English speaking mums from anywhere in the world 🙂
Okaaaay ladies, here we go! 🙂
hey. lets practice some english ... i live in london with my hubby and little sofi.. she is starting nursery next week, weheey 🙂
aaand lets be honest, we do speak more english than english speak slovak :D dont be ashamed ... you all doing great
@mimave Hi. i just read your post from January 1st - you're saying that your are moving to New Zeland. That's exciting! Why New Zeland?
I just wanted to tell you that, from my own experience, once you move to a country where english is an official language you will learn english really fast. You will be forced to interact with people and your english will get better every day.
good luck to you and if you have any questions let me know, i'm happy to help.
@bobocka im or we are the opposite of you.. we had sofi in slovakia and came to uk when she was 1.5years. I do not regret a minute since we came here. i have to admit it is difficult to be far away from my parents but i do feel that here is a very different social system and very open to help young families. now im not talking only about benefits but also, government is also helping people to buy houses and flats - first time buyers, etc.
I know that sofi will one day only benefit from speaking english as her second language. we speak only slovakian at home and she learned english sooo quickly.
I think you raise your child the way you realy want to raise them. the children you are talking about are most probably from families dependant on council benefits and parents that are not interested in their children
@johnie why did u move? have u been to uk before?why london? to be honest i know london pretty well and to me its too hectic,too fast(if u know what i mean).its great for young people,but i dont see it as a great place for families with young kids.where exactly do you live?u r rigt in some way.yes, they are helping young families,but it depends on your income.my dear friend has a one year old son,she was forced to go back to work when he was 9months(otherwise she might loose her job and their income without maternity pay wasnt big enough for them to live on the same level(same life style) as they were use to).she started to work only part time,but still.to me that is so incredibly stupid.baby needs its momma full time! first three years of babys life are most important.and they dont get it.and thats why english kids are the way they are.of course there are exceptions,like everywhere 😉 .well back to my friend-because she has a ok income and her boyfriend earns ok as well,they dont get anything.no financial support what so ever.you know how expensive rent is.how expensive travel costs are.when they pay all their bills,they have enough to keep their ok life style,but they dont have as much as they need to move on and buy their own place for example.so basicaly they are stuck.they live good life,but i wouldnt trade with them.
we managed to buy 2 two bed flats in bystrica when i got back from uk.of course i have a mortgage,but if i sell one flat,i will pay all my mortgage and have some spare money as well.so basicaly i invested in property (real estate).i would never be able to do that in uk.never in a million years.
and if you think about university studies in uk,about the cost-well my friend studied psychology,before the government university price rise , she spent 3000pounds every year.and a year or two ago(i dont remember exactly)it went up 30%.that is ridiculous! 9000 a year?for a child? what if u have 3 kids? ... 😠
and a health care- who the hell is gp? a person who has one one day course how to spell paracetamol? i mean seriously,everytime i went over there with any problem,they recommended me a paracetamol.well, i can be gp too then 😀 😀 😀
of course i picked up on bad stuff,and there is plenty of good in uk as well,but i dont regret moving back to slovakia and i believe i never will 😉
@bobocka yep, i lived here for almost 4 years before i got married. we are in SE london and believe or not we love it. we moved here coz my hubby lost his job and we also had mortgage to pay. there was and opportunity for me to work here and we decided to move. it was either us in slovakia without roof above and money or england with job.
it was hard believe you me. but the only thing i dont want to happen is to tell sofi that we can not afford this and that because we do not have money.
i loved the city then and i still adore it. there is always something going on, lots of places to go to... if you single or with a child 🙂
i dont know how is it about the maternity leave im sure it has been moved to 1 year now.
rent is high i do know that, we as well pay a lot. thats why im saying we are looking into shared ownership and start with something. I know few girls who did take mortgage. one is single and other is single mum... so i think it is possible. and maybe even better than is slovakia...
re your friend - all depends how much you wanna give up from you standard to have a child. and once you used to a high one it is difficult to go down. we have been down - living in a shared house - 3 of us in one room, but that is behind us and and we moving forward.
