Hello everyone! I came here for vacation a little over 10 years ago and I leaned on this forum to assist me with my first trip. I am starting a course now for other Americans who were in a similar situation, to assist them with moving here. I read an article recently that said more than 100,000 Americans have decided to make DR their home and I believe that number will grow over the next few years. If you know anyone that would be interested, please have them email me: chrisdogan21@gmail.com subject line - DRBootcamp and a very special shoutout to all those people who assisted me on my first trip, I can't thank you enough.
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Island Integration 101: Navigating Work, Home, and Culture in the Dominican Republic
... or ask a well-spoken friend if you don't think your voice is up to it.
great concept! quit your job and move to a place where you can earn a fraction of your salary and lay on the beach. Which is a great hobby because you will not have money to do anything else.
You are a bundle of joy this week Big. Keep it up and be sure Santa will give you.................................................nada.Sorry😂
Keep in mind when the number of Americans is thrown around, the bulk are Dominican-Americans, often with dual citizenship. The typical "American" isn't the gringo type. Case in point, some of the places that have the greatest concentrations of actual gringo Americans is the Sosúa-Cabarete area and perhaps the Bávaro-Punta Cana area. If you notice, there isn't much presence of the larger Dominican companies that focus their business on local consumption in the Sosúa-Caberete area. You have to go to Puerto Plata proper to see signs of some of the larger Dominicsn companies targeting local consumption.
That area also don't have Dominican stores that are geared more to the upper/upper middle classes, despite the typical gringo American that lives in the DR has an income level that from an economic perspective puts them in the income brackets that stores such as Casa Cuesta are geared to. As large as the expat community is in the Sosúa-Cabarete area, it simply isn't large enough to support such as store. The closest one is in Santiago and they are geared 100% to Dominicans. Notice they don't even have any advertisements in English. The places where they do advertise sre dependent mostly on Dominican consumption such as the major newspapers and in Dominican visitors dominated website. I have yet to see one advertisement banner of Casa Cuesta in DR1 and this is the largest English website focused on the DR snd perhaps the most visited by expats everywhere in the DR.
Now Bávaro-Punta Cana does have a greater presence of major Dominican stores geared mostly to the middle class and up. The latest one that open a few days ago is Unido. Then you have to ask who are most of the shoppers in these stores? You do see more expats shopping in places in the Bávaro-Punta Cana such as Sirena Market, Nacional, Bellón, etc there than in their other stores in the rest of the DR. However, you see more of them, but they aren't most of the shoppers either. Then comes the issue with advertisements, all in Spanish and all geared to Dominicans. That should be another sign. You will see some real estate advertisements, especially in billboards, in the Bávaro - Punta Cana area in languages that are definitely not Spanish, but the same can't be said regarding other things. Even then, most real estate advertisements seen in the Bávaro-Punta Cana area are also in Spanish.
I have no idea what is the number of gringo Americans living in the DR, but I would be very surprise if it surpasses 20,000 and that is being very liberal sbout the figure.
That area also don't have Dominican stores that are geared more to the upper/upper middle classes, despite the typical gringo American that lives in the DR has an income level that from an economic perspective puts them in the income brackets that stores such as Casa Cuesta are geared to. As large as the expat community is in the Sosúa-Cabarete area, it simply isn't large enough to support such as store. The closest one is in Santiago and they are geared 100% to Dominicans. Notice they don't even have any advertisements in English. The places where they do advertise sre dependent mostly on Dominican consumption such as the major newspapers and in Dominican visitors dominated website. I have yet to see one advertisement banner of Casa Cuesta in DR1 and this is the largest English website focused on the DR snd perhaps the most visited by expats everywhere in the DR.
Now Bávaro-Punta Cana does have a greater presence of major Dominican stores geared mostly to the middle class and up. The latest one that open a few days ago is Unido. Then you have to ask who are most of the shoppers in these stores? You do see more expats shopping in places in the Bávaro-Punta Cana such as Sirena Market, Nacional, Bellón, etc there than in their other stores in the rest of the DR. However, you see more of them, but they aren't most of the shoppers either. Then comes the issue with advertisements, all in Spanish and all geared to Dominicans. That should be another sign. You will see some real estate advertisements, especially in billboards, in the Bávaro - Punta Cana area in languages that are definitely not Spanish, but the same can't be said regarding other things. Even then, most real estate advertisements seen in the Bávaro-Punta Cana area are also in Spanish.
