Moved East

markowe · Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:22 pm Post subject: Serbia - a new expat destination

My area of speciality, as the forum admin, is Serbia, as I have lived here since 1996, speak the language, have got married here, bought property here, run a business, have health insurance and have jumped through just about every hoop there is to jump through (except getting citizenship, still working on that one!)

Now foreign expats were a rare breed in Serbia indeed, right through the nineties, and it was only after the changes in 2000 that people actually started coming to Serbia to live and work in any numbers, and even now the numbers are not spectacular.

However, this is probably set to change, and indeed, the number of foreign travellers to Serbia has vastly increased in the last 5-6 years (can anyone say "The EXIT Festival"?!). Serbia may even become a desirable property-buying destination sometime soon!

So watch this space, and while you're at it, if you are living in Serbia or travelling here frequently, why not just take a second to say hi and introduce yourself here?

Harry · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Posts: 3

Markowe, my Serbian is completely unacceptable after living in the region since 2001. I am married; one cute little girl; I almost have citizenship (Feb 2008); I have driving licence; my own apartment and we need to meet for a beer...

Novi Sad Police have ranked brits number six via a population scale. At N0.5 are the Italians, as for 4, 3, 2, 1, I don't remember, but I think its obvious with surrounding countries.

Imagine Brits becoming second to Serbs, they'll need more beer producing factories.

markowe

nspic · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Novi Sad

nice to know i am not the only soul returning. i must say, i am not quite understanding the ex-pat. let me see if i have this right, you are british residents that cam to live in serbia!? so therefore you are ex-pat to england, correct? if that is so, i am in the wrong forum, because i am a serbian ex-pat that is actually atempting to return and live here, and this is a forum that works the other way around. well, either way, i feel out of place here and can only hope that it will pass. any comments or sugestions. I am trying to get the business off the ground, pretty simple and traight forward documentation, however, the waiting in lines, the arrogance and ignorance is agrevating. i am dealing with it, but i am not sure how my husband will, he has only had cultural contact to serbia by visitng a few times and through me. maybe i can get a few words of wisdom from you. and what is it with people guarding the simplest information here? greetings and cheers, aleksandra

markowe · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 6:46 am Post subject: Hi Aleksandra

Hi Aleksandra!

Welcome to the forum! I thought your comments were interesting enough to start a new thread in the forum Getting things done - so I have replied to your message here: http://forums.movedeast.com/returning-to-serbia-dealing-with-bureaucracy-etc-t30.html

Mark
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Laura9654 · Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 23

Good idea! This forum was much needed!

I guess that I'll introduce myself....

I'm a 24y/o female Brit who wil be living in Belgrade for the first half of 2008 (to do research for my PhD, I won't say too much on what it's about, suffice to say, it's politics). My knowledge of the language is... humm, dire would be the best word to describe it. I've been to Belgrade a couple times before and have travelled a lot around the Balkans and Eastern Europe, but have never lived aboard before. I'm excited and a bit scared by the thought of all these new experinces.

nspic · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Novi Sad

welcome laura, good to hear from you. i just signed up yesterday. i felt the same way (needing this forum), although i am a serb. if you need help finding your way arond, please don't hesitate to ask. i used to teach serbian about 3 years ago and would be delighted to help if i can find the time. i find belgrade to be a bit chaotic. will you be staying there the whole time, or will you come to novi sad as well?

Laura9654 · Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 23

hi nspic, thanks for the welcome.

I would have thought that I would definatly go to Novi Sad while I'm in Belgrade, hopefully I'll also go for research!

I plan to visit cities and towns around Serbia (and Kosovo, if the security situation remains stable) for research purposes, so, no, I won't be in Belgrade all the time, but a lot of the people I want to talk to are there, so it makes sense to have a base in the big smoke, as it were!

I see that everyone else on this forum is from Novi Sad... are ex-pats more likely to be there than Belgrade?

L

markowe · Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:37 am Post subject: Welcome Laura!

Hi Laura! Glad to have you on board! I'm the admin of this fairly new forum and I'd just like to make you welcome.

I am sure Serbia will be very productive for your thesis, if it's about politics! I studied at Nottingham, same as Adam, though we are a few generations apart, though never visited Sheffield much - shame on me! To me Sheffield boils down to a green shopping centre on the M1 Rolling Eyes

In answer to your question, no I wouldn't say most of the expats in Serbia are concentrated in Novi Sad, it must be coincidence. Or else the pace of life in NS is a bit more relaxed, so we have time to chat! However, I am in Novi Sad, so I kind of imagine that membership of the forum will spread in concentric circles from Novi Sad. I can see this becoming fairly well-frequented for expats in Serbia as there aren't too many places for such to chat. I will see about the other countries though, they have more established expat populations, so I may limit down the other country forums until those concentric circles widen a bit!

