Living and Working Abroad

thedguy said:
One thing that always gets me about moving to place like HK or China is the lanuage barrier... how'd you handle it?
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Married a local!!! :p

Honestly though language is not normally a problem. English is pretty universal in the spoken word but you might run into problems with those that have lower level education. I had some problems with mechanics in Malaysia for this reason, even though they were really good with cars.

Overall though i've been fortunate since all the countries i've lived has been an ex-British colony at some stage, HK being the most recent. This has meant there is a heavy presence of English from the language to the road signs etc. and as a bonus i've never had to own a car for driving on the wrong side :p

China and Thailand, though, also have road signs in English for example.

You might get a bigger problem with the written language rather than spoken since a lot of official forms for the governments and banks etc. are in the native language. You can usually find a friendly and helpful assistance in whatever company you work in that can help you. You might end up doing what i did then, and marry her ;)

Language problems should be one of the lower level excuses you use to stop yourself moving overseas.
 
Scooby5 said:
Language problems should be one of the lower level excuses you use to stop yourself moving overseas.
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This.

I've currently been able to teach myself some French and German on my own time. I also have 4 years of Spanish from secondary school under my belt. So it is entirely possible to learn a language enough to get by.

Also it's a great way to pick up women, saying you know another language (even if you don't). It's a great talking piece when there is a lull in the conversation.
 
I'm a born Malaysian that lived in Malaysia when I was young till I was about 8 - 9 years old and then Moved to Hong Kong because of my parents (my dad was originally from Hong Kong and my Mom's Malaysian), moving to HK wasn't so hard for me because A. I went to an International School so my poor written Chinese did not affect me and my spoken chinese is good enough to get around, and obviously B. I was really young. But throughout my time in Hong Kong, I never lost touch of Malaysia as I went back about 5-6 times a year (only a 3 hour flight).

About 2-3 years ago, I finished Highschool, and came to Australia for University, transition here took abit of time esp the more quiet life and how the city is pretty much dead after 5 on weekdays, but lucky for me, I have never moved to a place where language was a trouble but I wouldn't say moving to one of those countries would be terrible, it would be quite interesting.
 
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