potential move to Hungary

Single? With two children, what is the reason to leave the UK, I would say (being ignorant to circumstances and life in general) UK as compared to Budapest is better. Most remarkable I have to say.

nhawa556 wrote:

Hello,

I am from the UK and am seriously considering leaving with my two children and moving to Budapest. I was just wanting to get some advice from expats regarding how easy it is to settle in Budapest and what the quality of life is like? I want to get my children into international school in Buda and perhaps teach english there?

Natasha

Welcome, Natasha,


With the problems with COVID, I am guessing you would move in the new year. You will be facing another problem Brexit. You will no longer be treated as an EU citizen so therefore you will be a 3CN. You will have a heap of paperwork to go through, visas to deal with.

Indeed what is mentioned by SimCityAT is extremely relevant, unclear what languages you speak (probably not Hungarian as you would have found out answers much better than Forum members would). Same question WHY Hungary, clearly Hungary would need good teachers for English language (VERY MUCH). But speaking Hungarian would help and if you do why not teach Hungarian in London (would pay quite well I would think). Perhaps you have melancholy, family to support, a property inherited, ....

nhawa556 wrote:

Hello,

I am from the UK and am seriously considering leaving with my two children and moving to Budapest. I was just wanting to get some advice from expats regarding how easy it is to settle in Budapest and what the quality of life is like? I want to get my children into international school in Buda and perhaps teach english there?

Natasha

I echo all the other posters.

You are way too late to come in here with a British passport and get registered.  You could try it online.  But the deadline is 31st December 2020 before Brexit. 

No-one is going to walk in here, randomly get a job at an International School and just find it all easy. 

Day to day you need to be able to speak Hungarian to some extent.  And local salaries aren't that good either.

Just to repeat myself, what would be the argument to move to Hungary from the UK? Of course there can be very valid arguments, but nothing so far. (Hungary is a good country to live but a career as an English teacher (moving from London) I do not believe a word. London has loads of opportunities as a teacher (especially if you are already resident).

Strange initial post. Just let the forum know why you want to go to Hungary.

cdw057 wrote:

Just to repeat myself, what would be the argument to move to Hungary from the UK? Of course there can be very valid arguments, but nothing so far. (Hungary is a good country to live but a career as an English teacher (moving from London) I do not believe a word. London has loads of opportunities as a teacher (especially if you are already resident).

Strange initial post. Just let the forum know why you want to go to Hungary.

One of my older kids and their partner are on a round the world trip and dips in and out to teach English part-time from New Zealand via an online service. Has a proper job but does an hour or two here and there when the  desire arises.   So there's possibilities at all times of the day around the world online.  No need to actually travel anywhere!

It's not really a strange post.  We had a period a while back where all sorts of people would randomly ask about moving to Hungary. I don't know why here without some connection.   Usually people from UAE, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh etc.  I believe they might even post the same question in other country forums at the same time. 

It's always the same questions back to the poster - why?  If I was up for a move without knowing anything much, I'd go to any Western EU country (before 2021) with strong liberal and tolerant behaviour, notably Netherlands, Belgium,  Germany, Sweden etc.  I wouldn't come here.

A few days ago a UK citizen asked the same question on the German forum. Due to travel restrictions, how could they move to Germany before the end of the year.

Netherlands indeed is a good example (for me just to expensive (I refuse to take benefits), but social care (for my mom (and a sister)) is just excellent. Being an English teacher (a big lack of good teachers) in the Netherlands. Asking for a job (coming from the UK) as an English teacher in Budapest (there have to be strong personal reasons), loads of good opportunities throughout the EU (especially in the Netherlands childcare, social security, salary are excellent).

cdw057 wrote:

Netherlands indeed is a good example (for me just to expensive (I refuse to take benefits), but social care (for my mom (and a sister)) is just excellent. Being an English teacher (a big lack of good teachers) in the Netherlands. Asking for a job (coming from the UK) as an English teacher in Budapest (there have to be strong personal reasons), loads of good opportunities throughout the EU (especially in the Netherlands childcare, social security, salary are excellent).

