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Arrived to Cork for work, but don't like the place. Having a cultural shock.
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ABajaninCork wrote: »You took my advice then!
Definitely. I do need some good piece of advice, so it is well appreciated. In fact, I did go to Blackrock today, and Douglas. Stunning! Thanks.0 -
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Great area if I do say so myself. Welcome to Cork and I hope you settle in and get to experience the joys of our fantastic city.Hm, I think I meant Blackpool, but mistyped:). I only passed it and the shopping centre seemed all right, though who knows?
As for Blackrock, how do I get to Hollyhill from there? I know 202 doesn't pass Blackrock. Am I right? do i need to change a couple of buses?0 -
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Grustel25, don't let the "home sickness" get the better of you. I understand you left your husband in the UK, and I have quite a growing suspect your issue is not with missing "home" but with missing him.
About Cork, a few pointers in no particular order:
1 - Coming from other EU countries the feeling can be strange; As somebody pointed out, the best houses and buildings tend to be hidden from the street.
Also, your idea of city centre is probably one made of tall(ish) buildings, while Cork's city centre has a "low rise" nature that makes it look like a village, even compared to smaller cities such as Limerick, which have more modernized / higher rise centres. Looks are deceiving in this case, take walks at different times to realize more or less anything you need, is there;
2 - Apartments/accommodations wise, it is true, there are a lot of absolutely rubbish places, you have to look carefully.
There is also the problem that many houses that are deemed "excellent", "fabulous" et cetera will feel cramped and uncomfortable to you; Big cultural difference here, people tend to like and wish for the kind of places they grew up in. Conversely, it's more than likely that an apartment you like would turn out to be a place no Irish person would want to live, even for a day.
Look carefully through Daft, if you go to a letting agency try asking them about some more modern apartments. Asking some non-Irish colleagues could help too.
3 - Do not underestimate work; By definition, you're more likely to meet people with similar interests and backgrounds to yours there than anywhere else; Also, there are a lot of non-Corkonians living here, both from other parts of Ireland and from abroad. There are tons of activity/meeting groups, you only need to look around;
4 - Safety should be no concern; When I first arrived here, I was kind of shocked to see single girls going out and coming home alone on a Saturday night. Where I come from, that would unfortunately be a fail safe recipe for harassment. As long as you avoid certain areas, mostly at night, and steer clear of drunks, you shall have no problem;
5 - Cork has its own timing for most things, you'll have to learn this. The very first night I was here, it was a Saturday night. Around 8pm I left the B&B and walked to the centre...it was like "The Day After Tomorrow". Nothing. Nobody. Not a soul in sight, on a Saturday night in mid September. Even pubs and bars were mostly empty. I started wondering where in heavens did I end up in. Went to the Cinema, about 20 people watching the movie. Came out of the movie, was about 11.30pm by then, to a changed scenario: people everywhere, queues outside bars and nightclubs, some pubs would turn people away due to crowding;
6 - It's not London, the drawbacks are obvious. The benefits, however, are less obvious but interesting: concepts such as "traffic" and "crowded bus/train" are very relative, and what passes for a traffic jam here would be considered a minor traffic slowdown in London/Rome/Paris/Madrid/Berlin
7 - Anything you can't find, there's eBay
Hope it might help a bit, plenty of good suggestions in this thread.0 -
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Hi OP. I'm from Cork and am living in Sheffield for almost a year now.
Like you, I found moving to another country to be a bit of a culture shock, but Irish people and English people aren't really that different when you dig into it. You'll get used to us in no time:).
Cork is a wonderful city, and I hope you'll get to see that over the course of your stay here, however staying in Wellington Road is not the best place (even though three of the city's most respected secondary schools are based just off that road).
A few pointers:
Irish people are informal in the extreme, so don't be surprised if someone addresses you by your first name in Ireland where you might expect to be addressed as 'Ms x' in England.
