Judith on 30/6/2018 at 18:07
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Originally Posted by demagogue I guess that's appropriate. I read somewhere the word "Welsh" itself means "foreigner" in old Anglo-Saxon, as if the Germanic Tribes making themselves welcome to the place thought the population already living there were the foreign ones.
This is really interesting because in medieval/early modern German, wälsch can refer to romance-speaking peoples, e.g. Italian, French etc, and it was sometimes used to distinguish non-Germanic from Germanic-speaking peoples.
Funnily enough, Polish word Germany or Germans is "Niemcy", which was old Slavic word for "talking unintelligibly".
Daxim on 30/6/2018 at 19:25
I am a German living in Austria. I have been in the capital Vienna for the last ten years.
I got an offer at the job fair attached to a conference. I moved within two months; nothing held me back in my previous place of living. I am a beneficiary of the (
http://enwp.org/EU_free_movement_of_persons) EU free movement of persons, so I am a proponent of this policy.
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How do you feel now about the country you left?
Like a typical expat, I can be a smug weenie about escaping the shitshow politics, but it's not enjoyable. My connection is not much with the country, I noticed, but only with the few relatives I keep contact with.
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How do you feel about the country you moved to?
It's fine, I guess? I don't let the bad experiences bother me too much. Most time goes by uneventful, and there's something to be said about enjoying the quality of life. (
http://enwp.org/Global_Liveability_Ranking#2017_results) ¹ (
http://enwp.org/Mercer_Quality_of_Living_Survey#Top_cities_by_region) ² (
https://skift.com/2015/06/12/monocles-quality-of-life-survey-is-an-alternative-places-to-go-for-2015/) ³ I planted my metaphorical roots firmly into the ground; I have my own family here now, so I can say it's home.
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What's different? What's the same?
The culture is very similar, certainly as close as two countries can be, that's a no-brainer if you look at the last 1300 years of history.
Yet, differences do exist, and because they are small, human psychology makes them more pronounced than they would deserve. It's mostly (
http://www.ostarrichi.org/) words, food and outlook on life, where everyone in Austria feels more relaxed. Austrians very much like to hand-wave away the culture and concentrate on the (
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreich#Identit%C3%A4t) national identity instead because that clearly separates them from the Germans.
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Is it better or worse?
There's not a single dimension to make a comparison on, so I don't know! Give me 17 more years, maybe I'll have it figured out then.
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Do you want to go back?
Maybe. I don't seek out the opportunity. It might become necessary some day, but not in the foreseeable future.
Yes, that's possible.
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Do you have fellow countrymen in your new home
(
http://www.statistik.at/web_de/statistiken/menschen_und_gesellschaft/bevoelkerung/bevoelkerungsstruktur/bevoelkerung_nach_staatsangehoerigkeit_geburtsland/022498.html) 187000, which is the largest group of foreigners, but I only know a handful superficially. I don't talk about Germany with them, and there's one who I would be interested in picking through his thoughts, but lost contact with. Eventually I also have to explain to my child what it means to be German, and I don't think it's an easy thing to do.
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Have you made new friends?
Yes, I made the decision to seek out people with the same interests, so that went just great. I am well integrated in comparison to other foreigners.
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Do you speak the language?
Sure, but sometimes I had a bit of trouble my the first year because I first had to get used to the different vocabulary, and Burgenländers can have a nasty dialect that's difficult to comprehend. Since I make an effort to only speak (
http://enwp.org/German_Standard_German) GSG, no one has any difficulty understanding me. I don't speak the regional dialect, I would only butcher it and embarrass everyone.
PS: The sausages here are (
https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaskraina) juicy and (
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berner_W%C3%BCrstel) delicious.
Starker on 1/7/2018 at 00:01
Quote Posted by Abysmal
我六年前搬到台灣了,因為想消失
為什麼台灣?
Gray on 1/7/2018 at 09:53
Daxim! Long time, no speak. I had no idea you were also living in a foreign country now. You have a family now? Sheesh, I guess we were both wrong, being weird and sarcastic CAN still make you end up with people who love you for some strange reason. I went from zero to granddad when I got married, which was quite weird in itself. Still no parenting skills. On the upside, I just came home from movie night with the stepkids (both proper adults by now) and the granddaughter of nine, watching the surprisingly entertaining new Jumanji.
Quote Posted by Naartjie
Lagavulin, Laphroaig and Ardbeg.
Those. And it's only now, after drinking Laphroaig for over 25 years I've come to realise you don't pronounce the Y in Islay, here they just say it as "ay-lah". I did not know that.
Gray on 1/7/2018 at 10:17
You know how jealous I am of you right now. I could probably decode that but it would take me the better part of a day, and I really can't be arsed. I remember sitting many hours in the university library looking up kanji and trying to reproduce them similarly enough. That may sound like a chore but I really, really enjoyed it. Hiragana and Katakana were dead simple by comparison.
Starker on 1/7/2018 at 10:34
嗯,有道理。
It took me 3 years to be able to understand something like 75% of kanji, but my Mandarin is way way worse.
Oh, and Gray, I'll let you in on a little secret -- there's an extension for Chrome and Firefox called (
http://www.perapera.org/) Perapera that basically acts as an instant dictionary when you mouse over kanji or hanzi, depending on what you have installed and active.
Gray on 1/7/2018 at 10:38
That sounds remarkably like cheating. I like it.
scumble on 1/7/2018 at 12:21
Starker, the Japanese extension for Chrome doesn't seem to be released yet, and there's a note that the Firefox version isn't being updated at the moment due to lack of donations...
rachel on 1/7/2018 at 19:46
I'm French, been living in Spain for a little over twelve years now. Barcelona is ok, although the last several years have seen an exponential increase in mass tourism which is driving all the prices up and dislodging the locals out of the city itself. A lot of these tourists are French so I always bitch about them of course.
I could go back but the paperwork required is unappealing. I think it'd be easier to move to yet another country, in fact! I'm not too tempted anyway, I got other plans, and I'll stay here for 1-2 more years while I prepare that next step. I like my job so that helps.
Bonus: The food is amazing.