Introduction

mrpatm

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Aug 14, 2007
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I guess this is the best place to start. So here goes, I am like many seeking employment and relocation to the DR. I am a 51 year old male and a machinist by trade. I have been apprenticeship trained ( if you are in the trades you know that has some meaning) and if it is made of metal,wood plastic,composite or glass I can make manufacture or repair it (LOL). I have been investigating places to live without having to have a snow shovel for about 3 years. I have narrowed it down to several places the DR being one of them. I just had a wonderful VACATION to luperon beach area and would like to do much more investigation prior to a test relocation periods for 1 month 3 months then 6 months before becoming a expat.

I was in the military for an extended time and did time in panama so tropical life is not unfamiliar to me.

I am working on the bilinguial issue daily.
I just today joined this forum and would love to chat with anyone with constructive advise.

So I guess my first request would be does anyone have the names of placement agencies that work in the DR so I can start a job search?

I am lucky enough to have the freedom to relocate earlier than retirement if a good oppourtunity came along.

I also have some rather peculicuar request like what is the name of the processing plant for coconuts in the DR?
ect.

Who is the biggest scuba equipment supplier in the country ?

Is there a Waterjet ( manufacturing equipment ) machine within the DR?
it would be listed as part of a machine shop service.

Is there a major marine engine repair location or are ther all small shops all over?

are woodpeckers truly causing a ecological problem on the island ?

I know these may seam like random and weird questions but beleive it or not they do have reasons.

one trait that I do have is solving problems with unique ideas.



I guess thats all for now but thanks for reading, and I hope to make contact with anyone who can help the trial relocation periods happen as soon as possiable.

I know my spelling is pretty bad sometimes so I don't know if the catholic school nuns hit me too hard or not hard enough

Thanks Mr. Pat M
 

Rocky

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Apr 4, 2002
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So many questions and so few answers.
Let me first say, Welcome to DR1.

If you are looking to earn a living here, you might reconsider.
Earning enough money to live off of, is really difficult.
If you are able to retire and want to work as a sideline/hobby/supplement, then the DR is a great country to live in.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
Top three issues to address before you make the move:

1. Source of income

2. Source of income

3. Source of income

If you are lucky enough to find a job in your field you will more than likely be making a fifth of what you made in the States. If per chance your job was a union job make that a tenth.

To find a job your best bet would be to work on your Spanish ASAP and maybe have a friend who speaks Spanish start contacting the Zona Francas that have machining operations. If you study correct grammar diligently you should be able to communicate fairly well in two years - forget the immersion crap - that is for tourists - you want to be actually able to understand what the people tell you and the immersion stuff only is only good for allowing you to be more or less understood by the locals, not the other way around.

Best of luck
 

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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You plan on tooling up a machine with high powered water jets which will a) knock coconuts off the trees & b) dislodge woodpeckers at the same time..............? :) All placed in a very deep aquarium with ornamental fountains where scuba equipment will be needed................maybe to rescue the woodpeckers?

How am I doing so far? And welcome to DR1.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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Chip, I don't think immersion is crap. My Spanish is very good (both oral and written) with very little accent, to the extent locals tell me they haven't seen non-native speaker speaking Spanish so well. Hmm. I got to lesson # eleven in my Spanish textbook in the year 2000. The rest - watching TV in Spanish (including, yeas, news and novelas, which have simple and slow conversations, good to pick up vocabulary, structures and meanings), reading books, and LOTS and lots of conversation. Then, of course, self-investigation of "what things mean, how they work out, how the structures are made, what is good and what is not". How did I achieve it? With immersion.

I was lucky enough to travel weekly for business to Latin America for over 3 years, and lived last 4 years in Spanish speaking countries (including almost 3 years in the DR).

So tell me about the immersion! I REALLY don't think it's a crap for tourists.
 

sjh

aka - shadley
Jan 1, 2002
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there is a business for machine shops here. i dont know how big it is or how well it pays. beware working as a machinist for someone else is a sure road to poverty. To start your own biz, besides all the usual things, you will also need a good generator to operate a business.

there are many coconut processing plants here. there is one between nagua and cabrera. I dont know the name.

