FINNEY Liz,48: The British teacher and amateur musician came to Villach in 2008. Five and a half years later she has built a busy life for herself, teaching English, translating and playing the violin with amateur orchestras. She has enjoyed the challenge of learning German and the social life and sporting activities that Carinthia offers.
I come from a town about 50 kilometres south west of London. I liked learning foreign languages at school and when I was 14 I took part in a school exchange with a school in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. I also went to stay with a family in Duisburg. My parents didn't take me abroad when I was a child so after I left school I travelled around Europe alone and with friends. It was fun trying to speak languages but I never thought I would actually live in a town on the European continent. If you had asked me I would have said it would be too hard.
As part of a university program I had to spend a period of time in Italy and I went to Bologna on my own. I lived with a family in an apartment and taught English when I wasn't socialising or writing work for my university. Bologna was the biggest city I had ever lived in and it wasn't always easy being a foreign young woman on my own. I spent most of my time with people living in our suburb who were all Italians so I never spoke English and picked up Italian quickly. I didn't play my violin after I left school which is a shame because it would have been an easy way to meet people.
When I was still a student I met my husband. Because my life in Bologna had not been easy I still had no plans to live abroad again, but after we had visited France a few times we liked it very much and started thinking about living there. Then my husband got a job in Toulouse in the south of France and we moved there. There was a lot of history in the area around Toulouse and both the mountains and the sea were quite near. The language wasn't hard and I learnt to ski in the Pyrenees. Because I was teaching English my colleagues at work were native English speakers.
Later on back in England I taught French and German in secondary schools. Then I had a job driving around schools teaching the violin, piano and guitar and by this time I was playing not only in pubs but also in an amateur orchestra which was a lot of fun. Sometimes we talked about living abroad again and after eleven years in Britain we wanted a new challenge so we moved to Villach in July 2008.
Living abroad in a city where I didn't know anybody was a lot easier this time and I could already speak some German of course so I was able to deal with the authorities. I taught an evening class to adults in Villach town centre the first year I was here, then I worked at an estate agent's and also taught a course to Austrian soldiers. Since September 2010 I've taught English to children privately in primary schools and on summer camps, whilst continuing to teach adults and translating texts professionally from German into English. More recently I've been into a couple of private companies in Villach to teach employees so I'm very busy now which is great. In July 2012 I passed my ÖSD B2 exam with distinction. I've found that if you work hard and are reliable you can achieve a lot, but you have to get to know people, because personal recommendation is very important here. Also, people I taught were able to tell me about Austrian culture and life and tell me how to do things. Just a few months after I arrived I went to my first orchestra rehearsal and the people gave me a warm welcome. As we all had a common interest and music is an international language this was a very positive experience.
In general people have been very friendly and kind here - neighbours and friends are much more generous than we are in Britain. I think it's quite easy for us coming from England as the country has a positive image here. As EU members, there are no immigration problems and being English native speakers is a big advantage. On the other hand, we both speak and write German well and this has made it possible to integrate well. People are happy to deal with you if you have studied their language. Immigrants who speak English but no German say you can survive with just English but it must be stressful in my opinion.
Austria is quite bureaucratic but it's a well organised country and offers all sorts of sporting opportunities. The natural landscape is beautiful and I love skiing and taking part in "Kärnten Läuft" (a big running event in Klagenfurt) every year. The political situation seems to be improving in Carinthia. In the future, if Britain leaves the EU I would like to apply for Austrian citizenship. In the meantime we've bought a small house here and intend to stay. 09.1.2014