By Claudia Costa

I moved to Germany from Italy three years ago to start a technical translation internship in Cologne as a starting point for my professional life abroad.

Unfortunately I soon found out that the agency I was working for was not willing to teach me further proofreading and translating skills and I was often left alone, with little work to do and a lot of time to get bored.

As I am a very active person, who surely does not like to wait for work to come down from the sky, I started browsing for job opportunities in The Netherlands through sites like www.jobrapido.nl. I was lucky enough to be contacted by a recruitment agency for expats, called Abroad Experience, and I was invited to join a telephone interview for a job ad as a Customer Service Representative for an employment opportunity in Venlo, in the Limburg region.

Back then I did not know much about The Netherlands; I had visited Amsterdam a couple of times with family and friends, hopped to Eindhoven for a concert and gone on an exchange trip to The Hague during my studies when I was still living in Italy. My first impressions were that it was a very windy and grey country but I was impressed about of well everyone spoke English and how friendly everyone was.

Continue reading ›

Many expatriates want to know how to better and more quickly get adjusted to their new environment. I recently conducted a worldwide survey to examine the relationship between expatriates’ networks and their adjustment in a new country. Based on the nationality of network contacts, I distinguished an expatriate’s networks in a new environment into two categories: host nationals and home nationals. Host nationals refer to the people from host country, and home nationals are the people from same country with the expat. For example, when a Canadian manager works in Nederland, her Dutch friends are called her host nationals, and Canadian friends are her home nationals.

The responses from 187 expatriates in 48 countries show some interesting findings:  (1) Interaction with host nationals can help you to better understand local culture and feel more comfortable in a new environment; (2) Too much interaction with home nationals may delay your adjustment; (3) The ability of using local language can help you live and work better in the new environment. Continue reading ›

If you haven’t noticed already, the Carnaval is starting tomorrow (5th of March).

Traditionally the cities and villages are renamed during Carnival. Eindhoven is called “Lampegat” (“Lightbulb township”) during the next few days and Maastricht is called “Mestreech” (Limburg Dutch dialect). If you want to know the alternative name of your city of town, check this page.

During carnival a procession is organized, with several floats (praalwagens). In Eindhoven the procession is help on the 5th of march around 13.00. Please check the agenda for Eindhoven on the following website: http://www.federatie-eindhovens-carnaval.nl/ (use Google to translate it). For processions in Limburg please check this website.

I Hope you enjoy the tradition of the South. I invite you to share your pictures. Please post them on our Facebook page.

- So, where are you these days?
- Still in the Netherlands
- Where about in the Netherlands?
- Oh, Eindhoven.
[blank stare]
- You know- PSV, Philips, DAF…

This is the sample of dialogue I have whenever I meet up with a friend or acquaintance that I have not seen in a long time. The question I get asked most often is:
“So what is Eindhoven like?”
A very good question indeed.
What is Eindhoven like? I can tell you what Eindhoven isn’t like: Eindhoven is not at all like Amsterdam, or Rotterdam. It is not like Maastricht and it is definitely not like The Hague.

Continue reading ›