 Poster: A snowHead
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Individual countries don't have to follow Schengen wide regulations to issue residence permits. Some Schengen countries (Latvia for sure) have "golden visa" programs where it's sufficient to buy a property above a certain threshold to receive a residence permit which automatically opens up the entire Schengen area.
France could easily do the same for British owners if they (France) wanted to.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| Plenty of Brits work in France, and other EU countries. |
London is full of French - about 400,000 if you believe the Independent and 200,000 if you believe the French. Many of them bankers, lawyers, accountants and other professionals who have escaped the punitive tax regimes. There is no equivalent crowd of English professionals working in Paris - a total of 8,529, a good chunk of whom are likely working in bars.
I also said doing business, not doing a job. France is not a good place to do business; hugely bureaucratic.
@daveofthemarmots - Think you've missed my point completely. Consider the question I posed: "If you are English and want to choose another European language to learn, which do you choose?" There is no sensible answer. For the rest of the world the obvious, sensible and easy answer is "English". That's neither superficial nor arrogant, it's a fact. Faced with no overriding reason to learn a particular foreign language, the inevitable result is (almost) nobody learns a language well enough to work abroad.
Languages worth learning: Arabic (Farsi, I believe), Mandarin, Urdu, and Spanish (Latin American). And none of those has anything to do with the EU.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@James the Last, I got the point that you don't believe anyone does business with any of the "minor" European countries, no one would ever want to live anywhere but for great work/career opportunities and that becasue English is the default common language of business there is no advantage to bother learning any other European languages.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
| @James the Last, I got the point that you don't believe anyone does business with any of the "minor" European countries, no one would ever want to live anywhere but for great work/career opportunities and that becasue English is the default common language of business there is no advantage to bother learning any other European languages. |
You have completely missed the point of everything I have written. Anyway, I'm not going to re-write it a third time. 
Except to ask you what the obvious answer to this question is: "If you are English and want to choose another European language to learn, which do you choose?"
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@James the Last, French - because if you want to do business or visit everywhere else in Europe, you can probably get by in English, and because it is a very popular destination for holidays as well. If you seriously want to do business in France, learn French, and you will find that some of the bureaucracy either disappears or becomes easier. Plus there's a ~40% chance it will work in Belgium, where English is also less than universal among French speakers
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There isn't one obvious answer because it depends on your circumstances - you take all your holidays in France, you work in finance and consider Zurich a potential future work location, you believe Spanish will become the defacto day to day language of the western US within a generation, you want to export a lot to Brazil, your spouse is from Slovakia and you'd like to be able to commuicate better with the in-laws (and don't want the kids talking in code)
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I did some courses in German because all of our skiing holidays are in Austria, several of our summer holidays have been in Germany, and I work for a company with 4 sites in Germany so being able to cope with the basics and skim read documents in German well enough to understand whether I have an SOP for system installation or instructions on how to change the toilet roll is pretty useful. In extremis, it can also be useful to not admit to this, as for example when I did a due diligence visit to a company in Berlin it was helpful when the two techs agreed that it would be useful to keep me away from the contents of the fire safe, which I then looked out for on my tour and casually asked to see inside...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| James the Last wrote: |
| ... I also said doing business, not doing a job. France is not a good place to do business; hugely bureaucratic. .... |
| James the Last also wrote: |
... living in a country without being fluent must become rather wearing after a time. So you will never find English working abroad.
All other European countries have such poor economies (or are so small) there would be no point anyway in moving for work. .. |
When in a hole, it's probably best to stop digging.
I've lived and worked in multiple countries in Europe and elsewhere. Sometimes I have the language, but mostly I don't.
It's not feasible to learn all the languages in all the places you may want to do business.
The trick is to understand the cultural differences, which are actually much more important than any language differences.
If you mean something like: "more French people work in the UK than UK people work in France", say so, and back it with some evidence. I'd guess that's probably true today at least.
French culture may appear "more bureaucratic" but the local attitude to such things is not the same as in the UK. You have to understand the cultural differences, which clearly you don't.
