England Girl

I moved back to the UK from NZ in march last year after two years away. I only came back to earn more money to make the permanent move possible (had debts to pay off and had run out of savings to pay them while away!).

Wish I'd never come back sometimes. I'm counting down the weeks when I can return. I hate living in the UK. I hate the traffic, the pollution (have developed asthma), the rudeness, the crime etc. Yes i know NZ isn't utopia but for me it's a hell of a lot better than here.

I felt I fitted in better where I was and have it really hard to adjust to being back. I picked up a kiwi lilt and now get accused of being australian by strangers - wtf! Roll on september when I head on home.

I'll be leaving my family behind (again) and a few good friends but I know i will be happiest when I get there.

Good luck Al, I'm sure you will have a great time and that you will make it a success.

by the sea side

I have a feeling that NZ maybe easier.Perhaps it's were I live and my husband works away .I have found it very difficult.My 16yr old isn't all that
impressed. Australians don't appear to be that popular in England.One of my sons had some problems there he has an slight Australian inflection in his accent.Having said that I recently met a family from England that where from South Africa and they had a bit of a time of it there too.
I will think about giving somewhere else a try Rockhampton QLD is not for me.
Good luck and I really hope the time goes quickly for you. Jennifer by the sea side

Andrea

Hiya,

I am trying to make my mind up about moving to NZ, South Island. I would like to know if anyone has returned to UK or planning to return in the near future. If so, what went wrong? Why did you decide to come back, after all the hassle in getting there and all the rest?
I would be very grateful for any information that you might be able to provide.

A

Lenmil

Just check through my old posts, you should get some good ideas.

simongb

I understand what you said about the accent. You should try having an American accent! I am British and have lived in the US since 1992, so I do speak with an accent. I have had people walk awaywhen I tried to talk to them because they thought I was American. I have had people not speak to me on planes in Europe because they thought I was American (they told me to my face!). WTF! Who cares! I am British, I just speak differently. It makes me nervous to move back next year because of this attitude.

dunroving

Wow, that sounds extreme and unnecessary. I must say I've never in 23 years of living overseas had that kind of response. I now have a "mid Atlantic" accent (not really American, but not really British either), that I dislike when I hear myself on video. I do get some ribbing about my accent at times but it's always good-natured.

I remember in college a fellow student went to the US for a few months and came back talking like a Yank. In his case he got a LOT of sh*t from people because it was somewhat of a pretentious (deliberate) thing. I always hope people don't think the same about my accent. Hopefully I will become more British after I've been home for a while.

by the sea side

Well I felt the same and depending on where you live also makes a difference.
They will accept you after a time.
Eastmidlands tends to be quite bad for prejudice, My 15 year old was verbally abused in in the school he went too by an elderly woman.She asked him where he was from then accused hm of going to Britain to sponge off the system!
What a cheek! I wasn't impressed my dad and grandad fought in two world wars
I agree with you WFT! I hope you pick a better place than I did to live,but I did find some other places that wee really good. GoodLuck when you return I would still live in Britain it hasn't put me off

eurotramp

I have a German accent and so far I did had no trouble what so ever..but it is not very strong..I must say.
We went to a pub yesterday to watch the game and people recognized me as a German and we had a good laugh because I said that I would swing my little German flag if Germany would play and they were laughing because my kids hat england hats and flags and support england...

banjo

apparently I have picked up an Aussie accent. Now....up until now I thought it was a bit pyscho-somatic (sp?) on thers' behalf as they knew we'd been there etc.etc. BUT today I made a call to get the phone connected and told the man on the other end we didn't have an existing account as we'd been out of the country for a while. 'Did you have a good time in Australia?' was the question......so maybe there is some truth in what people are saying.

gardnma

Dunroving,

We seem to have a little in common. I have been away from the UK for 19 years (one trip back for my honeymoon with my American wife, 14 years ago)
For the first time since, I will be taking my family back "home" next May.
Like to hear of your experiences over here.

