Originally from Brazil, at 27-years-old Doroty* can say that she has been living in various countries. With an unstoppable path, she left her birth city aged 14-years old and travelled to Germany because of her mother’s job, where she lived for four years.
Paula Coll Ortega
She finished school in Germany, where she absorbed the language to perfection and got to know a country that is very different to her birthplace. After such a long time there, she had a change of air and settled in Italy.
In Italy she decided to enrol in university and after seven years she added another language to her list. After more than half a decade, she decided to change the Mediterranean diet for fish and chips.
So she came to the British capital, initially to study English for three months at Cambridge University.
Now she can say that she speaks English quite fluently, that is four languages on her list, languages that have opened many doors for her in such an international city.
In London there are precisely 2,288,000 foreigners, according to the Office for National Statistics.
This puts Doroty in a very good position, because she is based in a city full of multiculturalism and where over 300 different languages are spoken.
The need for London businesses to hire people fluent in various languages is obvious. And it is thanks to her linguistic knowledge that Doroty has been able to find work quickly in an estate agency, where her clients come from many different parts of the world.
Nagela is really happy with her current situation and with the city in which she lives. She believes that although she has to pay a lot of taxes and lives in such an expensive city, she is a lot better off than in her birth country, because in London the workers’ wages are a lot higher.
If she had stayed in Brazil, it would have been difficult for her to have a quality education. Because there, according to what she has told us, if you do not have a lot of money you cannot get in to a good university.
Having made the jump to Europe, where a lot of universities are subsidised by the government, she has been able to have a better education and learn more about life.
She also feels that Brazil’s development is noticeably lower than that of the UK, which is why she sees this city as a way to grow and better herself professionally. In spite of that, she thinks Brazil is a lot nicer and you feel better there, but she knows that her birth country has work limitations that she cannot afford right now.
She would like to go back to her roots one day, because she has a good memory of them, but she does not know when she will be able to do it, only that it will not be soon. When she does she will have to have enough money to buy a house and have quieter life without the stress of a big city. (The Prisma’ memoirs.)
*Nombre real ha sido cambiado.
(Translated by Carina Sala- Email: anirac_82@hotmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay