Chile Forum

Hi, I'm Tom, this is my first post. Glad to be here!

I'm hoping someone experienced can help answer a few of my questions. I've very, very excited about the prospect of moving to Santiago, Chile, through Languagecorps; our second option, if practicable, is Montevideo, Uruguay. We'd be moving from the U.S., hopefully within a year's time. But even after searching and researching, there still remain a few unanswered questions that are bugging us a little. Truthfully, I'm not too concerned, but my girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) insists I find out more about this before starting to make any concrete plans.

Some preliminary info:

- We're both young and in good health. No prescriptions needed, no STDs or any other health issues.
- No criminal records. Zip. Zero. We've never even received parking tickets, let alone had any other legal clashes.
- We aren't into drugs, and certainly don't plan on starting after reaching our South American destination.
- Good credit histories. No outstanding debts apart from money owed to colleges (more on that below).
- Good work histories. No notable upsets or clashes concerning past or current employers.
- Not yet married, no kids yet.
- Don't plan on importing a car or much else in the way of amenities, apart from clothing and such necessities. We're hoping to purchase Vespa scooters after getting settled, we want to ride bicycles when the weather is nice, and use cabs/public transportation during inclement weather.

On to the questions....

1) Cash. First, after paying the several thousand for Languagecorps costs, she and I will each have about 7k USD left over. Is this a good/mediocre/lousy amount of money to take with? We don't plan on living extravagantly, be we DO plan on living, and we'd really like to furnish our new home comfortably. Second, both of us still owe several thousand dollars toward our past student loans. Will continuing to pay off these loans be problematic after moving to South America?

2) Education. First, I have a BA in English and about 2 years of Spanish study; she possesses an MBA and about a year of Spanish education. Apparently Languagecorps requires a BA. Will my BA and her MBA allow us to earn enough income to rent a decent apartment, and later purchase a decent home? Naturally, we don't know precisely where we'll be placed as teachers, but I'm thinking it will probably be somewhere in Santiago or Montevideo. Again, we don't plan on living extravagantly, but we would like to experience more than a hand-to-mouth existence. Second, what are the chances that we'll be placed in either the same institution, or at least close enough to continue living as a married couple in the same home?

3) Crime/law and order. Jen is fair convinced that shortly after moving to Chile, we're going to either get arrested (as far as I can discern, she thinks we're going to be singled out for " being foreign") and tossed into some kind of gulag by Chilean Secret Police. Or that we're going to get kidnapped, beaten, and sold into white slavery by street gangs or organized crime. Maybe both? Please don't laugh--I certainly don't think this, and I'm not afraid in the least; in fact, I find these beliefs to be a little ignorant. She also seems to think that South American governments/militaries are in a state of utter upheaval and running wild, and that we're going to get caught up in some kind of coup, or police riots, or something, or that street gangs run the country and are rampantly killing and kidnapping people. To be honest I'm not sure how both of those things could be happening...really, I'm not even exactly sure what she means by all this. I keep telling her that this is the type of activity WE'RE TRYING TO GET AWAY FROM HERE! Any kind of answers concerning this type of thing would be great, thanks. Ridicule is expected and most likely deserved....

4) Health care/education. At this point Jen is very against getting married or having children in South America. I'm very thrilled about the concept of starting a new life and finding a new world to live in, but my future fiancee seems to think about only the negative...anyway, in a nutshell, she's under the impression that getting married in Chile will be a near-impossible hassle. And she believes that Chilean doctors/hospitals are...how can I say this without being offensive...unsanitary. Not up to par with American hospitals, I think she means. Right now this is our most bitter disagreement. I'm ready to accept the challenges, but she's adamant about not "subjecting" herself to giving birth in a South American hospital. Please help me confirm to her that this is NOT the case, and that there's no more to worry about in Chile/Uruguay than there is to worry about here in the States.

5) Residency. We're unsure whether obtaining citizenship will be possible. I've researched Chilean immigration law, but I haven't figured out all the details. Will working through Languagecorps get us started toward permanent residency? Will working in Chile or Uruguay as English teachers count toward years of residency when we apply for citizenship? This is a big one too. If we're only able to live in South America for a year, we won't plan on beginning entirely new lives there (although starting new lives is exactly what we want...at least...ONE of is sure that's what we want).

