Native English speaking students in Lithuania? The ones that MIGHT be here are going to leave fairly soon, because this place sucks for native-English speakers. Lithuania discourages native-English speakers from trying to live here. The migration department and the local nationalistic tendencies discourage people and discriminate against any foreigners who cannot speak fairly fluent Lithuanian. Most of the locals who can speak fairly good English leave, and as having lived here for many years, i can tell that that you don't have a clue as to why or what you should be doing. The locals will be friendly as long as you are perceived as a tourist or a possible source of income, but once you try to LIVE here, they will isolate you as fast as they isolate anyone who is not native Lithuanian. It's a small provincial country of les than 3 million people, and they really don't want to hear anything you have to say, unless it agrees with them.

Post a Reply

00abuse

Choosing an expat health insurance provider is an important decision. Get a quote from our trusted expat health insurance partner, CIGNA. With Cigna Global Health Options, you can create an international health insurance plan that's perfectly tailored for the needs of you and your family.

Learn More Get a Quote

You want to offer a job? What kind of job would you be able to offer? A poor-paying job as a foreign language teacher? English teachers and translators have some of the poorest paying jobs in Lithuania. I don't think you have much of anything to "offer". Why don't you become many of the hundreds of Lithuanian business graduates that "offer" a constant series of seminars and "trainings" that lead to nothing/

Post a Reply

00abuse

Hi "rikmo".

Thanks for your emotional comments. However, I think you have gone wild here, and most likely didn't read the heading of the topic before posting your a bit irrelevant comments.

Therefore I would like to suggest you to create your own topic where you could let your frustration run free...

Thank you and good luck !

I'm of Lithuanian heritage, so I hope to have NO problem. Besides, my brother lives in Kaunas.

Post a Reply

00abuse

I am a 3rd generation Lithuanian-American. I speak & write American English, including slang that only Americans understand. I understand Lithuanian too. My brother lives in Kaunas. D?koju!

Post a Reply

00abuse

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=18767376&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile

Post a Reply

00abuse

It's obvious that rikmo has some sort of problem with his personality if that's really what he believes.
I'm an american who has lived in Lithuania for well over ten years. I can speak plenty of Lithuanian (passed 2nd level), but whenever I go out, I'm usually speaking in english, and I have plenty of friends here, and I make more every week.
My neighbors like me, and people who know me accept me as a Lithuanian person.

Yep, wherever you go, there you are...

Post a Reply

00abuse

Oh, rikmo, LOOK!

"Vilnius has ’most positive attitude’ towards foreigners, research shows"

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/34218/

Post a Reply

00abuse

I don't think Rikmo is so inaccurate or mistaken. Although the views are perhaps a little out of date now.
Many Lithuanians of Russian ethnicity certainly feel disenfranchised. The Lithuanian government are 'Lithuanian-ising' their Birth Certificates, changing their given name. Although they also do this to Poles and others, not just Russians.

My experience has been that you won't have any problems in Vilnius speaking English or Russian. But Vilnius is considerably different from the rest of Lithuania obviously.

Kaunas is not quite the same story - but it IS improving year on year.

Part of the mistake English speakers make is that they feel they are being discriminated against when they are treated discourteously by Lithuanian people - who generally did not share a similar concept of 'courtesy' as you would experience in Europe or the US, but this is not really a problem among the younger generation, only with the older generation.
I have even seen young people QUEUE! this year in Lithuania, which was unthinkable just 7 years ago!

Post a Reply

00abuse

I see that my topic has irreversibly changed its initial direction. But that's not a problem, I can always create a new one.


However, dnyhan, you have come with some false statements here.

When it comes to the posts published by rikmo, if one reads all of his posts, one clearly sees that they are extremely subjective and written from a very personal perception. You must have heard that some people, when shown a glass halfway filled up with water, will call it "half-full", others will call it "half-empty", and a third category will call it "empty". That's the case of rikmo.

Now, if we talk about your statement that "The Lithuanian government are 'Lithuanian-ising' their Birth Certificates, changing their given name" - that is actually something all the countries in the world do (including your very own) - they use their own national alphabets, and of purely practical reasons cannot afford to include hundreds of foreign/ alien characters belonging to the alphabets of other countries.

If we were to believe you that such common practice is a "disfranchisement", that would bean that Chinese emigrants are also disfranchised because the cruel Lithuanian laws do not allow to write their and their kids names in their birth certificates in Chinese hieroglyphs. That would also mean that all the countries in the word disfranchise their national minorities.

Regarding English speakers feeling discriminated because of discourtesy in queues and such - as you yourself say - that is not discrimination, that's a different concept, a different culture (heritage of the chaotic times after independence and fall of USSR), which unfortunately still has to catch up with some other EU countries. The previous post of Mikas included a link to an article which revealed quite opposite facts - most positive attitude towards foreigners, who often are treated more favorably than own nationals.


So some of your statements are just as incorrect, as those of rikmo.

Post a Reply

00abuse

Hi Nerka. The purpose of your post didn't get lost. My family will be moving to LT from the US within the year. My son and his girlfriend will be students in Kaunas. I am more middle aged and my husband is a Native Lithuanian and the reason we will be moving there. We have family and property there, but contacts with other native English speakers who are trying to adapt to the Eastern European culture and mindset can always benefit from some english-speaking friends. What did you have in mind as an income opportunity?

By the way, I totally agree with your opinion of some of the previous posts. The problem with most Americans and Western Europeans is that they expect Lithuania to be just like them; they are not. Eastern Europe has a totally different mindset. If it was like the US, I would just stay here. Lithuania is beautiful and unique in it's own right.

Post a Reply

00abuse

Hi sbdagape, and thanks for your comment.

I am glad you have taken this decision to move to Lithuania (although even if it's not for good).

There is some truth in some of the comments though - more rural areas of Lithuania may seem a bit uncomfortable for foreigners. Not because of local habitants' bad attitude towards foreigners, but because of feeling of isolation, not having English speaking friends, and while when one's social circle is still small. Lithuanians themselves, who are used to live in Vilnius or Kaunas, start feeling isolation after moving to some distant rural area. So my advice for any foreigners would be to try to move to either Vilnius, Kaunas or Klaipeda.

But I am sure you will do just fine in Kaunas, especially when your own family have deep roots here. I have lived in that city for 5 years or so, and I think it's quite ok.

Post a Reply

00abuse