Yes, exactly, with kids, cannot do better than Netherlands or somewhere like Sweden or Norway and perhaps Denmark (I thought it was boring there).  There's the bonus of nearly everyone being able to speak English.  In the years I lived there I only met about 3 people who couldn't speak English but I think they could really but just felt nervous about it. Quality of Life in NL is very high.  The only thing is the weather - prefer it warmer.  Still there's vla and vlaai to eat - Dutch secret weapons.

I suppose this is more a message to nhawha556, but also in general, if you speak and write english quite well and you consider sending children as a single parent to an international school in Budapest (being just an English teacher (without clear presented Hungarian links and/or Hungarian language capabilities)) to me you look like a scam, unless you make your case.
Sorry to be so blunt, but so out of the blue very questionable I have to say.

Question remains WHY?

Best advice I can give is to visit before moving anywhere.
Unless you have a solid reason to move to any country then there are so many choices make before settling on one country.
I know from the outside HU seems cheap but then again many more interesting and welcoming places are also cheap.
I will stick to my guns and say only move here if you know of an opportunity or have personal reasons to come such as family ties.
Just throwing a dart on a map because a place is cheap doesn't always work out, cheap equals life is also
cheap..
Our son for gosh 20 plus years was going on and on about living in Japan.
It was getting insane, all he would think about was Japan like it was his ticket to happiness.
Well, 2 years ago he finally quit his job in the US, moved to Japan with his Japanese wife...That's a whole other topic on how they met.
He is a 6'3" tall super pale red headed man who stands out like a so
re thumb over there.
He is excepeted for the most part but when he isn't he defo knows it.
His wife lived in the US for around 8 years and never wished to leave the house, we had to force her outdoors at times.
Now our son is mostly a shut -in in Japanj because the hassles are sometimes not worth it. He lives in a city too, not out in the sticks.
We are on stand by waiting for him to decide on his own when he has had enough.
I like his wife but I can not see her here in Hungary at all, no way she couldn't handle it here
It takes a person who is strong mentally to move to a strange land or a person either running away from home or a person with not much more to lose. I read here and there about ex-pats with fantastic local neighbors and feeling like part of the community where they now live, well wake up call is coming.

cdw057 wrote:

I suppose this is more a message to nhawha556, but also in general, if you speak and write english quite well and you consider sending children as a single parent to an international school in Budapest (being just an English teacher (without clear presented Hungarian links and/or Hungarian language capabilities)) to me you look like a scam, unless you make your case.
Sorry to be so blunt, but so out of the blue very questionable I have to say.

Question remains WHY?

Just to be clear, what would the scam be?  Asking for money to make it happen?  How would it work?

English speaking international schools are really expensive here. Unless there's a possibility of some state subsidy or one is very rich, it's essentially unaffordable.  This is why our kids go to Hungarian state school. English schools are more a business for some expat on a relocation package.

The French school might be free for French citizens and perhaps the Austrian one is cheaper too - maybe grants from Austria or Germany.  Don't know for sure - using knowledge from another country, not here.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...
He is a 6'3" tall super pale red headed man who stands out like a so
re thumb over there.
He is excepeted for the most part but when he isn't he defo knows it.
His wife lived in the US for around 8 years and never wished to leave the house, we had to force her outdoors at times.
Now our son is mostly a shut -in in Japanj because the hassles are sometimes not worth it. He lives in a city too, not out in the sticks.
...

There's a word for Japanese shut-in people - Hikikomori.

They should leave Japan and move somewhere like London or Duesseldorf. Many Japanese people in those places.  No-one would look at either of them.

He could learn Japanese to stay there but if he did, he'd have to learn really very well indeed.  Very nuanced kind of language.

My nephew was in Korea a few years and one of my kids was in Japan for a couple of years.  There  it meant learning basic Japanese by being thrown in at the deep end and as far as I know it was enjoyable but there would never be any job higher than a teaching assistant.  No promotion was possible so left for the UK and thence to NZ.