I have no idea what is the number of gringo Americans living in the DR, but I would be very surprise if it surpasses 20,000 and that is being very liberal sbout the figure.
Your first trip was 10 years ago. How long have you been living in the Dominican Republic? What are your ties to the country? Wife? Kids? Real Estate?
Business? Are you a legal resident or pay as you go like the Sosua crowd?
I know I know, no one likes a realist. I will try to present a sugar-coated response just for you.
This is the real meat response BC OP saw
a number of 100,00 somewhere he thought he would educate the populace. Education comes with learning day to day, moment by moment breathing the air, eating shet, frustrations, joys, customs and life itself BEFORE you have an index page on how to live, Good luck with your endeavor . Reminds me of food that has no salt. Sorry. Critiques hurt on a public forum.
And perhaps change the music. This video reminded me of infomercials from the early 90s... Not a "great" video by any stretch, humorous though as I guess if you want to move to the DR there are thousands of other YT videos you could watch to get guidance from. But Good Luck, you're going to need it..
Great another gringo advising on DR life. You should post this on an Everything name your gringo rights town website. There you will get answers to complex questions like Where do I buy milk? Can someone recommend a UL-certified electrician? Where can I buy a screwdriver? Is there a school for crochet? or Anyone know where I can buy gluten free chewable vitamin C tablets?
I predict major success for this novel YouTube boot camp start-up.
I did notice some of that content belongs to M of Tourism. Shhhh, no one will know.
Love the A-Team theme song!
I predict major success for this novel YouTube boot camp start-up.
I did notice some of that content belongs to M of Tourism. Shhhh, no one will know.
Love the A-Team theme song!
Dude, he's creating content to attract a demographic, not make them feel like they just got a sulfuric acid enema like I feel after reading these looooonnnggg posts. Omg
You could always just skip them if you don't like them. Better for you than having a sulfuric acid enema. The choice is yours.
A bit like leading lambs to the slaughterhouse. I've been living down here full time for over a decade and still wouldn't feel comfortable running a "bootcamp" for new folks. Better to just offer a little advice from time to time.
Love em or hate em, Rick from Rocky's up in Sosua gave me some good advice about how to deal with Dominicans during my first trip up to the North Coast several years ago and I still flow it to this day. Trust me, it helped me to avoid alot of bs along the way.
There is nothing in the video that demonstrates this "bootcamp" offers anything of value or that whoever runs it or put together lessons - I guess there are lessons - has any demonstrated knowledge of the DR. Or competence at teaching. Minor oversight 🙄
It looks like there might be 28 minute lessons about something but the flashes of lists of whatever it is are too quick to know what the content is.
The woman narrating does not know how to pronounce adiós. If this shows the level of expertise and/or competence of the rest of the "lessons" it looks like most people will leave with little of value.
Cost?
This video can't be the only promotion that Sarge is doing? Better to find help with marketing - although the content likely needs work too based on what the video shows (or more accurately doesn't show.)
As above - DR1 has the advantage of great blunt, accurate, and honest opinions 😆
It looks like there might be 28 minute lessons about something but the flashes of lists of whatever it is are too quick to know what the content is.
The woman narrating does not know how to pronounce adiós. If this shows the level of expertise and/or competence of the rest of the "lessons" it looks like most people will leave with little of value.
Cost?
This video can't be the only promotion that Sarge is doing? Better to find help with marketing - although the content likely needs work too based on what the video shows (or more accurately doesn't show.)
As above - DR1 has the advantage of great blunt, accurate, and honest opinions 😆
It's not a real person narrating, it's an AI-created voice. Without hearing the lessons, I have no idea whether they have any value or not.
The pages pass by much slower if you view the video at 25% speed, and you can pause it at any time.
What may be worthless to us because we already know, may be valuable to a first-time visitor.
In any case, it's obvious the guy has put a lot of work into his project.
Clearly newcomers have a lot of questions, concerns, etc... There are a lot of forums (DR1, FB...) out there where you can ask a question, get a suggestion, etc.. Maybe the OP will find an audience for this. Everyone's experience is different (plenty of threads/posts on DR1 to prove that), so what worked/works for me may not work for someone else. Also, the area where you live plays a role. What I would do or need in Santo Domingo for certain situations, may not work in Punta Cana, Santiago, Sosua, etc... The OP's idea is not bad, it's just there is a lot of information available on different media platforms already.