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Looking for work in foreign countries...

01:26 / 21.09.04

I'm currently looking for a job starting in January in either Germany or Austria, for the sake of living there and getting my language ability up....

...and it looks like since my German isn't anywhere near fluency, the chances of getting a job offer are slim, so I was planning on just flying over to Austria and trying to find one of those lovely under-the-counter type of arrangements, or ideally a 'clean-the-hostel-every-day-and-stay-for-free' type...

Anyone have any experience in trying this?

Lilly Nowhere Late

06:18 / 21.09.04

From all I've read and heard, you'll be pretty sure of success in your goal if you start in english-speaking-friendly Berlin.

09:21 / 21.09.04

Hmmm.... that was my ideal destination, but I figured it would be too expensive to try and live in without a job... but hmmmm...

Thanks!

XXII:X:II = XXX

01:03 / 22.09.04

I am also thinking of trying to go abroad, possibly also in January, to somewhere where I will likely not be molested for only being fluent in English, where I can earn money, live on the cheap, bang locals, etc. The conditions of this move would be if the BushBeast gets reanointed Supreme Overlord, making any pretense of America effectively null and void. If this were not to happen January it would also be a possibility next summer, if they've not closed the borders by then. Ideas, suggestions, hints, offers, et al are appreciated.

/+,

10:08 / 22.09.04

Germany!

I just found a lovely loophole in the immigration law for citizens of Canada & the USA, (plus a few others) which lets us legally look for work and apply for a work permit even when entering the country under a tourist visa! Woo!

Vlad, I would suggest moving to Mexico City. If you volunteer with the Quakers, you get to stay in their hostel for free... it's only $8 a night or so otherwise... and in Mexico you get the best food in the world!

XXII:X:II = XXX

19:26 / 23.09.04

But I don't LIKE oatmeal...

...and I don't much fancy the trots, either.

/+,

21:00 / 23.09.04

Teach English in Japan!

Get paid a lot of money, have fun, run around Tokyo, etc. etc. Most of the big chain schools require no experience or qualifications other than being fluent in English (although they will treat you like poo). But as long as you realise that going in, you can put up with it until you get a better job...

NOVA

AEONet

XXII:X:II = XXX

08:53 / 25.09.04

My roommate taught with NOVA before he redomesticated and moved in with me. He said NOVA as an institution is a fucking nightmare. And the Japanese, as cute and cuddly as they may be, are in truth more than a little xenophobic of gaijin.

On the other hand, radical Islam has yet to show much of an interest in assimilating Japan. So there's a plus.

/+,

unheimlich manoeuvre

09:09 / 25.09.04

I am also thinking of trying to go abroad, possibly also in January, to somewhere where I will likely not be molested for only being fluent in English, where I can earn money, live on the cheap, bang locals, etc.

Vlad, how about India?

XXII:X:II = XXX

08:41 / 28.09.04

Inchoate gloats: Vlad, how about India?

But can I bang the locals without my dick dropping off?

Actually, India was among top contenders, but of course its placement in the world makes it worrisome. As a visibly American Jew in a country right next door to a country filled with radical Muslims, that gives one pause.

/+,

Ex

09:27 / 28.09.04

But can I bang the locals without my dick dropping off?

And the followup question: can you continue to use the phrase "Bang the locals" without something more unpleasant happening to your dick?
If you fear condoms to be ineffectual, and the rest of the world to be scrofulant and syphillitic, stay home and buy a copy of Red Hot Locals.

09:46 / 28.09.04

How about Korea? Same wages as Japan, but much lower living expenses, and close enough to explore China on holidays...

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:53 / 28.09.04

I'd say go to Japan: you'll fit right in with all those xenophobes...

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:08 / 28.09.04

I'd like to answer Ex's question here: No.

*swings native cleaver*

For fuckssake, could we squeeze any more xenophobic stereotyping into such a small thread?

Vlad, a suggestion: stay at home. It's safer there. And you'll be doing the countries in question a favour.

I have several close friends who live in Japan, from the UK, USA, Oz and Germany. And the ones who've stayed tend to say that the Japanese are no more xenophobic than any of their home nations, its the experience of being 'the foreigner' that's unpleasant. But they, being adjusted human beings, realise that this was because they were/are the foreigners.

Several of them have Japanese partners/wives/husbands and the cultural difference is tricky occasionally, but much more often a part of what makes their relationships interesting/glues 'em together. And without exception they say that being in a minorty, while not always pleasant, has been a useful and mind-expanding experience

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:22 / 28.09.04

Oh, and I have no desire at all to make India seem attractive to you, in fact if I knew who you were I'd be ringing immigration with a description, but you might want to look at an atlas and see vast and varied India actually is before you start throwing comments around like 'next to a country full of radical muslims'...

You do know there are muslims in India, right? And that it's quite possible to live 'in India' and be a a thousand miles away from the Pakistani or Bangladeshi borders. Or that many of the cities are cosmopolitan; an American Jew might well be a local and therefore not excite that much comment. Unless he was frothing at the cock.

But, actually, I personally would recommend you go to Jammu & Kashmir. A travellers paradise, full of girls, drugs and opportunities for morons. With a sizeable Jewish community*.

* check this if you're actually interested in anything aside from banging locals and idiotic stereotypes: Jewish Commumities In India.

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:24 / 28.09.04

Oh, and PS:

Pakistan and Bangladesh are Muslim states. This *does not*, by definition, make them Radical Islamicist. (which means what, exactly?)

(oh, and I suppose I really should point out that my advice re J&K was a joke. As it's a very dangerous region right now.