My nephew never put the effort in to learn Korean but his friend did and ended up with higher integration. But again, he'd never be more than a teacher but as far as I know was happy with that and is still there doing it.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

...
He is a 6'3" tall super pale red headed man who stands out like a so
re thumb over there.
He is excepeted for the most part but when he isn't he defo knows it.
His wife lived in the US for around 8 years and never wished to leave the house, we had to force her outdoors at times.
Now our son is mostly a shut -in in Japanj because the hassles are sometimes not worth it. He lives in a city too, not out in the sticks.
...

There's a word for Japanese shut-in people - Hikikomori.

They should leave Japan and move somewhere like London or Duesseldorf. Many Japanese people in those places.  No-one would look at either of them.

He could learn Japanese to stay there but if he did, he'd have to learn really very well indeed.  Very nuanced kind of language.

My nephew was in Korea a few years and one of my kids was in Japan for a couple of years.  There  it meant learning basic Japanese by being thrown in at the deep end and as far as I know it was enjoyable but there would never be any job higher than a teaching assistant.  No promotion was possible so left for the UK and thence to NZ.

My nephew never put the effort in to learn Korean but his friend did and ended up with higher integration. But again, he'd never be more than a teacher but as far as I know was happy with that and is still there doing it.

Funny, my husband's nick name for our boy is Mr. Hikikomori.
He des speak pretty good Janpanese and can read some of their crazy letters but like anything else practice makes perfect.Guess something good came from 30 years of playing Japanese video games, he would order from Japan with the language being in Japanese.
He had his father fuming once back in 2000 when we were visiting Hungary. Our son was reading all of his Japanese language books while in Hungary. My husband told him to learn more Hungarian and not Japanese.
He is pretty good at learning languages but not so good with fixing broken things like cars.
He lived in Hungary for abut 18 months and was able to understand most HU and get around without too much help. this is before cell phones with GPS were really common.
He got around Tokyo by himself . I mentioned before how much he stands out in a crowd, for a shy person it's odd he would move to a place where he is so stand out looking.
He s a bit like us, his parents don't actually but much thought into impressing people, take the god with the bad .He had nice cars in the past but when he made up his mind to leave the US in the future he gave up on material objects. Bought a beater of a car from his Japanese girlfiend's Japanese friend. The lady mved back to Tokyo after college in the US and sold our son her old car for $300. She met him many times at parties and other places so he was no stranger to her.
So he arrives in Tokyo and is out and about in the crowded st. He sees this women and see is looking right at him from across the st. He waved to her but in typical fashion  she got all shy in public and just loked away....
I had a god friend in the 80's who was remp. in the US with her husband and 2 little girls. He was promoted and had to work in the US for a few years. My friend learned to drive and was enjoying her life in the US and was depressed abut having to return to Japan. She said she would never drive again because her family was very strict about these things. Her father was a well respected professor in a uni in Japan and did everything by the book. A well breed lady didn't drive in Japan back then, at least not in their social group. In fact when they had visited Japan while living in the US her father wouldn't put up with his little granddaughter for long, they were acting, Too American for his taste.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

.....
Funny, my husband's nick name for our boy is Mr. Hikikomori.
He des speak pretty good Janpanese and can read some of their crazy letters but like anything else practice makes perfect.Guess something good came from 30 years of playing Japanese video games, he would order from Japan with the language being in Japanese.
He had his father fuming once back in 2000 when we were visiting Hungary. Our son was reading all of his Japanese language books while in Hungary. My husband told him to learn more Hungarian and not Japanese.
.....
I had a god friend in the 80's who was remp. in the US with her husband and 2 little girls. He was promoted and had to work in the US for a few years. My friend learned to drive and was enjoying her life in the US and was depressed abut having to return to Japan. She said she would never drive again because her family was very strict about these things. Her father was a well respected professor in a uni in Japan and did everything by the book. A well bred lady didn't drive in Japan back then, at least not in their social group. In fact when they had visited Japan while living in the US her father wouldn't put up with his little granddaughter for long, they were acting, Too American for his taste.