As far as other European economies... you can easily google the GDP of European countries, and also their growth. More nonsense.
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
| There isn't one obvious answer because it depends on your circumstances |
Spot on. Exactly my point. Thank you.
Whereas if you are in any other country in the world, the obvious language to learn, that you desperately need to learn because it will enable you to communicate with a huge chunk of the rest of the world, is English; entirely irrespective of your circumstances. That is why the number of English who speak a foreign language fluently is tiny - there is no obvious and necessary language. Nothing to do with my view on the world, and everything to do with the essential need (or otherwise) for English speakers to learn a foreign language.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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It could also be that we are more poorly educated and less ambitious to work abroad..... or even elsewhere in our own country. How many folk in London have never travelled as far as Scotland or even Newcastle ?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I have heard from a (very good) source in Brussels that the 90 day stay rulling for Non EU (3rd Country status) is up for change .. some figures bounced around and currently being discussed are.
1 months
and even possibly.
21 days with only a 7 day xtn (max)
Another thing being discussed is "3rd Status Property Dispersal Taxes" ..like a Sales Tax for Non EU....
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I read that & thought F**k me, then I saw who posted it & relaxed.
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You know it makes sense.
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I've worked in Africa and Asia - started both positions with no local language.
In comparison to other nationalities there is so little incentive for Brits to learn another language. (As much as we like to complain) we are fortunate to live in a free democratic country, with good job opportunities, decent wages, free healthcare, decent free education etc. Compare that to some of the people i met in Africa and you can see why they are desperate to learn English in order to dramatically improve their opportunities and potentially quality of life.
There are also those that learn English for more trivial reasons - wanting to watch Hollywood films, American TV shows, listening to American music etc.
Studying a second language doesn't seem to be financially lucrative - average french graduate starting salary is £21100, german is £23,348. Not terrible (ironically considerably higher than studying English), but considerably lower than others.
If you want to work abroad as a Brit you have Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia that all speak English. Then you have lots of opportunities where you don't even need the local language (ski instructors are a good example). On the other hand I imagine there are literally zero opportunities for non-english speakers to work in UK.
The points about there being no obvious second language for native English speakers to learn and being able to get by with just English as so many foreigners speak it are also true.
I'm not saying we shouldn't learn a second language, but it's not hard to see why we are so lazy when it comes to learning one.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Jonny996,
I posted in good faith.
Its connection i have.
My other EU stuff (state of emegency/civil unrest/capital flight controls) i warned about maybe a year or so ago
Is only now making it into British media
Im just the messenger (in good faith) ..
Choose to ignore
..i do not give a f u k
My content here is 100%
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Poster: A snowHead
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When I lived and worked in France, customer contact with other airline staff we had contracts with was in English. The social language of the office was 50/50 French / English with us taking the p out of each other constantly.
Interestingly when we were discussing technical detail, the French engineers preferred to speak in English as the language fitted the subject better.
When I worked with Swiss, I assumed that they would all be multi lingual but it was rare to find a German Swiss who spoke French and vice versa, they all spoke English to each other and again preferred to speak technically in English.
We get so hung up about the lack of language skills but English is the language of business. I agree you should try to learn the language and learn the customs for your social life, but its not always easy. We would try to deal in French as much as we could, but a lot of the time you would make the opening pleasantries and the bank clerk or waiter would respond in English immediately.
I was never fluent in French but got quite good in certain pockets of life, banking, school, tax, shopping, DIY (curse the previous owner of our house that used 10mm, 12mm and 14mm copper pipe in no particular order)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| stanton wrote: |
| Another thing being discussed is "3rd Status Property Dispersal Taxes" ..like a Sales Tax for Non EU.... |
Is it? What happens when you stick "3rd Status Property Dispersal Taxes" - one hit (presumably three, now) for this thread. Even without the inverted commas nothing comes up. What's it really called, stanton?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Sorry for spelling etc.English is not my 1st language & im posting most times from.my fone.
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FAQ
if only we could figure out where people are finding this rubbish.. it's a mystery 
