I'm heading home next week for the first time since I arrived here. I plan to catch up with my ex-supervisors and other trusted friends/ex-colleagues and ask their opinions. If I decide to continue, then I think I will find a counseller, so I have an outlet to talk these things through

Thirdly, I have learnt a lot in one year. Some things are better than in Australia, some things aren't. I am currently working with my group to get the seminar program up and running again and am working with the postgrad group to get some social activities happening that are not excuses to go drink lots of beer.

The Dutch do speak English extremely well (better than people I know studying in Australia), but the directness that juno mentioned gets to you after a while. My faculty is still very Dutch -- newsletters, webapges, dept. seminars etc. are in Dutch. I spend 4+ hours a week in Dutch class, but it takes time before you're able to understand. Our support staff are all Dutch (normal), the professors are all Dutch (at other faculties there are a lot of non-Dutch professors). At morning teas, it frequently happens that we split into two groups: Dutch and non-Dutch speakers. You really get the the feeling that there is a distinction.

Thanks for your comments, everyone. Firstly, I should point out that my experience is individual and circumstantial. Had I joined another group at the same uni, I think I would have had a different experience. So this is not a general reflection on studying in NL.

Secondly, my main issue is lack of support. I have joined a sports club, but it is mostly Dutch people. That's been fun, but they don't understand my issues, and frequently cause me more stress with their comments and behaviour. My partner is back in Melbourne and hasn't spent long enough here to understand. My colleagues all have their "language" support groups -- I've only just found a native English speaker after 11 months. I think everyone assumes that because I speak my "native language" all day (which I don't, I speak a mix of EuroEnglish and Dutch), I don't need to hang out with other English speakers, whereas the others are told immediately "oh. there's a Portuguese/Chinese/German guy/girl on the 6th floor...".

There is a student's society, however PhD's here are employees, so we are not eligible to join. Also I'm not a big beer-drinking person, and that's all the students (and staff for that matter) seem to do here.

During the "about the uni" presentation at my introduction day, there was a pie chart showing where the foreign staff come from. Australia wasn't even on there – I made them add an Oceania slice and it turned out to be less than 1%, so I'm thinking there's a handful of us on staff. Most people I meet are from mainland Europe.

Sympathy is good – I don't get that from the Dutch

Yes, the language barrier is shocking – I really wish I'd gone to England. I can never find things in the supermarket and I (used to) need Babelfish to understand cooking instructions. You don't think of little things like that. Also, the uni is still very Dutch, despite having a large international population.

I enjoy languages though and it's a good feeling when you negotiate something in Dutch. But the overheads involved in moving countries are amazing.

I'm from Melbourne, so I'm not a big fan of Sydney. Last I was there it reminded me of Melbourne – I think they’re very similar, except Sydney has that bridge and the opera house ...

Hi all,

I found this forum a few weeks back and have been poking around since.

I'm an Australian doing a PhD in the Netherlands. I'm almost at the end of my first year and am currently preparing for my one-year review (audit). Progress has been slow due to:
* the issues involved with moving to a new country;
* I did my masters part-time whilst working (so for me research is more of a hobby than a job);
* I'm in a completely different field to my masters research and have no intention of continuing in this field, however the topic suits me perfectly;
* my supervisors are both Dutch which leads to an awful lot of misunderstandings, both culturally and linguistically;
* my Dutch colleagues don't like my Dutch accent and my other international colleagues don't like my English accent, so communicating with people is trying at times.

You get to a point where you think there's just too much against you. Even non-work activities (e.g. shopping) are exhausting.

Anyone else in a similar boat? :)