6) Economy. From what I understand, many South American countries like Chile and Uruguay have fantastic economies, a growing demand for native English speakers, lots of natural resources, many work opportunities, and currencies that are NOT being devalued to death. Jen feels that South American economies are unstable, that there will never be opportunities beyond working as English teachers through Languagecorps, and that we'll be living in a tiny, dirty apartment with no lights or running water, barely making ends meet and near-starving no matter how hard we work. Again, please help me help HER see that this is provincial-minded, uninformed nonsense. From what I understand, there's nothing BUT opportunity in South America, especially for native English speakers.

I apologize for the length of this post. I did my best to keep my questions succint and to the point. Most of all, I hope nothing written here offends anyone--truly, that is not my intention. But I'm finding out more each day just how frightened many people are by the prospect of moving to nations outside the US. I consider it exciting and thrilling, and I'm ready to accept the challenges and changes as they come while remaining positive. We're young, healthy, we have some money, and we're willing to work hard to achieve our dreams--to me, this seems like the chance of a lifetime, a chance to discover a fresh new world while we're still young (I'm 29, she's 28). And not to degrade the US at all, but in some ways I just don't feel as safe, secure, and happy as I once did, which is how I happened to discover Languagecorps in the first place. Let's leave it at that.

I'll be most appreciative of any information you can provide. Hopefully it will be good news!

Thank you!

Tom

EL P, is that you

The Santiago TESOL Certification Program Fee is US$1,995. Accommodations during the four week program are available with host families near the Training Center for an additional cost of US$800 (which includes two meals per day), or in a shared apartment for US$600 - $640.

Tommy,

Start reading the site, then after 2 weeks if you still need the following answers, then ask...

1. You are well qualified, you can probably get a job here without using a program, save some of your money...... if you really find you cant get a job without you can go to somewhere like bridge in santiago and sit the course here!!!, they often give positions as english teachers to there students after they complete the course, my friend just got a job through them doing HR English teaching...

2. Private hospitals in chile are better than the USA.... NZ... and AUS.... when you get to chile you can arrange a private health insurance, by law you have too

3. Economy = great

4. you can get citizenship, first you get a work visa, that gets you too the 2 year mark, then you can be perm residence..... after that you can head to citizenship if you must, most people dont!

and you can be disease infested etc and still get a visa to chile

Sounds like your fiancés doesn't want to come and she is being passively aggressive about it, to try and dissuade you.

Spang wrote:Sounds like your fiancés doesn't want to come and she is being passively aggressive about it, to try and dissuade you.

Sounds like my wife, you know, the stable, well-reasoned, cautious yet adventurous, willing-to-go-if-it-is-not-leaving-the-frying-pan-only-to-jump-into-the-fire type.

Two very good choices cities and countries, they match our "final" list exactly. Be cautious on Uruguay, the RE inflation on any land that can grow anything is astronomical.... for Uruguay, visit the Expat blog there also for more info (Admin, hope you don't mind, but it shouldn't be competition..) at Sociedad Southron. Google it.

deleted

Sounds like my wife, you know, the stable, well-reasoned, cautious yet adventurous, willing-to-go-if-it-is-not-leaving-the-frying-pan-only-to-jump-into-the-fire type.

This guys fiancée doesn't sound like anything you describe, assuming she's real, she seems to be quite ignorant.

Spang wrote:Sounds like your fiancés doesn't want to come and she is being passively aggressive about it, to try and dissuade you.

Ok, this time the entire post downloaded, not just the first paragraph. I dated a girl that sounded like that... for an evening. Didn't even last the whole night. Then the psycho broke into my house. I'm not going to spend the time commenting on the points made. Must not be many to choose from where he is - or, somebody is REALLY good at something.

No, on second thought, It ain't never that good.

this post is beginning to remind me of another one which turned out to be, well, BS.

this one smelled from the beginning

A seasoned traveler could make that 7k last 6 months or more here in Santiago....you two putting your $$ together might get 6 months if you're frugal and lucky. The language and cultural learning curve will definitely test your mettle. You'd better do so more reading and planning if you're intent on making it in Chile.

cali_chile48 wrote:this one smelled from the beginning

not touching that one....