Hiro11

Florida's a weird mishmash of suburbia, rednecks, snowbirds and Latin culture. It has lots of very high end, highly educated areas, lots of trailer parks and lots of places in the middle. It's a big place. I think you're oversimplifying.

Owen778

Yes. That's what he does. Usually based on very limited personal experience.

hungryhorace

I've driven the length of Florida. It's a horrid place, full of Latino culture and poverty. Miami is just a playground for drug money and rappers last time I checked.

fsm

I lived in Kendall for 7 years, MIL still lives there. Commute into downtown sucks but not really any different to anywhere else in Miami.

However I would suggest if planning on living and working in Miami that you learn Spanish. As you indicated Wife & Son both speak it suggest you do as well.

I have forgotten a fair bit as do not use it up here in the Carolina's, but even now there a couple of places I walk into the waitresses insist I order in Spanish, almost a running joke considering I moved away 10 years ago and they still recognize me. I guess they did not get many Scots as regulars in Cuban places.

scrubbedexpat099

I watched Miami Vice.

Rete

Actually, Canada only has two official languages in the province of Quebec. Working in the legal field in Ottawa requires that you are bi-lingual in both languages as the documentation is often in French.


If you knew all that, why did you ask?

[/quote]Originally Posted by LondonSquirrel

Is that legal to make that specification? So an English-only speaking American is unemployable in Miami? In a country where the official language is English? Yes I know there is no such ruling on language but please tell me of any other language you are allowed to take the US citizenship exam in.[/unquote]

LondonSquirrel

Rhetorical question.

alfista1

I'm bilingual also. Spent a good part of the last 15 years in Uruguay and Mexico.



That's why we love it. my son is half latino and my wife latina.
Full of life and fun. We live in a small town in Staffordshire and my son always manages to pick out people speaking Spanish. In just 1 year my wife has 3 great Spanish friends here.



We're looking into Fort Lauderdale right now. Could be a possibility.
Schools vary so much from neighbourhood to neighbourhood.

Rete

My suggestion as to school districts is to register at Zillow. Chose an area you are interested in and then just click on a house and open up the offering. At the bottom of the listing is a breakdown of schools for that district and it gives the rating for each school, i.e. elementary, middle and high schools.

I've used this method when searching for a co-operative apartment to share with my daughter and her family. I would be there only a month or two each year but since they have an elementary school child, we needed that information for her schooling. My granddaughter is in 2nd grade in the Sleepy Hollow school district in New York. Sleepy Hollow has a very large community of Hispanics and many think that the schools would reflect poorly. They do not. My granddaughter has just tested "Z" in reading and comprehension. This means she can be placed no higher in scoring and uses the library and librarian to choose books on a high school level for her to read. Yes, a lot is the child, herself, and her parents who daily encouraged her to read and use the library from the time she was a toddler. But a lot is the teaching environment in the school as well. Hey, this is called grandma bragging rights

alfista1

Looking at schools there seem to be a lot of highly rated ones in Boca Raton. Prices not too bad either.
Fort L. has so many bad schools it puts me off.

fsm

Really depends on where you will be working, a former co-workers lives in Boca Raton, and worked downtown commute was usually 1 hour 1/2, for what should have been about 50 minute drive.

Rete

Have a few close friends who live in Boca for the winter. They love it. My daughter lived in Naples on the other side of Florida not a commute you want to take down alligator alley.

Homestead has been rebuilt after it was decimated by a hurricane years ago. A co-worker and her family moved into a gated community there and they love it and the school system. She commutes to Miami for her job at a law office.

crumpets

Miami is very big and neighbourhoods vary block to block (not kidding). South Miami (Kendall, Doral etc) is primarily latino, North Miami haitian and then you move into Broward county. Schools in ALL of South Florida are pretty awful, we pay for private school for our child. There are some good schools but they are few and far between and don't think if the neighbourhood is nice then the school is. The best place to look at schools is on greatschools.org. Lots to consider....how close do you want to be work, to the beach, to the airport. How much are you willing to spend on rent/mortgage? Do you want an apartment, house, townhome? Do you want a gated community?
Just as an example we own a home in Fort Lauderdale. A single family 3 bed home rents for $4000 a month not inc any utilities
Happy to answer any questions....been in South Florida for 10 years

jenninedinburgh

Not sure about schools, but I lived right on Hallandale Beach for about 9 months. It was amazing! The Hallandale Beach/Sunny Isles area is between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Really nice!

katzgar

The hispanics have destroyed Miami except east of the freeway which has many wealthy areas. They are in the process of moving north and destroying Ft Lauderdale. I halkped run a bait shop in Davie which is near Ft Lauderdale and guys would come in wanting to dicker over the price of bait shrimp. I just talked back to them in my best Mel Brooks german gibberish. get north of Ft Lauderdale and you get back into the USA>