Ukraine Expat Forum

Adjusting to Expat Life in Ukraine

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adminee

From: United States

5/11/2009 11:49 EST

Hello ExpatExchange.com Members!

One area of interest for many expatriates is the need for assistance in
settling in and the management of culture shock. In order to identify
the information most needed by expats as they adapt to international
living, we'd like to know the biggest hurdles you faced in the process
of moving overseas.

Please help us in this project by answering these few questions:

When you moved to Ukraine, what was the most difficult part of settling
in there?

How much difficulty did you have with culture shock in Ukraine?

What would be the best, single piece of advice you'd give to an expat
(or soon to be expat) in Ukraine?

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caissa

8/7/2009 08:32 EST

I was living on a very strict budget, and I wasn't in a major urban center. Two and a half years ago I lived in Poltava, Ukraine for a year. Regional hub of about 300,000. Because I had no money and was essentially "in the sticks," it was important to learn some of one of the local languages. I chose Russian because it is more universally useful. If you live in a place like this, you will find virtually no one who speaks English! I'm not exaggerating. Outside of my fellow Russian students, who were from the Middle East and North Africa, and a couple of people at a language school in town, I never met a Ukrainian who spoke English in a whole year. And I like to go out and drink vodka! The linguistic isolation in a place like this is very extreme. Nothing is in English. You've been warned.

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