ever seen. I'm from South America and watching the lifestyle of British, make me a total different person. There are two important feelings: 1) you are FAR, FAR away from the world and the people you know (you're really by your own!) 2) everything around you, I mean, everything from food to nature is new to you. It's like been born again which is amazing experience and lead you to think about life, love, beauty. Since then I learned to ESTIMATE my own culture, because seeing how different they are, I realise aswell how different we are from the rest of the world. If you want to go outside, as I wanted to, I think you will really like it. It just seems it's not the right moment now. But don't rush, the time will come if you know what you want and take every chance that cross your way. Cheers! Edited by victor-osorio on 20 January 2010 at 1:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5471 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 31 of 32 20 January 2010 at 1:54am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Well I've lived in 4 countries, and visited over 30. Some might look uniquely different at the surface, but at the core we are all humans with the same flaws and superficialities...
If you think another country will bring you into contact with more rational and cultured people, I think you're being idealistic. That's what I was basically trying to express. Edited by elvisrules on 20 January 2010 at 1:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Risch Groupie United States Joined 5591 days ago 49 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* | Message 32 of 32 20 January 2010 at 3:24am | IP Logged | |||||
Despite the reputation we Americans have for being insular and over-confident in our country's superiority, there is no shortage of people (especially younger) who have a perception that *anywhere* else on the globe is better than the US in every category. You'll meet many idealists who habitally threaten to expatriate themselves, but few who actually carry out such plots. Then there's also the fact that we really are an insular country with a relative lack of exposure to the outside world and few of us travel internationally beyond Canada or the Bahamas. Therefore, we often have a naïve curiosity about the rest of the world. This may be in contrast to Australia where people tend to be well traveled and (perhaps due to foreign media penetration) are more exposed with the world beyond their isolated shores. For that reason I suppose they probably have a more realistic understanding of their mother country's faults and strengths. As for me, I would really love to live in another country for a time, but at the moment I don't have concrete plans to do so. My choice would be somewhere in Western Europe as the standard of living and salaries there are relatively high and most countries there are different enough from my own to be interesting. Unfortunately, because of the state of the economy on both sides of the Atlantic, I don't see that happening anytime soon. The economic and monetary policies which the EU (and even more so the US and the UK) is pursuing are likely to exacerbate the problem in the long run, so I'm not expected to be able to make the move. I wouldn't want to permanently settle anywhere in the EU, though in Switzerland I might. Asia and Latin America, I think, would be easier places to live abroad in, but I have little interest in the former and LA doesn't offer much opportunity of a good income (not with my skills anyway.) I'm a recent, underemployed college graduate and if in another half year or so I am still unable to use my degree, I might try to spend a year teaching English somewhere. My two L2s are French and Spanish, so likely I would end up in Latin America. In particular, I have my eye on Peru. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
