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Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

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Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#21

Post by renewiltord »

* Get a credit card. Discover is easy for students. Pay the bill every month. Do not (even once) hold a balance. Do not do balance transfers. Do not churn. Too easy for a newbie to get wrong.

* Get a local bank account. Turn off the thing called 'overdraft protection'. It's a loan mechanism.

* Find the other foreign students in your class. They'll know where to pirate all the textbooks. Never pay for a US textbook. Extortionary and when you get your degree no one knows you used pirate texts.

* Choose a smart major. In the US, people will tell you to learn history and shit like that. Waste of money. In fact, in the US, beware of people who try to sell you a "mission" rather than pursuit of a good life. The US allows rapid individual growth. Mission easy to pursue afterwards.

* Do not work. Your F-1 will permit you to under some circumstances. If possible, the only work you should do should be TA/RA stuff or related to your major. Do not work otherwise. It will take away from studying.

* Get a cheap bicycle / skateboard. Cheapest form of transport. US transit is very bad. Even in most unis. Do not buy expensive bike + expensive lock. Get cheap used bike and cheap lock. Skateboard is better since you can carry it with you.

* Find all college events that involve recruiting, symposiums, etc. Attend all for food.

* Get cheapest mobile plan possible. Many MVNOs available. Get cheapest phone. Used preferable.

* Get internships if possible. Permissible on your F-1 / J-1. Very good experience. Live experience >>> in-school learning.

* Americans are almost universally wealthy. Beware of imitating them if you are not. It is possible to be social without keeping up with the joneses.

* Do not self-isolate. Social interaction is the biggest advantage of US college apart from the high quality education. Especially interact with Americans. They will likely spend the rest of their lives in America.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#22

Post by dyingkneepad »

Grazester wrote: post #17
dyingkneepad wrote: post #14

People who know Mexican Spanish may not be able to understand your Spanish, especially the ones who didn't learn Spanish as a first language. Grocery stores often have international sections, you may be able to find some stuff you're familiar with in the Hispanic Foods section. There is dulce de leche, but it's not the same thing. You can find canned yerba mate tea from the Guaiaki brand. Again, it's not the one you…

>People who know Mexican Spanish may not be able to understand your Spanish, especially the ones who didn't learn Spanish as a first language. I think this is an exaggeration(Like saying a Brit can't understand an American or something). The meaning of some words may be different but to say they can't understand each other is a far stretch. Some countries still use the vosotros conjugation but I don't think that is g…

I am using myself as the example. I can understand a lot of Mexican Spanish, but I can understand zero Argentinan and Chilean. I am not a native Spanish speaker.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#23

Post by zeroego »

P_I_Staker wrote: post #18
zeroego wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as you said tipping is mandatory. 18% is the lower limit. Just out of curiosity, where do you live? I've worked front of house at many different restaurants in an expensive city on the west coast, though this was 6 or 7 years ago. I was under the impression 10% was bare minimum, 15% was the next step up, and 20% was generous.

Less than 20% is a soft slap in the face in many places. More so, if it's less than 15%. Some people use other "systems" though, so they might not even be paying based on the number on the check. If the bill is overpriced that's often a reason people use to skimp on the "percentage".

Interesting. I know in some states servers are not guaranteed minimum wage. They can make as little as 4 or 5 bucks an hour, so if you don't tip them they make very very little money. If I was in a state like that I don't think I'd ever go below 20%.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#24

Post by Grazester »

dyingkneepad wrote: post #22
Grazester wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People who know Mexican Spanish may not be able to understand your Spanish, especially the ones who didn't learn Spanish as a first language. I think this is an exaggeration(Like saying a Brit can't understand an American or something). The meaning of some words may be different but to say they can't understand each other is a far stretch. Some countries still use the vosotros conjugation but I don't think that is g…

I am using myself as the example. I can understand a lot of Mexican Spanish, but I can understand zero Argentinan and Chilean. I am not a native Spanish speaker.