Was, above, presuming that if you were planning on doing that tiniest bit of research on a country that's high on your list, you'd know that.

But then realised that was probably unrealistic.)

ONLY NICE THINGS

19:07 / 28.09.04

Have you considered Canada, Vladimir?

It's nearby, it has English as a national language, it's got clean air, beautiful scenery and, best of all, a high degree of firearms ownership.

Which means somebody might shoot you in the cock for being a racist moron.

It's a long shot, but then fortunately a lot of those firearms are accurate at distance.

XXII:X:II = XXX

23:12 / 28.09.04

Heavens, did I stumble upon the humorless thread? We ought to have some sort of in-house icon to signify this. Maybe a grey smiley with a look telegraphing a dour world-weariness often confused with wisdom. Because, you know, I take everyone around here at their word absolutely, especially if they were to use such a ridiculous phrase as "bang locals."

Dipshits.

/+,

ONLY NICE THINGS

04:37 / 29.09.04

Hmmm. "Banging Indians makes your dick drop off".

Racist.

"Right next to radical Muslim countries."

Moron.

Doesn't matter whether you were "joking", you still sound like a racist moron. Just one with a wildly inappropriate sense of what is funny. So, you sound like a racist moron whose sense of humour does not work. In fact, you sound like a humorless racist moron.

I know that it's hard to accept, Vlad, but you're coming across as... well, as a racist moron. You can sneer and insult people as much as you like, but the fact is you're demonstrating the xenophobia, ignorance and insularity you claim to be trying to escape from, and the sooner you wake up to that, the sooner you might become a remotely worthwhile person to talk to. Right now, you're making it very hard to be nice to you, on account of the "racist moron" thing.

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:42 / 29.09.04

Well thank goodness someone else with better wit in writing than me finally noticed the idiocy of Vlad the Inhaler. Do you think Vlad would find it all careless humour if it were proposed that someone might like to "bang his J.A.P. mother"?

Ex

11:17 / 29.09.04

Well, Vladimir, I have no sense of humour at all. I literally believe your penis will be confiscated, scrofula is definitely a sexually transmitted disease, and I have a much-thumbed subscription to Red Hot Locals (and its dodgy sister publication, Barely Local).

I know you were joking. But ‘comedy racist’ is as hard to pull off as ‘comedy sexist’ (see the charred remains of the What Up thread). And the bits in between the comedy racism (as Goodness Gracious Meme notes) didn’t imply that you had a sensitive, nuanced understanding of international relations on which to build your irony. They sounded as though you wanted the world sanitised, secular, welcoming and with a weak currency.

I enjoy the comforts of an unequal global economy from home, and probably have similarly unreasonable expectations of the planet, and I'm not saying that I'm funnier than you. I just don't choose to present the exploitation and the yucks together.

16:06 / 29.09.04

Hmmm. "Banging Indians makes your dick drop off".

I was actually reading that one as a wry reference to the psychological syndrome called koro, and not a venereal disease thing.

If that makes it any better.

20:39 / 29.09.04

...um...anyone else have any advice for me?

ONLY NICE THINGS

21:41 / 29.09.04

Grant: Given that koro among Indians is to the best of my knowledge only attested to as an adverse reaction to Cannabis usage, rather than something that they communicate to Americans through banging, I'm thinking that if it is a reference to koro, it is a shit rather than sly one.

On other news - Barely Local is a great idea.

Baz - the UK? It sounds like you're going for Germany, though, yes?

09:19 / 30.09.04

Ja, ja.

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:27 / 30.09.04

So.

10:00 / 30.09.04

Guten Tag -

Does anyone know how long it takes to get a Visa to work in the states? It's gotta be complicated right?

17:48 / 30.09.04

It's a lot more complicated than it used to be, that's for sure. Some economics professor was on the radio yesterday -- just did a book on how the new stringency with immigration rules is damaging America's economy by basically driving the best and the brightest in the world to places like Canada or Sweden. So all those Chinese nuclear physicists and Pakistani hydraulics engineers are, like, trying to get into the States, getting turned away or hassled away, and heading to greener pastures. Where they're boosting productivity & making wonderful inventions.

Like Volvo's flying robots, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Clone Army.

09:55 / 06.10.04

Have you considered Canada, Vladimir?

Or what about Selfawaria, Vlad? It really is lovely at this time of the year.

22:51 / 06.10.04

Does anyone have experience getting under-the-counter work anywhere?

Does it just involve going from pub to pub asking "Do you have any work?" while winking?

00:18 / 07.10.04

hey baz,

i went to berlin for a couple weeks this summer. . .it seems there a lot of under the table cleaning jobs. . . hotels/houses, if you can stomach it. you can find a room in a flat for bout 160 euros if you know where to look. . .and food was cheaper than I had anticipated.

i'll email you a contact in berlin if your interested.

i'll be in berlin for a short while around that time myself.
viele gruesse,
tbedlam

02:47 / 07.10.04

Thanks! I've PMed you...

13:10 / 07.10.04

Baz: my sister got under-the-counter work teaching English in Taiwan rather easily. This is probably farther afield than you want to go, but I wonder if the same system wouldn't exist in some way in Germany or farther east. The trick is in locating the English schools. I *think* she just saw some flyers in the traveler's district, went to the schools and asked -- no pubs and winking.

Haus: Given that koro among Indians is to the best of my knowledge only attested to as an adverse reaction to Cannabis usage, rather than something that they communicate to Americans through banging,

Through bhanging, maybe? OK, OK, I'm sorry. I'll stop now.