Where in Western Europe to move to?

Spain is really a nice place. I wouldn't recommend England, terrible grey skies, depressed population that is drinking to oblivion.

You know, I come from Europe (Bulgaria), and I haven't noticed this business of correcting someone to be considered rude. People who think so should stop letting their pride get in the way of learning new things.
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you come from bulgaria, a former communist country which was also for centuries under turkish occupation, thus the way of how people think and operate is completelly different from the rest of europe. balkan (and i am one of them) tend to be more direct and quite often rude. and knowing people from other former warsaw block countries (luckily my country wasnt part of it), the rudeness and directness

but ive never noticed in all my years that people would correct others, at least not in my country. whenever somebody tried to learn my language and was making mistakes, of course i didnt outright correct the person, thats rude and discouraging.
and i have to tell, i havent even read your previous post, so dont know if there are further corrections, but i have to say i wont rely on corrections by a person claiming to be a writer but not knowing that nostrification exists as a word. (and claiming that before even checking). you didnt show care about my language skills, but were pure and simply petty because usually when the language correction is the one way of "striking" back at a person when we feel offended, because there is nothing else online unless we want to go into open insulting.

as for germany, its not the same as northern europe. especially now the german government is making an emphasis on learning the language in order to work, and you cant study at the university unless you speak german.

my toddler son pressed the button before time..anyway:

balkan (and i am one of them) tend to be more direct and quite often rude. and knowing people from other former warsaw block countries (luckily my country wasnt part of it), the rudeness and directness is quite often present and the way of operating is different than in the west.

as for you being a writer, unfortunatelly that wont help you much in europe. by that i mean, you wont be able to even get a residence permit. true, you have bulgarian citizenship. but especially nordic countries are very strict. you can stay up to 3 months without a specific reason, but then you need to register at the police to get a permanent residency (yes, even EU citizens, all of them have to do it) and that can only be done if you have a reason to stay.
so you cant just move to say finland and stay forever thinking its possible with bulgarian or any other non finnish but EU citizenship. after 3 months, you can be fined. the reasons for staying: - study (but then you have to prove you have the finances, this applies to EU citizens as well), - work, - nordic bf/gf (nordic countries recognise gay unions).

so you will have to find a job at some company etc also for reasons of social benefits and free health care if you move here. i dont know how it works in germany.

this was supposed to be:
but were pure and simply petty because usually the language correction is the one way of "striking" back at a person when we feel offended, because there is nothing else online that we can do unless we want to go into open insulting.

thanks,stuckbehindadesk. i was lucky enough to come from a multilingual family and in addition, my fathers job (medical doctor, specialist) allowed us to live in different countries in europe and my parents insisted on me learning the languages.

Keti - You misread me. Upon seeing the word nostrification, I looked it up on an online dictionary that I had considered reliable, and did not find any results. As a result, I wrongly thought you had confused two other terms, or something like that.
I wasn't trying to be rude. I have training as an English teacher. The first thing I tell my students is 'mistakes are good things, because they help you learn', so I was coming at it from that perspective.
Please don't respond to me if you're not going to read my posts beforehand.
If you had been nice to me from the start instead of calling me a 'dreamer' then I would have not had an ambiguous tone in my head as I was writing.
If you don't want to comment any further, it's okay.

I don't think it will make a difference what I do if my mum can support me, since I am family.

The global financial crisis is a reality that has hit far harder in Europe than it has here in Australia. I truly think neither you nor your mother stand much of a chance of getting a job in any of the countries in which you'd be allowed to work.

Unemployed people with PhDs are a dime a dozen as we speak.

You're welcome epiphanieb.

I don't see in any way how Keti's minor misspelling of a word (I believe it was ''definitely'') resulted in her message being any less clear. Most people are able to recognise a typo for what it is and it rarely results in any confusion. It's interesting that you make the presumption that this was due to her inherent ignorance of the correct spelling of the word rather than a simple slip of the keys. Perhaps speaking a meagre 2.5 languages restricts your ability to recognise such errors and to process them accordingly? In which case, coming to Europe and improving on your language skills will certainly help. You would also do well to improve your own English skills by broadening your vocabulary range as it appears somewhat limited (online dictionaries are not the best resource to do so). I'm sure Keti would be pleased to help you with this as I know she is an able and enthusiastic linguist.