Irish people are inclined to swear a lot more than the English are. We're not really into formalities in Ireland that much
. The class system that exists in England does not exist to anything like the same extent in Ireland (though it is still there, of course).
Unlike in London, Irish people will generally talk to anyone, and on buses and trains, or just out and about in general, you will notice that people will talk on these and will sometimes start up a random conversation with others even though they don't know you or anyone else. In that regard, we're the same as northerners in England.
Customer service in Ireland is pretty poor, especially compared to the UK. Irish people are generally less polite in just about every situation, which is probably related to the poor customer service that Irish people have to put up with. Don't be surprised if you're asked to do something at work without the person ending the sentence with 'please', and don't be surprised if you don't get thanked for doing something. Also, most people will say 'what?' or 'what's that?' whereas in England you would say 'pardon?'.
Also the cost of groceries and some other things is a lot higher (as you know, Tesco in the UK is expensive compared to Asda, and yet if Tesco in Ireland charged the same as Tesco in the UK did, they'd be an absolute bargain compared to the other Irish supermarkets), but property tax is so much lower than council tax and take home pay is a lot higher as well, as PRSI (the equivalent of NI in the UK) is a lot lower and the income tax credits are more generous than the tax free allowance in the UK is.
Long distance train fares are a hell of a lot cheaper in Ireland than in the UK, but are slower and don't have the same range of departures. For long distance travel, the express bus services to Dublin, Limerick and Galway are the best options, almost as quick as the trains, and some parts of the country have an excellent motorway network, which, unlike the motorways in the UK, will only be really busy on Friday evenings. The express buses are very cheap and most have toilets and Wi-Fi, so it's no wonder they are very popular.
Although Irish people will usually do things by the book at work (especially if you're working in a multinational), outside of work, we are far less inclined to do things by the book than you are.
For an example of what I am talking about, I remember going into a lift in a car park in Sheffield, and there was a man monitoring the lift to ensure we didn't exceed the lift's maximum capacity:eek:, that simply does not happen in Ireland, and if it did, we'd all ignore the person anyway:D. Another time, I was in Go Outdoors, and there were separate doors to enter and exit the store, and we couldn't go out the entrance door (there was actually someone there to ensure that this 'rule' was being enforced). Again, in Ireland they wouldn't try to enforce such a rule, as we'd ignore things like that anyway. Things like that Irish people just ignore even if it's what you're supposed to do.
Cork people are extremely proud of their city and county (all Irish people are, but especially in Cork people are proud of where they're from) - you will hear references from time to time about the 'real capital' for example (Dublin is of course the capital, but some people in Cork like to claim otherwise), and you may see maps of Ireland where the island is divided into two - one part being county Cork, and marked with 'Cork', and the other part being the rest of the island, marked with 'not Cork'.
Like in England, there is rivalry towards other counties/regions of the country, although it's all good natured and is not sinister (sometimes I get the impression over here that the North-South divide is a bit more than just a bit of banter).
Some of the words and expressions used in England are not used in Ireland, and vice-versa. The following are examples of what I am talking about:
- people in Ireland don't get 'cross' with someone or something, they 'give out' to the person or about something (it's derived from the Irish language)
- we don't have 'mates', it's always 'friends'
- flats are called apartments
- lorries are called trucks
- a "cupboard" is called a press
- an "airing cupboard" is called a hot press
- a loft is called an attic
If you use cupboard or loft etc, people will understand you, but they're rarely used by Irish people.
