Moving To Ba From Canada

[CanaCroat]

Noesdeayer, Sounds interesting. Yeah my rough thinking was to find a good place where I can meet people ad learn Spanish while generating enough income to keep myself going and then eventually once I'm comfortable enough with my Spanish branch out into NGO fields or find Peace/Conflict related work. And so BA seems like a good place for me to adjust.

El Nino, how did you find things when you first got there? Was it easy to find an apartment and job? Was the process smooth, did you try secure a job and place before you left, or do you think its easier to secure both once you're there?

 

[ghost]

You may have a problem finding work with a hairy arm growing out of your neck.

 

[CanaCroat]

I'll definitely be having the removal surgery before I leave!

 

[K4RR4R]

El Nino, how did you find things when you first got there? Was it easy to find an apartment and job? Was the process smooth, did you try secure a job and place before you left, or do you think its easier to secure both once you're there?

Luckily I had everything setup for me in terms of an apartment as my girlfriend is Argentine. Job-wise definitely easier when you get here. I had a few interviews, but as I have a background in Kinesiology and Physical Therapy I ended up freelancing as a personal trainer.

 

[EricBluegrassFiddle]

I don't think you will do much with Croatian skills, but never say never... My guess is that translating HR>EN online would be more lucrative than teaching English, or you could complement the two!

There is much competition as far as English teaching jobs go, and they will hardly sponsor you for a VISA, unless you choose to teach at a bilingual school (maybe you could teach geography or history), but the school year starts in late Feb/early March, so keep this in mind.


You will definitely need to sort some practical issues out before actually getting here, especially the "how do I make my ends meet" part - this forum will be helpful to this regard. But in order to put a strategy in place, you should think about 1) why you are coming here 2) how long you plan on staying here 3) how much money saved you will be taking with you 4) what kind of lifestyle you are aiming at.

If you are just here for "an experience" for a few months, I wouldn't even bother about sorting your tourist status, as long as you don't plan to travel frequently outside Argentina.

About Spanish, get ready for some big surprise: you will need Spanish, a lot. And you will need to get used to the Argentinian Spanish, which is quite offsetting at first if you are studying on regular Spanish audio tapes! Watch videos of Argentinian speakers on YouTube to get an idea, maybe find a language buddy to converse with before making the move.


Good luck!

This is some stellar advice offered right here...

Honestly I wouldn't even focus on teaching English....in Buenos Aires it should be fairly easy for you to find employment using your English skills....especially if you like sales or customer support oriented type work. Since you have native English...... they'll most likely snatch you up in a minute. Just make sure it's legal "trabajo en blanco".....anyways...you'll learn this if you end up staying here for any length of time....so I'll leave out the details for now...

I've been here for years and never had a problem finding employment here due to being a native English speaker. The great thing is that you should make friends quickly ( and this is VERY important, don't overlook this! In Argentina it's "who you know that makes things go" in this society...it's all about meeting folks, making friends and networking...make friends and LOT'S of them....Argentine friends will be a huge lifeline for you in the beginning and save you alot of grief helping you, they'll take you "under their wing" so to speak, like family.....and let them.....

Learn to like and drink "mate"....this will open MANY doors for you here....

Learn to prepare a good argentine asado.....this will open even MORE doors for you here ( and impress your new argentine friends LOL

Learn to like argentine soccer clubs and games...like Boca or River or Newell's or San Lorenzo.....this will REAAAAAALLLLY open doors for you here!!! More than all of the rest combined!!

Of course in exchange you'll be asked to help them with their English...actually many may not even want to speak Spanish with you....sometimes you have to be insistent, so you can learn the language....if not they'll wanna talk English all the time!! Also, tell them it's ok to correct you...if not, they won't, and you learn stuff the wrong way sometimes....tell them it's ok to correct you if you say something in Spanish that's wrong.....if not, they won't LOL..

You'll need a dictionary on "lunfardo" argentine slang...although that will come in handy a bit later. For now, learn the basics of general spanish ( using voseo of course )...then after a year or two you can start learning "real argentine" and have everything completely disassembled and relearned LOL...

If you are a passive person, you need to get over that really quick. You need be assertive and confrontational at times here in Argentina.... street smarts...you'll need that as well. It's generally ok, but be vigilant.....just ask local folks, they'll teach you the ropes.

Enjoy Argentina and prepare to have any preconcieved notions that you might have about this country turned completely upside down. It's the most unique latin-american country in my opinion......hands down.....no other like it.

 

[Sockhopper]

"Speaking Spanish Like Crazy" was as of 2011 at least the only set of progressive conversational audio courses made and sold anywhere that teaches South American Spanish. On it are 4 people (plus the instructor) each from a different SA country speaking each sentence in turn. If all you know is that in Castellano the "ll" is pronounced "shhh', you'll be able to pick out and listen to the Argentine speaker easily and ignore the three others. I enjoyed the course. Got it from Amazon.

After completing the beginners' course (the first of 3 levels), a BA cabby told me that my pronunciation was a pleasure to hear from a foreigner because I spoke it exactly like a university professor. Was he having me on?! I laughed and told him I have almost no vocabulary. He told me to not mind that because my accent was perfect in what I did know how to say. He was the very first Spanish speaker I'd got up the nerve to utter a word to in Spanish and make up my own first sentences. I didn't tell him that.

I did this course while walking around in Canada before visiting BA again. I spent about 80 hours on it over 2 months but that included self-study of verbs, using a dictionary and making notes of my own for grammar and tenses. The audio alone would have taken about half that time.