Furthermore, you claim to have been living in Sydney for 20 of your 26 years so I don't think you are really in a position to judge what is acceptable or not in European culture. You should be thankful (as somebody who is considering moving to Europe) to be educated about what is and isn't generally considered acceptable so that you can prepare yourself in advance. Of course, whether you choose to conform to these basic standards is entirely up to you- we are generally a tolerant continent and you are welcome to behave as you wish within the limits of the law. But you should certainly be appreciative of the opportunity to learn about other cultures and the standards that they (rightly or wrongly) tend to impose upon the people who live within them.

However, this is all largely academic as you have little or no hope of being able to make this move. Your mother may have somewhat more success in the UK but even then lecturer is not an in-demand profession and there are plenty of suitably qualified EU citizens who could take the roles available. Nobody here will interview her over the internet. You should also bear in mind that you will not be able to come in with your mother under some 'family scheme'- you are 26 and an adult and so your application would be judged entirely on its own merits. 'Unemployed writer' is unfortunately not a profession in much demand so you should prepare yourself for some disappointment.

Keti- I'm well aware of your impressive linguistic abilities from seeing some of your other posts. I'm sure ephiphanieb would appreciate any help to improve her English skills that you feel able to offer.

Stuckbehindadesk - If you look at the last two posts Keti just put up, you'll see that not only are there lots of other errors, but she uses

unfortunatelly

in which she is making the same mistake that she did in 'definitelly'. Most people who are learning English (and some who are native speakers) also get this word wrong, but spell it 'definately'.

I have a much broader vocabulary than most people, so the thought that I can learn English from Keti, who clearly struggles with it, is laughable.

I have been using dictionary.com for years, and this is the only time it has failed to locate an existing word for me. Perhaps it was an irregular oversight on their behalf.

If my mum needs to, she will base herself in Bulgaria and fly to the cities she needs to from there. If I need to, I can get a job as an English teacher (Spain has a lot of need in this area).

And, having just seen ephiphanieb's response above, as a qualified English teacher myself all I can say is that one of the basic rules of teaching is not that 'every mistake is an opportunity to learn.' If the purpose of a class is to develop fluency, you are not going to help your students by constantly interrupting conversation to pick up on ever minor grammatical error. The rationale of this conversation was to provide advice, inform and give opinions relating to your question. If Keti had asked for ways she could improve her English, then that would be an entirely different matter.

I accept that the intention was not to be rude or offend but the effect is the same and you should be prepared for the fact that this will often produce a negative reaction. Cultural sensitivity is essential if you wish to live in a foreign country- without it you will have little if any possibility to make contacts within that culture and therefore little if any possibility of learning and educating yourself, which would be a huge waste of an opportunity.

If I were in your position, my first choice would be Bulgaria. I think you have far better chances there. Of course, Bulgaria is not widely regarded as a Bohemian, cosmopolitan and gay friendly country full of eccentrics (although I can't judge this myself) but I have always found one of the pleasures of travel is immersing yourself in a country that is completely different from your own. I personally am attracted to repressive, highly traditional religious theocracies because they represent a worldpoint completely different to my own views, and therefore provide a more enriching experience than immersion in a culture that reflects your own way of viewing the world.

Sbad - I have enjoyed visiting such places as China, Turkey, Cambodia and Vietnam, but I would never live there because a) I value my freedom of speech too much and b) I can't stand racism and homophobia. But I suppose since I spent my first 7 years in a Communist nation and have rebelled against many aspects of my upbringing, I am informed by that. I can understand that Bulgaria might be fascinating and rewarding for other people, but I've been there several times and it irritates me profusely.

In regards to English teaching, obviously you need to be careful about which mistakes are productive to correct and which are not.