gp is another story... but i do get for my family what i need and want - i know my ways now ;)
before i had sofi i had breast cancer and i was quite worried how they will treat it here, but fortunately im in good hand of fabulous doctors... ;)
@johnie my friend doesnt have high life style,they live OK,thats why i was careful with words.but still they live tiny above life average and thats why they dont get any financial support from government.
its not difficult to get mortgage in uk as long as u have minimum of 10% of asking price.and its not easy to save that much money.depends on where u` re buying.
maternity leave is 1 year,but last 3months are unpaid.i was preggers in uk this time three years ago 🙂 and to get maternity grant is a mission impossible 😀 i got it in slovakia without any stupid extra paperwork 🙂
im sorry about your breast cancer,i hope it will never come back and u will live long, healthy ,happy life 🙂
@johnie my husband lost his job a year ago and he was unemployed from january 2011 till november 2011.and we still managed to sell the old place we didnt like,buy a new one for the same price and restore flat for about 14000euros.so it isnt as bad as u may think.i do get 190euro per month,but i got maternity pay from uk till misko was 9months(as i would get if i was working in svk) and after that o got 256euros till he was 20months.from that time its 190euros a month till he is 3 years old.i wouldnt get anything in uk so financialy its better for me in svk actually 🙂
and i would get that maternity grant in uk.in slovakia they gave me something less than 800euros just because uk rejected my apl.form.so there u have it.its not that bad as people may think.🙂
Hi girls (mums), I'm glad I found this thread, may I join you?
I lived in the UK for 3 year (something more than 3y exactly) and now I'm back in Slovakia. To tell truth I'm not very excited about it. Huuuuh I really miss those times!!! ... miss my job, miss my friends that I have made, miss the culture,... I do miss it a lot ..... and I'm losing practice in English too.. so please excuse my grammar and typos and etc... and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong 😀
just.. give me time to read all your posts 🙂
@johnie do you still live in London? I love London! Lived there just for a few months but immediately fell in love with it! We lived in Golders Green area. After few months we moved to North Wales, Flint. It was a quite huge change as the town was muuuuuch smaller and quieter. I started to work and my son (at that time was 3y) started go to nursery.
I'd love to go back one day.....
@hajanka
@bambola
hey girls... i felt in love with english ever since i've heard it.
we are still in london, and we both have jobs here plus sofi starts nursery next week, so at this moment we are not thinking about moving outside london, and we also have very good friends here in this area.
it is a bit weird, sometimes i forget which language i speak in... than I realize im talkiing to my colleagues in slovakian... :DD
@johnie can u please describe that nurery sofi will go to? that friend, i mentioned,has a son in nursery and it sounds great.its not the most expensive one(about 750-800 a month full time) and teacher looks after just three kids(nursery) and 5 kids(kindergarten) and the best thing is,there is a camera,so mother can anytime click on to check how is her child,if teacher spends enough time with him... that should be in every nursery!!! but then i would spend whole day on computer checking misko 😀 😀 😀
@johnie i mean ,that nursery my friends son goes to is proper in my eyes.they may not wear uniform,but there is playroom,activity room,dinner,bedroom...everthing that 1,5yr old need 🙂 and when they are older,they go to kindergarten which is still part of the same building but of course those "rooms" for kids are different,advanced. 🙂
or did u mean state one ? they wear uniforms in state nursery . 😉 she will be so cute in that uniform 🙂 that i believe is a great idea.uniforms.because in that case kids cant pick on themselves that one is from a rich family and one from a poor one. 😉
@hajanka exactly, my husband couldnt say a word (well maybe few) and he is so good. im glad that we are here
@bobocka i never said it wasnt proper.. of course it would be different if sofi had to go to nursery before when she was younger, but luckily we managed so far and now she can go to the one where she will go to school next year ;)
sofi doesnt like her uniform so far coz its blue and she said that only boys wear blue.
well, girls I like to chat with you here 😀 😀 but it's time to go to bed for me 🙂 I hope to see you here again!
night night!
Hi Girls. I'm not a mom yet, but i'm hoping to become one very soon :o) I was born in Slovakia but i have been living in Canada for the past 13 years 🙂
I joined ModryKonik in September of last year after not being able to find a similar forum in english. i mean, there are other ones out there, but Modry konik is by far the best.