Mistakes that migrants make when moving

The author of this blog more than a year ago moved from Russia to Dallas, Texas. Now she is in college and talks about her life in America in a blog on Pikabu — including about the mistakes that migrants make when moving.

Фото: Depositphotos

7 things to consider when emigrating:

1. Decide in advance on what you plan to do here, especially if you are not sure of your knowledge of English. Believe me, learning in any applied profession in Russia will be much cheaper than in the USA.

For example, I am on Facebook subscribed to a hairdresser, who enjoys incredible popularity among the local Russian-speaking population. The hands of a man, they say, are golden. She cuts at home, her services are in great demand. I don’t know if she pays taxes, I never got to her, because her price tag is also golden.

Here, in principle, services are much more expensive, so before leaving you should check your teeth, order new glasses, be like free physiotherapy at the nearest clinic, if necessary. Because the price tag on the massage in the United States will surprise you unpleasantly. However, as with any services provided by people.

On the subject: What awaits you after moving to the USA

A person who can fix air conditioners or do a manicure is much easier to find a job than an unrecognized genius with an economics degree and poor English.

2. If you plan to live outside the center of San Francisco or New York, then I strongly recommend learning to drive a car back in Russia.

In Texas, for example, a car is a necessity; you simply cannot live here without it; there is practically no public transport in the USA.

Even if a family comes and one of the spouses has the right, and the other has not traveled before, this option is still not viable.

You need to buy groceries in the store, drive to work, take children to school, and without a car you can’t literally get anywhere. Therefore, it is better if both have a driving experience.

It’s one thing if a person has already driven and there is a car in the family: they traveled on weekends, refreshed knowledge - they passed the exam. If there is no driving experience, then you have to hire an instructor, rent a car, and if you have problems with English, then look for a Russian-speaking driving instructor - all this is money and time. Neither extra time (driving lessons and passing the exam), nor the extra money you probably will not have here.

You can travel for a while in the US with Russian rights (each state has a different number of days / months), but you still have to get local rights in the end.

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From the funny: recently watched a video of a Russian-speaking blogger living in the USA, he interviewed his own schoolboy son. When the boy had a conflict with another student at school and they decided to fight, they agreed to meet in the park (it is impossible to fight at school). Naturally, the boy couldn’t get to the park on his own (he doesn’t drive a car yet), the child asked his parents to give him a lift, because he needed to find out the relationship in a fair duel.

It’s difficult for me to imagine a situation where a teenager asks his parents to take him to the Strelka in Russia, but this is local reality. You can't get anywhere without a car.

3. The simplest and most obvious - learn English in advance!

At the time of departure, I could watch the series in English without translation, and at the very least retell the plot of any book / film. For some reason, because of my childish naivety, I probably thought that I had good English.

My illusions were dispelled on the second day after arrival, when an employee of a hotel in New York tried to explain something to me.

For the rest of my life I will remember that feeling of deep bewilderment, bordering on horror, when I realized that a native speaker was trying to convey some idea to me, but I did not understand him at all - from the word “at all”. The guy was African-American, with a soft pronunciation closer to French, but that's not the point. He spoke English, but I didn’t understand him.

Learn the language! It will be very useful to you, even at the household level you will not learn it quickly. You come to the store for a comb and ask the seller to show you a “comb”, “comb”, “massage comb” - all these words of so-called “everyday English” are not binomial Newton, but they naturally do not pass in the school year.

In general, learning a foreign language is an endless process, and it is better not to postpone its beginning. Do not assume that the language will come on the spot itself, believe me, you will have many other worries and worries here!

4. Planning and timeliness is a separate item of our list, something that will help you save a lot.

It is clear that everyone enters the United States in different ways and not everyone has the opportunity to plan, but if you are not tied tightly to any specific dates, for example, you are driving on a green card, and even without children, then choosing between coming in the summer or in the fall, it is worth giving preference to the fall.

First, housing prices in the summer are higher, because this is the season when they choose registration for the school. In the autumn, you can conclude a long-term rental contract at a significantly lower price. This refers to housing in a good area, in a disadvantaged area there is no such difference.