If you are asking about marine engines to get one repaired, I cant help you, but if you want to start a repair shop, i think you could do well in several places around the country.

Another business you could start here is manufacturing, installing and maintaining wind turbines. There is a pretty good market for them and importing them is expensive. check Welcome to OTHERPOWER.COM for some neat plans and howtos....
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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Chip, I don't think immersion is crap. My Spanish is very good (both oral and written) with very little accent, to the extent locals tell me they haven't seen non-native speaker speaking Spanish so well. Hmm. I got to lesson # eleven in my Spanish textbook in the year 2000. The rest - watching TV in Spanish (including, yeas, news and novelas, which have simple and slow conversations, good to pick up vocabulary, structures and meanings), reading books, and LOTS and lots of conversation. Then, of course, self-investigation of "what things mean, how they work out, how the structures are made, what is good and what is not". How did I achieve it? With immersion.

I was lucky enough to travel weekly for business to Latin America for over 3 years, and lived last 4 years in Spanish speaking countries (including almost 3 years in the DR).

So tell me about the immersion! I REALLY don't think it's a crap for tourists.

I'm glad it worked out for you - don't take my advice as a personal attack though - it is just an opinion.

To clarify my understanding of the "immersion method" it is whereby the student is thrown into the foreign language environment and almost by a process of osmosis they somehow "learn". The first lessons that I paid US90 some 7 years ago from a reputible company from Barnes and Nobles were like this. It didn't help me for squat. I ended up buying a grammar book and going for start to finish. Also, I can't tell you how many countless gringos I have met that say they are fluent in Spanish that would be considered by most non English speaking Dominicans as unable to communicate.

If it worked for you I'm happy for you. However, I'm not a fond advocate of "shortcuts" as inevitably they will limit one's ability at some point. IMHO If one wants to really speak correctly like the natives, albeit with an accent, one needs to thouroghly study the grammar and verbs etc.

One final note, lighten up and go have a cold one on me - next time you are in Santiago I'll pay you back. :)
 

Rocky

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We might want to avoid hijacking this thread into a Spanish immersion debate, if we are to answer the OP's quesions and offer him good advice.
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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We might want to avoid hijacking this thread into a Spanish immersion debate, if we are to answer the OP's quesions and offer him good advice.

Enough has been said for sure but is relevant nonetheless for the OP's integration. If this guy is going to be doing business with DOminicans here IMO he will need to speak as the natives and therefore need to start investigating the best way to start making that happen.

I can't imagine a guy with his own business selling machined parts to Domincans w/o really being able to communincate at much, much more than a basic level.

A good example of the problem of living here and yet being unable to adequately communicate was demonstrated by the poor gringo a while back who opened the entrance gate at his apartment when some Dominicans were screaming at him no to do it so that a theif who was in the process of stealing the gringo's own car wouldn't be able to leave - but he did it anyway because he couldn't understand.
 
Feb 7, 2007
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IMHO If one wants to really speak correctly like the natives, albeit with an accent, one needs to thouroghly study the grammar and verbs etc.

You are right on this. It just need not necessarily be in order of lessons of the textbook.

I mean, also in my case, I was consulting a LOT the textbook for grammar. But it was like consulting at the same time lesson no. 15 and lesson 40, consulting the thing (e.g. verb form, subjunctive, etc.) I needed to check out at that moment. Thinking of it, I went through the whole textbook, but in a criss-cross manner.

It may work for some, it may not for others.

It worked for me, but also I am considering myself as having some talent for languages. (btw English is not my first language either).

But what is ALWAYS recommended, is along studying proper grammer
- read in the language (novels, newspaper, magazines) but novels are best. This was suggested to me in my early years when I was studying English by my aunt who is English tecaher. The first novel I started, put away for 4 months, and then finished in 3 days. It was my first novel in English. I did the same with Spanish, reading a lot of Spanish books. The thing is, the stuff gets into your brain somehow and you just remember, you get to learn a lot of vocabulary the "natural way" without even knowing how.
- second, watch TV, it gets you used to the lnaguage and conversation flow
- third, and final, speak, speak and speak.