Dutch in Translation

Empress Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, once said, “ I beg you take courage; the brave soul can mend even disaster. ” This is what Kristina did after moving to the Netherlands: take courage, find her lost self, and begin again. From Saint Petersburg, a city in Russia of more than five million people, our young expat fell in love, packed her bags, moved from Russia to the Netherlands, and began an unexpected journey with a heartening ending. Here’s her story. If we’d like to comprehend what’s behind Kristina’s radical career change, from graduating as a medical engineer and completing a master’s degree in Entrepreneurial Information Technologies to being a resolute and committed physiotherapist student in Eindhoven, it’s fundamental to revisit the culture she comes from and the electrifying life she’d led. It’s only then that perhaps you’ll agree with me: she was meant to pursue a healthcare career and, unexpectedly, she did.   LIFE IN SAINT PETERSBURG  H...

Having never left the place she was born and her only known home, one day Merve packed everything and said goodbye to Turkey. She'd lived in Ankara her whole life, but just as a river's flow takes new bends and bifurcates into streams, so did the life of Merve and her husband. A shared project, they took the leap by moving to the Netherlands in 2017. A year later, our Turkish expat found complete bliss by changing careers: from business administration to horeca medewerker. And you know what? She couldn't be happier!  What's her view on life?  How did she manage to take the jump and reinvent herself?  Here's her story. Back in Turkey: business analyst at an ERP consultancy company Before moving to Eindhoven, Merve lived in Ankara, working for the last five years in the IT industry as a support specialist. A ccording to what was expected from a business administration graduate, or what was expected of her, she had  a nice job, stable and steady. The software comp...

Superficially , Eliana is a lucky expat. A Brazilian woman who was able to find work and open her own hair salon just a year after arriving. In reality, during her first year in Eindhoven, she cried a lot, applied for jobs, took English and Dutch lessons, lost her father, fought cancer, registered as a freelancer, and started a business. To me, the question is not how she did it but, what does it take to have her resilience? Who is this expat woman who fights adversity and refuses to give up? How does one settle down and is happy in a new country? What can we learn from her?   Her first years by Vacaria River, Brazil Eliana grew up in the north southeast of Brazil, a rural region with no name, close to  Vacaria Ri ver. P eople live from their crops.  During prosperous times, they plant and harvest corn, beans, rice, potatoes, and other vegetables. Unfortunately, the land suffers from drought and poor soils, so people have to figure out a different way of making a li...

An undeniable fact is that coronavirus is not going anywhere anytime soon. The nightmare is how many will perish in the process. Then, what to do not to go insane?   There are a million and one rhetorical questions on our minds: How long will it take for it to get better? Will I get it or will my dear ones? How can I feel at ease when my family is thousands of kilometers away? Do I pose a danger to someone else? Will my finances survive this crisis or will my nerves? How can I not feel lonely or restless? How do I keep my sanity? How do I keep myself in one piece as to be there for those who need me? Infinite questions and very limited answers. Understandably, everyone reacts in different ways. We're going through extremely challenging times. Having to cope with what is going on in the world, at work, and with family could be overwhelming. My family lives in Mexico, my parents are 71 and 83, and if the situation here is difficult, I can't imagine how it's going to h...