Gardnma

honeymommy

I still have a bit of an American accent 2yrs after returning to the UK. I mostly get asked where I come from... My reply is the name of the village 6 miles away I grew up in.... Sometimes I tell them I lived away, other times I just leave them thinking... LOL



My kids did get some teasing when we first moved back, but it settled down quickly. Funniest thing..... Son age 11 at the time was being teased by a boy. He kept singing the Dumb American song in my son's face. I spoke to his mother with no change... Well..... The 11+ results came in.. My son passed and hers failed.. I must say I did enjoy making the comment... Whose Dumb now!!!!!

gardnma

The biggest fear we would have is that one - how our two boys would be accepted. They are 5 and 8 now. I remember how it was when I was a kid and think, OMG I'm going to throw my two to the lions....

How did yours adapt? What can you do to make it easier for them (losing friends etc, etc??)

Oh, on another vein - how was the transition from US school to UK school (standards)

Thanks

honeymommy

The kids have all adapted very well. They were 13, 10 and twins 8 when we returned. The older two were above UK standard, the twins about 8 months behind.. BUT.. The twins are much more advanced in science and maths. The english side was a problem as the spelling had to change. They are now above standard, so caught up quickly.
They have a good group of friends, and have adjusted well. They say they prefer the UK to the US now. As far as the teasing, I let them deal, but was there if needed. It all subsided in time, and no harm done.
Losing friends.. We did the MSN and email contact to help, but as kids adapt so easily they soon lost interest as they found new friends. We made it a positive look forward experience for them, which worked. Considering we didn't want to come back, it has all worked out brilliantly. One thing Mr Hm and I decided was not to pander to the negative or upset.. After school initially they could say one negative thing about the day, but had to say two good things that happened also... LOL It's all good child psych stuff ya know..

Life is good.

Buchan6

We've just moved to Ontario. I'm adding my thoughts for anyone thinking of emigrating as I feel there's a lot of issues that we didnt think about or consider as much as we should have. We were engulfed in the "We're emigrating" scenario. We sold our house at a good profit, but I wonder if this was the best thing to do.

We felt we'd buy early over here and need the cash, though once you arrive you realise this could be a big costly mistake and lease instead. So this raises the issue of could we have made more cash next year ? Dont know, will never know
Also we felt keeping the house would give us a cushy fall back position if things weren't so good - Again maybe this wouldnt have been a bad thing.

Wherever you go house purchases are varied and the websites you look at won't show you the crappy things you'd know if you lived there.
You wont confirm this til you arrive and discover the type of house / area your actually happy to buy in. We'll pay more that we banked on for the house no doubt about it, I reckon in all our mortgage will be similar to the UK, we'll just get more space internally.

Some people on here talk of getting a lesser car, house, fewer holidays etc as a trade off for the privilege of emigrating.
Forget this bull****.
I'm not status driven but all these factors are key.
Why accept less than you have in the UK thats hardly moving forward !

We both had panic attacks in the last week but felt we had to follow this through. Our "logic" for moving is to give our children a longer & freer childhood hopefully.
If we go back to the UK in the future, hopefully we will return to a similar financial level, nor will I have taken a risk with work. We'll have tried out something we wanted to do, if its not worked out and its our decision to go home, then no regrets.

In my opinion these are the key questions you have to answer
1.) If it goes t*ts up, can we return to the UK and continue our lives at a level we were at ?

2.) Also look closely at what you have at home and critically ask.
"Is what we have really that bad"
Forget being pissed off that half the ****witts in the country don't
work and are fixated with no mark celebrities etc.
Focus on yourself and family only.

I'm coming to the conclusion that unlike a lot of expats I've come across, we didnt "have to" leave the UK. We had good jobs, kids close to grandparents and making friends at school etc etc.

To date, I'm glad we've moved over but if things don't go smoothly,
I can hopefully return to a similar level albeit we'll have spent a few quid but hopefully had a good experience which will have made up more settled and grateful of what we have.

dunroving

I think some people define "moving forward" differently and for them it is natural to accept less than they had in the U.K. I mean people who emigrate to third world countries, for example. The "privilege" of emigrating for these people is often to contribute in a country that desperately needs their expertise, to feel like they are making a difference, to experience a personal transformation, etc.

Horses for courses, of course.