- the expression 'are you alright?' is generally not used, not least because it would be considered to be quite uncomplimentary. I mean, why would you only want to be feeling 'alright':D? Better to say 'how are you', or 'how's it going' instead
- Irish people will say 'sorry' in situations where 'excuse me' and 'pardon' would be used in the UK, especially younger people
- 'poorly', in the context of someone feeling unwell, is likely to either result in the person you are talking to not understanding what you're talking about, or cause offence - don't say this! People usually say they are 'sick' or 'ill' rather than 'feeling poorly'. In fact the word poorly is just not used in Ireland at all
- sometimes in England people use the word 'shall' whereas in Ireland 'will' is used instead (Irish people rarely use the word 'shall')
- Irish people are more inclined to say 'thanks' rather than 'thank you' like in England, and 'ta' or other slang for expressing gratitude is not used
- 'college' in Ireland is the same as 'uni' in Britain, it does not have the same meaning as it does in the UK
- slices of 'bacon' are called 'rashers' in Ireland (though bacon is understood)
- craic (pronounced 'crack') is an Irish loan word, and is used a lot, and does not at all have the slang meaning of the English word 'crack'. It can mean lots of things, 'What's the craic?' is another way of asking someone how they're feeling, 'No craic' means no news, 'for the craic' means for a laugh, 'we had mighty craic last night' means we had a great time last night, 'any craic?' means is there any news, and if you see the word 'craic' outside a pub, it means fun (usually accompanied by 'ceoil agus craic', which means music and fun). Also, people will say things like 'I will check that again just to be sure to be sure' to emphasise the fact that they are checking that something is as it should be
- People from the north side of the city are sometimes disparagingly referred to as 'norries' by people from the southside
- 'Pana' is the nickname for St Patrick Street
- 'film' is generally pronounced 'fil-um'
- 'eejit' is sometimes used instead of 'idiot'
- 'soccer' is used instead of 'football', as 'football' in Ireland means Gaelic football
- 'Taytos' are sometimes used instead of 'crisps' (as Tayto is a crisp brand)
The accent and phraseology might be strange for an outside, but I love it. If you're addressed as 'girl', take it as a compliment. If you're called a 'langer' (although this is quite archaic these days), again it's usually a term of endearment. If someone ends a sentence with 'yeah', such as 'I will, yeah', that means the exact opposite - it's another way of saying 'I won't'.
The thing I miss most about home is the food actually, no English sausage tastes as nice as Clonakilty sausages, and you can't beat a Galtee rasher (slice of bacon). Also, there's nothing like a cup of Barry's Tea. Irish food is generally excellent, and there are lots of nice restaurants in the city centre in Cork; Luigi Malones, the Electric, the Farmgate for example.
Irish people are extremely good fun to be around with, we don't take ourselves seriously and we love having a laugh, we have a sense of humour that although a bit different, is just as good as the English sense of humour.
You'll notice that Irish people are quite anglicised in many ways; anything on TV that has been successful in the UK always makes its way over to Ireland, and Irish people have more interest in the premier league than our own football teams. Just chillax, talk to people, and it won't be long before you make friends, we're a friendly bunch, honest. 0 -
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Justin Credible Darts wrote: »I suggest you travel the world a bit, get some experience on life, and then come back to me and see if you still have that closed mindedness of yours.Cork is not the epicentre of the universe and has as many bad faults as good.
As another Cork person, I have to agree with this. Some Cork people can be incredibly narrow minded, they think Cork is the centre of the universe. While I can understand the desire of anyone from Cork not currently living in Cork wanting to get back to real capital, there is so much more to Ireland than just Cork. While the vast majority of Cork people are very friendly and easy going, there is an element of clubbishness amongst a small minority of people, for some people their only friends are the people they went to school with 60 years ago.
Galway is an amazing city, better than Cork in some ways; there's more going on there, Salthill is only a 30 minute walk from the city centre and they're even more laid back than Corkonians are. Galwegians are so much more outward looking, probably because one third of the city's population is students and because most of the people living in the city are not from Galway county let alone Galway city. Nevertheless, I do love Cork and I miss the way people speech and the accent so much. The accent is very musical and people always sound jolly even when they're not. I certainly hope to be back in da real capital in time to come.
For the benefit of the OP, Cork people have a tendency to end sentences with 'like', which doesn't mean anything really, it's just how we speak, like:D.0 -
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