Living or working in another country

Rough Guides publishes guides to hundreds of worldwide destinations. Visit their website at www.roughguides.com and search the database by city or country and download much useful information about your destination. Choose ‘Basics’ and find out about local banking hours, travel from the airport, emergencies, etc.

The UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) www.ukcisa.org.uk  publishes Guidance Notes for Students – international students and culture shock. These useful guidance notes may be helpful to anyone living or working in a foreign country; they are available to download free of charge from www.ukcisa.org.uk (Follow the links: Advice to UK students, Language and Culture, View list of information sheets).

UKCISA also provides links to Country specific sources of information providing organisations or websites with information for international students. Visit www.ukcisa.org.uk and choose Advice to UK students.

Finding out more about palliative care in the country you are visiting

• Download a Country Report prepared by the EAPC Taskforce on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe at eapcnet.org/Policy/CountriesReport.htm

• Visit the International Observatory on End of Life Care at www.eolc-observatory.net  You can download a copy of Mapping Levels of Palliative Care Development: a global view.

• Or check out the websites of National, Pan-national and Regional Palliative Care Associations. These are listed on the following websites:
  
  
  • Hospice Information www.hospiceinformation.info http://search.hospiceinformation.info/InterDirectorySearch.aspx  [Choose ‘type or organisation’ ‘national, pan-national or regional palliative care association’].
    
    
  • EAPC - eapcnet.org

Learn the language

Build up your confidence before your ‘stage/placement’ by listening to radio and television programmes in the language of the country you are visiting if you have access to these. And read anything available in the language too.

There are some excellent language learning opportunities on the BBC website.

• You can improve your reading and listening skills with the BBC World Service which produces news in 43 different languages. Website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/

• Improve your English at BBC Learning English where there is a  wide range of useful and interesting resources www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

• BBC Languages www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ provides short online courses in:
• Greek
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• German
• Mandarin Chinese

Other useful resources on the BBC Languages website include:

• Quick Fix  - Essential Holiday Phrases section – this will enable you to learn useful phrases to help you ‘get by’ in the local language
• Video clips
• Online dictionaries
• Beginners and Intermediate sections
• Test your language ability section to find your level

While great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this document, the EAPC is not responsible for the content, views or accuracy of information on external websites.

June 2008.