 

[EricBluegrassFiddle]

"Speaking Spanish Like Crazy" was as of 2011 at least the only set of progressive conversational audio courses made and sold anywhere that teaches South American Spanish. On it are 4 people (plus the instructor) each from a different SA country speaking each sentence in turn. If all you know is that in Castellano the "ll" is pronounced "shhh', you'll be able to pick out and listen to the Argentine speaker easily and ignore the three others. I enjoyed the course. Got it from Amazon.

After completing the beginners' course (the first of 3 levels), a BA cabby told me that my pronunciation was a pleasure to hear from a foreigner because I spoke it exactly like a university professor. Was he having me on?! I laughed and told him I have almost no vocabulary. He told me to not mind that because my accent was perfect in what I did know how to say. He was the very first Spanish speaker I'd got up the nerve to utter a word to in Spanish and make up my own first sentences. I didn't tell him that.

I did this course while walking around in Canada before visiting BA again. I spent about 80 hours on it over 2 months but that included self-study of verbs, using a dictionary and making notes of my own for grammar and tenses. The audio alone would have taken about half that time.

They all say that.....I've heard the same thing a million times, as many of the other ex-pats have. The don't want to be offensive...it's rarely you'l have an argentine call you out on your spanish whether it's good or horrible. And if you ask them to correct you when you say something wrong forget it.....they won't do it.....unless if your my wife LOL

 

[Sockhopper]

EricBluegrassFiddle,
I think that a BA cabby telling you that it's a pleasure to hear you speak Castellano; that he's not joking when he says that your accent is excellent and rare in a foreigner; that you must take his saying this seriously rather than reject his compliment as I had just done; that hearing you has made his day; and who then refuses your tip saying "no no NO, the pleasure of driving you and hearing you speak has been all mine!" is at the opposite end of the spectrum from a porteno not wanting to offend a foreigner.

Remember that he doesn't live in a country where political correctness has increasingly chilled what's okay to say and think or not in-person and where so many things are now regarded as “possibly offensive”. I don’t have that experience in BA. People are pretty free there to be natural.

Might portenos think they don't have to correct you because you have a Spanish-speaking wife whose job they think that is!

Even before I did that course, there was another BA cabby who didn't let me leave his cab until I pronounced "Junin" correctly. (He'd heard me try to say it in Spanish. That's all it took.) One of the best language teachers I've had! It took me about 15 tries before I got it right and he let me out! He was why I bought SSLC when I returned home.

Surely the million times that you've been told by portenos that your accent is good must have inspired and energized you to keep on improving? That's very supportive. One compliment was enough for me. What good does it do for learning to assume you’ve been lied to a million times?

How long have you lived in Arg? I'm told it takes about 8 years to speak a new language fluently.

I have another question of you and anybody here. Does anyone think that Castellano is easier to learn and pronounce for someone who doesn't already speak another country’s Spanish? I found Castellano easy to pronounce in contrast to getting French vowels right in southern France where I've been living for 3 years. The thing is that learning Castellano was my first time learning Spanish so to me it sounded just ‘normal’. I had no other Spanish accent to first 'unlearn' or adjust radically.

In France, the rules I learned on how to pronounce vowels while I studied French in Paris decades ago for a few months are often completely wrong down here. Despite studying at university in town to Level 4 of 7 as well, I'm having a very hard time getting my mouth around local vowels. I’m always being corrected. People here are a lot like portenos in how they speak their minds. A neighbour says it’ll take me only 10 years to speak well. That did depress me for 5 minutes.

 

[Sockhopper]

I apologize for the unreadable print. I thought I'd fixed that. I'll try to post again properly. This hasn't happened to me for the past year. I'd appreciate a tip on how to. Thanks! Does this happen because I pasted my post from 'Word'??

 

[Sockhopper]

EricBluegrassFiddle,
I think that a BA cabby telling you that it's a pleasure to hear you speak Castellano; that he's not joking when he says that your accent is excellent and rare in a foreigner; that you must take his saying this seriously rather than reject his compliment as I had done; that hearing you has made his day; and who then refuses your tip saying "no no NO, the pleasure of driving you and hearing you speak has been all mine!" is at the opposite end of the spectrum from a porteno not wanting to offend a foreigner.

Remember that he doesn't live in a country where political correctness has increasingly chilled what's okay to say and think or not in-person and where so many things are now regarded as “offensive”. I don’t have that experience in BA. People are pretty free.

Might portenos think they don't have to correct you because you have a Spanish-speaking wife whose job they think that is! Or because you haven't asked them for help?

Even before I did that course, there was another BA cabby who didn't let me leave his cab until I pronounced "Junin" correctly. (He'd heard me try to say it in Spanish. That's all it took.) One of the best language teachers I've had! It took me about 15 tries before I got it right and he let me out! He was why I bought SSLC when I returned home.

Surely the million times that you've been told by portenos that your accent is good must have inspired and energized you to keep on improving? That's supportive. That one compliment was enough for me. What good does it do for one’s learning to assume you’ve been lied to a million times?

How long have you lived in Arg? I'm told it takes about 8 years to speak a new language fluently.

I have another question of you and anybody here. Does anyone think that Castellano is easier to learn and pronounce for someone who doesn't already speak another country’s Spanish? I found Castellano easy to pronounce in contrast to getting French vowels right in southern France where I've been living for 3 years. The thing is that learning Castellano was my first time learning Spanish so to me it sounds just ‘normal’. I had no other Spanish accent to 'unlearn' or adjust radically first.

In France, how I learned to pronounce vowels while studying French in Paris decades ago for a few months is often completely wrong down here. Despite studying at university in town to Level 4 of 7 as well, I'm still having a hard time getting my mouth around local vowels. I’m always being corrected. People here are a lot like portenos in how they speak their minds. A neighbour says it’ll take me 10 years to speak well.