Well, welcome to Serbia and make sure you come by the forum if you have any problem or need any info - the combined knowledge here might just be enough to help you out. It's even OK to talk about politics, provided it's in a detached, academic, civilised, PhD kind of way (unlike, say, the Serbian parliament).

Cheers,

Mark

P.S. Did you do any formal study of the language? You're going to need some Serbian, aren't you?
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Laura9654 · Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 23

Hi Mark

Thanks for your welcome!

I've not done any formal study of the language.... I managed to find a PhD student in the Russian department here who was able to teach me a bit of Serbian, but then he went and got a job, leaving me on reflective verbs! (so, no, I've not got very far)

I've been allocated an extra month onto my thesis to undertake an intensive course, so if you have any recommendations, that would be great.

I don't expect to learn much more than the basics, but I'm hoping that the basics plus a couple interpreters will see me through.

As for my thesis.... abstract is the word, yeah! I look at feminist organisations and their contemporary representations of security, and how these representations have been shaped by discourses about war, nationalism and communism. I am fully capable of talking quite a lot on this topic!

Should perhaps start thinking about bed.....

Night all!

Laura

nspic · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Novi Sad

Well you should be thinking about going to bed, as I should. As far as Serbian language learning goes, a month is a short time, but you can build a working vocabulary from which you can expand.

I taught Serbian and German in the U.S. for a while, the communicative approach/method is the way to go if you want to speak. My students spent six hours a day with me, for six months and by the end of the first month they were able to speak about their families, order food, colors, numbers, 300 verbs, ask for directions, and a few other things. These were mostly unstructured and grammatically incorrect conversations. But what's important is that you can be understood and find your way around. But the theory behind this principle is that just like a child learns a language through trial and error, a word here and a word there to get the desired response. Once the basics are acquired, the self-correction in adults is a much quicker process compared to children, but it is not guaranteed as sort of a feeling for/exposure to foreign languages is necessary.

I am willing to help and may even still have material on my drive to assist you, if you are interested.

How is everything else going so far?

Greetings,

Aleksandra

Laura9654 · Joined: 08 Dec 2007 Posts: 23

Hi Aleksandra

Yes - you should, as it must be at least 3am in NS! I'm am still planning my teaching for tomorrow...

That would be great actually, if you still have the materials lying around in an easy to access place. Do you want to exchange emails? I'm not sure how to go about doing this.....

As for everything else - suffice to say that I'm really, really looking forward to Christmas! What is traditional in Serbia for Christmas?

i mean it this time - night night!

L

markowe · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 8:25 am Post subject: Christmas in Serbia

The short answer about Christmas in Serbia (if you mean 25th December) - there isn't one! The 25th is a normal working day. It is celebrated only by a very small minority of Protestants and Catholics, while Orthodox believers who adhere to the Old Calendar celebrate Christmas on the 6th/7th. And it is nothing like the rigmarole it is in the West.

The main holiday is New Year, that's when the big celebrations happen - this may be a hangover from communism, but things seem set to stay that way.

But Laura, let me get this right - you are still in the UK currently?

Well, I echo all of Aleksandra's language-learning advice, I couldn't put it any better. Try to learn the language, don't hang out TOO much with English speakers (though most young to middle-aged educated Serbs speak English) and it is surprising how much you can learn!

Mark
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nspic · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 7 Location: Novi Sad

Laura,

I think we are going to have to ask Mark for permission on whether we can exchange emails, but you can go to my website at www.nspic.com and go to the contact page. That is all forwarded to my personal email. From there I can then write you and send you some material.

Mark,

I would like to put a link to your MovedEast.com forum on my website if that is ok? I get an average of 100 visits to it. I am sure that'll increase traffic to here if you so desire.

Greetings,

Aleksandra

markowe · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:13 am Post subject:

Hey Aleksandra, thanks for your consideration but it's up to you if you want to communicate with other forum members - indeed, that's the point!

The only no-no is blatant, irrelevant advertising (like the spam stuff we seem to have temporarily defeated), but your company is relevant to our topic, so feel free. It would be great to have a link, of course! Once I have a link page set up here I will reciprocate!

Cheers,

Mark
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