Monday, April 26, 2010
To those who might not know... FAQ stands for ‘frequently asked questions’... And why am I talking about FAQ’s???
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| "We know you have questions... We don't know who knows the answers... But we try" |
Well... everyone seems to ask me the same questions related to my impressions of my new life in Sydney (or more related to Australia as the matter of facts) =P
So, here are the most common questions (and its answers) for everyone to know.
Why did I choose to move to Australia?
Well.... Why not? Ha ha ha, yeah, that’s not an answer so here is something more explicit:
Choose Australia over different other locations because I was attracted to its culture, ease-living and just because I fall in love of it.
But I think some of my initial posts actually had some serious reasons that I took into consideration. If you want to read more about them, click here to read my ‘Dream may come sooner than later’ post or here to read ‘Australia will be our target’.
How I have found it (Australia) as my home?
Excellent, magnifique, buenísimo, eccellente!!!! (English, French, Spanish and Italian, just in case you are wondering what I said).
Australia has excelled my expectations with better and higher standards than many American or European countries. On these months I have been able to do so many things! Relate with neighbours, walk the city, buy some home stuff... but the most valuable thing for me is intern peace. I feel good with myself and how things are at this moment.
Have Australia met my expectations?
It has exceeded every single one. I will not enumerate all of them ‘cause I don’t know if blogger accepts a 3 gigs text document (large document), plus is not the moment to write Australian bible or the 'Hitchhiker guide to the Australia'.
How long (in month) was the waiting for the Australian visa?
From the day I started the professional assessment up to the day that I got my grant letter... 28 months. Why? Short list to reasons... really bad assessment and financial crisis.
The thing that took the longest was the visa, fourteen (14) months to be approved, but it can take less (or more) time... Different reasons might apply.
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| Do you think clearly at work? |
Did I move down under with a secure job?
Uhms, why does everyone is worries about moving without having an income?
An entire government is certain that you are going to find a place to work in; they simply have faith in you... Why should you doubt on your talents?
I decided to move with a permanent visa, looking for challenges and totally comfortable of my experience, skills and knowledge as professional, so I can (somehow) say that I had a job waiting for me when my visa was granted.
Do I need to start from scratch in my professional area?
No. Australia provides plenty spaces for everyone to grow.
But that does not mean you won’t look other places to earn money. If you are in Australia for 6 months without a proper job, you must find something suitable in the meanwhile. Do whatever it takes to earn your living and be happy, eventually you will get your payoff.
Is it English language a most have?
I am going to be as polite as I can on this one...
OF COURSE!!!
You planned to move to an English speaking country. The least you can do is to communicate properly with your neighbours, mates and co-workers!
Something else in those ‘at least’ you most do is ‘RESPECT AUSTRALIAN CULTURE’... that doesn’t mean you need to lose your own, but it does mean that is not polite to keep talking your own language when your mates are all English speakers, or to keep doing your thing without any consideration of what locals does. I can start writing long and hard about things here, but I rather leave it for another moment.
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| Speak it or leave it. Ironic-ish isn't it? it is supposed for those who don't speak it at all. |
Do I need a migration agent to do my stuff?
Again, the answer is no. You don’t need an agent to apply for an Australian visa, isn’t that difficult in most of the cases and you can pretty much find a guide in the immigration website wizard.
I must admit that I did my process with an immigration assessment team called ‘Viva en Australia’... But at the end, I wasn’t really happy of how my process was handled.
If I want some help with my process... Who should I pick?
I don’t like to provide guidance related to immigration agents.
Why?
Because you will be settling down to a relationship (for good or bad); a relationship that might lend you pure love... or pure hate... or bankruptcy (depends on fees, watch out!).
Before starting a relationship, you need to have some backgrounds, references and something to compare against; that is my advice. If you want to take it, fine... if you don’t want to... fine as well.
Where should I settle? What city is the best?
Mate... The whole Australia is freaking bloody awesome!
Sydney is marvellous!
Melbourne has culture... (I don’t really know what people mean with that... but it has it =S)
Brisbane is brisbalicious (delicious).
Perth is perthfect.
Hobart is pure art (... fishing art).
Adelaide has some of the best wines in the world!
Darwin has meat... I guess =P
Canberra has politics.... Well, not everything in Australia is perfect... Poor people of Canberra... We really want to help’em.
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| Yeah... everyone loves politics... |
All you need to do is choose. Pick the one that you feel more related to and that’s it.
If you think I left out some questions. Type it in the comment sections and I will do a second post of FAQ’S
Cheers.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
In Venezuela (or Spanish speakers in general) people tend to pronounce letter differently of how it should. For instance, Spanish tend to pronounce ‘s’ sounds as ‘z’... that means Spanish people makes real emphasis on the sound of the ‘SS’ sound. Latin Americans tends to pronounce ‘c’, ‘s’, and even ‘z’ as the very same thing...
I didn’t think that would be the case when speaking English till my mates at work actually point it out with the following dialog:
Rod: (I was chatting about... I have not bloody idea, but wasn’t really important...)
J-man: Uhms... I am curious... Could you repeat that last word?
Rod: balbe?
J-man: uhms... again, say it slowly...
Rod: Val-ve...
(J-Man takes a marker and writes in the whiteboard ‘V – value’ ‘b – butter’).
J-man: Could you please read that to me?
Rod: ‘V’... ‘Value’... ‘B’.... ‘Butter’ (thinking what the hell...)
J-man: I am really confused... Sometimes I think I hear you saying ‘b’ instead of ‘v’... At the very first I thought Venezuelans tends to pronounce ‘v’ as ‘b’... But you really make it different so you know how to pronounce it right!
(All of the sudden the pieces fall into place and I remembered that most of the time I don’t really pay attention to my pronunciation which makes total sense to the current conversation).
Rod: Well J... To be honest you are right. Maybe is something unconscious that I do without noticing it... Maybe it has to do with different pronunciation among different languages and I have it all messed in my head :P... I will do better further on.
Thanks god, I had the fortune to find such a place where my team members take the time to actually point this kind of things (otherwise permanent unattended, which might become more severe in upcoming future).
The valuable message in this note is, if you think your pronunciation is flawless, have a nice chat with your friends (native speakers) and tell them to point your flaws :P
Cheers.
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