If he can speak good Japanese I'd have thought he'd be able to do many different things there. Perhaps he could get a job as a civilian worker with US forces?  Or maybe doing online Japanese lessons.  Better than nothing.

Mrs Fluffy's cousin has a US cousin whose daughter came to HU to visit.  She didn't last long in HU as apparently she couldn't stomach the food here and had to go home. I nearly fell off my chair laughing.

But I didn't realise that Japanese parents were against freedom for their offspring and I suppose their daughters specifically. How patronising.  I think Daddio there in Japan needs to get a life and stop being controlling. 

I've had conversations with people from more conservative societies (Arab guys actually) worried about their fathers and mothers would think.  That was some guy over 40 years old, married with kids, independent income and not living at home. Even was in the military.  There, the boss shouts an order and you haven't got time to phone your Dad to ask if it's OK!

Anyways, I said, jeez, come on man, your Dad should take pride in himself in a job well done bringing you up.  Apparently he was still fretting over getting Dad's permission for whatever it was.  Never seen anything like it or since.  Seemed to me to be like a mental illness.

My Janpanese friend must be in her 70's now and her girls in their early 40's.
His first kiss from a girl was from one of those cuties when they were around 3 years old. Girls were always kissing him when he was young.
My son works online at home so that's good.
Not sure what he does actually something with gaming?
He has his secrets and I hate to pry too much.
I see Japan is getting stricter about outsiders entering.
Their whole society is Hikikomori.
I swear I had to pry and dig to get one word out of my DIL in the many long visits we had living with them. In many ways it is refreshing to sit in a room with someone and feel no pressure to speak , at all, for hours.literally.
Asian cultures are more traditional. I remember when my Japanese friend got in the family car with her family, she always sat in the back seat with the kids.
My son's ex Chinese GF had a really nice brand new Luxury Honda and she always gave him the keys to drive,when I was with them she insisted I sit up front and she got in the back. She said the front seat was more comfy and my legs were longer.She always asked about our health and would order extra fd for me to take home to my husband if he couldn't join us out.If I had a cold she would run to the Chinese herb store and buy teas for me and cook up things to make me feel better. I met several of her Chinese girlfriends and they also were super thoughtful with me, it was rather nice.
Very sweet really.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

My Japanese friend must be in her 70's now and her girls in their early 40's.
His first kiss from a girl was from one of those cuties when they were around 3 years old. Girls were always kissing him when he was young.
My son works online at home so that's good.
Not sure what he does actually something with gaming?
He has his secrets and I hate to pry too much.
I see Japan is getting stricter about outsiders entering.
Their whole society is Hikikomori.
I swear I had to pry and dig to get one word out of my DIL in the many long visits we had living with them. In many ways it is refreshing to sit in a room with someone and feel no pressure to speak , at all, for hours.literally.

Seen and not be heard.  I think she'd go mad if she was sitting with me as I talk more or less incessantly. Actually less so really.   I am uncomfortable with empty silence but I've improved as the years have passed and now can sit for minutes without saying anything. 

Maybe that kiss was the key moments for your son - stuck in his mind.  And now living the dream.

If he's working from home, perhaps this is going to be the new normal.  I think many people will be working from home for at least the next 2 years.

Japan might be getting stricter but it might also just be getting more paranoid.  I went through Narita airport maybe a year ago.  Not a very good thing because it's a gateway to the Pacific.  I was only at an airport hotel in transit but still found it strange to be there.   

Immigration was really peculiar and I really never got what they were doing with their multiple checks and scanners and barcodes in my passport.  I just smiled and said hallo when it seemed appropriate.  Seemed to be good enough.  Japan was never on my "must visit" list but it was interesting to see something of the country from the air including i think it was mount Fuji.

My hotel seemed like a plastic box with a door and an electronic bathroom.  I was OK to get out of there to more familiar environments.

I always sit in the back with the kids when my  MIL is with us for the same reasons - just more comfy for her and Mrs Fluffy can discuss random stuff with her.

I see we're off topic again!