Yes, that was where I was born and brought up. Lived my early life in Park North then moved around a lot. Where were you?
Living abroad and being a foreigner or immigrant
- Thread starter Second Summer
- Start date
I see. I used to visit my family who lived there for many years. Due to unforeseen family circumstances, I ended up living there for 2 years.
We lived in The Lawns and I used to have a Saturday job at BHS during my college days.
I still remember how beautiful Queen's park used to be.
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I have many fond memories of Queens Park, Town Gardens, Coate Water and Lawns Woods. I went following a beautiful Heron and eventually got a lovely close-up photo of it in Queens Park shortly before I moved to Sweden. I'm hoping to go back for a visit this summer. Fingers crossed!
I remember before I moved to Sweden, M (now my wife, but then my girlfriend) told me that language shouldn't be a problem because almost everybody speaks English. I thought it was an exaggeration but when I got off the plane at Arlanda airport the first time I visited, I was surprised that most of the advertising was in English. When I needed help, I started asking people "Ursäkta, förstår du engelska?" (Excuse me, do you understand english?) and they always replied " Of course. How may I help you?" When I moved here, I had a better grasp of swedish and often tried to speak to people in swedish but obviously I was still a bit clumsy because they always switched to English to be helpful. Nowadays, they reply in swedish so I must be doing something right. The authorities try to help people learn the language by putting on free SFI courses (Svenska För Invändrare - swedish for immigrants) and there are many speech cafes around where you can go and chat with native swedes on your own level. Finding a job can be difficult until you know swedish quite well but restaurants and pubs will often take you. You will very often hear swedes discussing language with each other.
I have many fond memories of Queens Park, Town Gardens, Coate Water and Lawns Woods. I went following a beautiful Heron and eventually got a lovely close-up photo of it in Queens Park shortly before I moved to Sweden. I'm hoping to go back for a visit this summer. Fingers crossed!
I also remember Coate Water. I used to walk through the Lawns via Old Town to the town centre. I enjoyed watching the numerous squirrels that would run through the park.
I also used to go out with friends on Saturday evenings at the Bell (?) which used to be a pub just in front of the entrance of the Lawns, in Old Town.
For those of you living in a country where you speak a language other than your native tongue, did you learn this language before you arrived in your new home or did you learn already know how to speak well enough to get buy?
How many languages do you speak?
How many languages do you speak?
The Bell used to be my regular haunt in the eighties when I was a teenager. The squirrels in Queens park are quite used to people and will climb your leg to get peanuts.
I started learning swedish when I was still in England but the CDs I had often used very formal swedish that isn't really spoken today. It was a good start though. English and swedish are the only languages I have a good grasp of although I remember bits and pieces of french and german from my school days and even a little italian.
That's uncanny as it was also my favourite pub back in the 70's.
Yes, just loved those squirrels.
I learned French at school but did not speak fluently. When I came over, I took classes and picked it up quite quickly.
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Sounds like a good initiative, I don't think I've seen anything like that myself anywhere.
Val
Forum Legend
Aaah, squirrels...
There are plenty of squirrels in SPb suburbs, such as Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, Oranienbaum, etc. They climb tourists' legs too! They also hang upside down on trees' branches, begging for food! When i was little, we used to go to all these suburbs with my parents, as there is not only beautiful nature to look at, but also magnificent architecture (russian tzars and tzars' favourites lived there,- in all those palaces and summer cottages). But our squirrels are small and reddish. I saw big fat grey squirrels on the video (my ex husband recorded them when he was in Hyde park during their orchestra's trip to London). Those English squirrels were really huge and impudent!Sadly the greys almost eliminated the reds when they were imported. There has been talk of introducing blacks to manage the greys but I think we should learn our lesson and stop interfering. We don't know the future consequences of our actions. Here in Sweden, squirrels are usually red but but develop a lot of black in autumn. I don't know if that is usual the world over.Aaah, squirrels...
I almost always only see gray squirrels. I have seen a black squirrel maybe twice in my lifetime...and that’s a long time, lol.
I’ve never seen a red one in person.
I’ve never seen a red one in person.
Val
Forum Legend
The picture below depicts exactly how our Pavlovskiye and Pushkinskiye bjelki (squirrels) look like. I once was feeding a mite too! Nowadays, sunflower seeds are being sold right at the entrances to the parks. The vacationers are buying the seeds and wandering around, looking for squirrels to feed. As a rule, it doesn't take much time to find one.
Typical Pavlovskaya bjelka:
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I already spoke English before I moved here. I speak Norwegian and English, and I understand Swedish and Danish to some extent, as well as a bit of German. Languages are fascinating. I was following a language channel on Youtube for a while - Langfocus - highly recommended.
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Val
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- Age
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- Vegan
- How did you end up living in another country? I married an Aussie. We met online in a text chat with a shared common interest (at that time). She is deceased.
- Is the language an issue? No, although I did at first have a bit of a hard time understanding some of her friends, who spoke English of course, but with a thicker Aussie accent.
- How do you cope with living far away from your parents and other family? Do you often go back on vacation? I have been back, but it has been a long time now. I am not close with my family, except for my mother, who I speak often with by phone.
- Do you ever intentionally meet up with fellow countrymen while in your new country? Do you still keep up with the news and TV series etc. from your home country? I know some people here from the US, and some are acquaintances. Those I know are glad to be out. Television, no, I distrust corporate television and news, from the US and from Australia. I keep up with some current events in the US by the internet and local events by the print media here and am careful about my sources when international news/events are concerned.
- What aspect of your home country do you miss the most? The amount of things I really don't miss is probably a better question. That said, I still love what my country used to be, but do not feel it is any longer in several ways.
- Do you miss living in your home country? Do you plan/hope to ever move back? This is a similar question, but at this point, no, I would not move back. I think things are going to get worse in many ways and there is a chance the whole country could crumble/descend into chaos in my lifetime.
- Do you plan on getting citizenship in the country where you live? No comment.
It must be very lonely living abroad if you don't have any immediate family near you.