I have studied the language for years when I was younger and was conversational in it and had no such problem. Are you sure it's not the accent/pronunciation and the speed at which some people speak is what you have a problem with?

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#26

Post by lhorie »

Grazester wrote: post #24
dyingkneepad wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am using myself as the example. I can understand a lot of Mexican Spanish, but I can understand zero Argentinan and Chilean. I am not a native Spanish speaker.

I have studied the language for years when I was younger and was conversational in it and had no such problem. Are you sure it's not the accent/pronunciation and the speed at which some people speak is what you have a problem with?

I spent a lot of time w/ latinos in college. Argentinian spanish does have some peculiarities that make it more difficult to understand than other countries' variants - most notoriously, 'y' sounds like throaty `j` (bordering on `sh`), and some vocabulary

In my experience, latinos in school often end up congregating with other latinos and they're usually able to get past the linguistic differences fairly quickly (and the linguistic idiosyncrasies becomes a recurring topic of conversation), so I think the concern about difficulty to communicate doesn't apply as much for the native spanish speaker (since they can just switch to english to speak to a non-native-spanish speaker)

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#27

Post by alamortsubite »

riversflow wrote: post #12
alamortsubite wrote: post #7

You can sometimes find yerba in Hispanic supermarkets, but the best place to get it is usually on Amazon. It costs about $10 (US) per kilo here. Relatively speaking, wine is very expensive, too. People's notion of promptness as it pertains to social functions may be different than what you're used to. If you're going to a party, show up an hour or so after the indicated starting time, but if you're meeting with a few…

PDAs are frowned upon in the US? huh. This is news to me and I’m almost 30.

That's not what I wrote.

30 is a great age. Take advantage of it and do some traveling.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#28

Post by happypenguin »

zeroego wrote: post #23
P_I_Staker wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less than 20% is a soft slap in the face in many places. More so, if it's less than 15%. Some people use other "systems" though, so they might not even be paying based on the number on the check. If the bill is overpriced that's often a reason people use to skimp on the "percentage".

Interesting. I know in some states servers are not guaranteed minimum wage. They can make as little as 4 or 5 bucks an hour, so if you don't tip them they make very very little money. If I was in a state like that I don't think I'd ever go below 20%.

This actually isn't true. Servers makr minimum wage, if all night they were tipped $0 then the resturant is required to pay them more hourly to hit minimum wage. Their combined pay from tips and the restaurant's pay must meet minimum wage. That is a federal law so it applies to all states. States can increase the minimum wage but cannot decrease it.

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#29

Post by zeroego »

happypenguin wrote: post #28
zeroego wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I know in some states servers are not guaranteed minimum wage. They can make as little as 4 or 5 bucks an hour, so if you don't tip them they make very very little money. If I was in a state like that I don't think I'd ever go below 20%.

This actually isn't true. Servers makr minimum wage, if all night they were tipped $0 then the resturant is required to pay them more hourly to hit minimum wage. Their combined pay from tips and the restaurant's pay must meet minimum wage. That is a federal law so it applies to all states. States can increase the minimum wage but cannot decrease it.

Ah good to know, thanks for sharing!

Re: Ask HN: Moving to US from Argentina for college. Any advice for a newcomer?

#30

Post by bogomipz »

alamortsubite wrote: post #7

You can sometimes find yerba in Hispanic supermarkets, but the best place to get it is usually on Amazon. It costs about $10 (US) per kilo here. Relatively speaking, wine is very expensive, too. People's notion of promptness as it pertains to social functions may be different than what you're used to. If you're going to a party, show up an hour or so after the indicated starting time, but if you're meeting with a few…

>"Public display of affection like that which Argentines are accustomed to is frowned upon here."

Are you referring to the single cheek kiss used as a greeting? This is generally reserved for friends, friends of friends and family. The term PDA is generally used in a romantic context.

I have travelled pretty extensively in Argentina - from BA to Mendoza and from Salta down to Ushuia and PDA is not a characteristic I would associate with Argentina which on the whole is pretty religious and conservative.

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