On the subject: Moving to the US and Adaptation Problems: What to Expect and How to Cope

Secondly, when buying a car at the end of the month, and especially at the end of the month and year (somewhere from October), you can count on a big discount. At the end of the month, dealers are usually more willing to bargain, they need to fulfill the plan, and most importantly, next year’s cars arrive in October, and this model can be sold at a very significant discount.

Similar examples concern everything. You can buy any mobile plan at every step, and if we are talking about buying phones for the whole family, then this is quite a good choice. The more numbers on the tariff plan you buy, the cheaper it goes, but if you need to buy only one SIM card, the price bites a lot. In the salon I was called the minimum price for calls and SMS in $ 50 per month. Searching, I found an option - the entire package of mobile services with a monthly fee of $ 15.

5. Please note that it is impossible to predict everything, and this is normal.

Your green card may be sent to a different address, documents for the SSN may be lost, etc. and so on. And you and only you will have to rake.

Once again I will return to paragraph 3: spoken English is not a luxury, but a necessity. Many things are done here only by phone (utility connection, insurance, etc.). Something can be done online, but often there it is designed for the standard case when a person already has all the documents and local credit cards.

Many things may be different from our understanding of them. In adults, there are certain judgments about a variety of things. And here everything is different.

The pavement may end unexpectedly, because nobody really cares about pedestrian accessibility (no pedestrians), a different system of weights and measures, a tax return that depends on many different factors, and so on.

For example, if you were told at work that the employer provides additional medical insurance, this does not mean that (as in Russia) you can go to any narrow specialist in the VHI policy and you will be cured for free.

To begin with, it is you who will be responsible for registration of the insurance (you will need to rake out a ton of necessary and not very paperwork).

Further, for the medical insurance from the employer you will have to pay a substantial amount with each salary. Forget free medicine in any form.

The meaning of insurance from an employer is that after you pay for medical services for a certain amount (usually several thousand dollars), you will not pay medical services in full, but in part (the employer will cover your medical expenses with 2 / 3), and you get to the second treasured amount, the maximum indicated by the insurance, then the employer will assume all costs. Again, something can go wrong and not covered by insurance, but you have to figure it out yourself by sorting out all the documents.

6. I strongly recommend upon arrival, and it is better before arrival, to feel like a Cheburashka and find friends.

Besides the fact that it is pleasant to communicate with adequate, successful people and it is much more morally easier to live in a country where you have friends, there are also friends in social networks.

On the subject: 9 types of people who should not go to the US

Girls from the group on Facebook will not sit with your child while you learn the language, but they can suggest free language courses with a manger and a kindergarten. There are many groups on the Internet, bloggers with sensible advice.

Ideally, it is to find a group of a Russian-speaking community living in the place where you are going. If we talk about bloggers, then most of all benefit from those who are in the same life situation as you.

It is clear that if you watch the channel of a young guy living in a trailer, then you can find out about life hacks about cheap housing, job search and improvement of the trailer, but he will not tell you anything special about schools and kindergartens, he has no children and related problems.

7. What is worth bringing with you.

Find out where you are going (at least, what is the weather in your chosen state). I know a woman that before immigration to America I bought myself a beautiful natural fur coat. It was ten years ago, so she never put it on. Because in Texas it is very rare that the temperature drops to zero, which fur coats are here. And after all, she also spent money, carried it, took a place in the baggage of this fur coat.

However, I have heard the advice many times that you should not “carry a rag, buy everything for a penny.” This is not true. Either the authors of such maxims do not understand what they are talking about, or they buy exactly that rags. For a penny you can not buy anything here, cheap and looks cheap. Yes, on sales you can find standing things, I found a blouse worth $ 30 for $ 5, six times cheaper than the stated price it turns out, but I killed all the day for shopping, but time also has a price.

In general, it is better to bring good, high-quality things in which you walk with you, and you really shouldn't pull the stretched jersey.

Read also on ForumDaily:

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