Another point of view about living abroad is shared by Ciro P. who reply us from Dusseldorf.
After visiting some cities around the world, Ciro moved in Dusseldorff, where some relatives helped him to find a job. Dusseldorff is a multiethnic city inhabited by Turks, Japanese (who Ciro says to have a beautiful festival every year with fires on the river, with costumes, dances, and sushi); there are Iranians, Syrians (1,200 Syrians who have come from Syria this year) and there is no shortage of Italians.
Ciro comes from Napoli, he is cheerful and sociable. He is comfortable with everyone: “I am, as Neapolitan, adaptable to everyone. Neapolitan certainly do not have problems relating.”
Upon arrival in Germany, the beginning of the new life was a bit traumatic due to the cold climate and the unknown language. Ciro found his first job in an handmade glass factory. Then he worked at other places. One day he begun a new job and There he met the love of his life, Petra.
Petra is a German girl who worked with him at the same factory at the shipping department. Every day Ciro met her at work. He never tried to talk to her because he did not speak German well. For two years their love was filled by looks and smiles. He looked at her, she smiled back at him. She looked at him, he smiled back at her. One day Ciro decided to break the ice. He took courage and with few words in German, the words he knew, simple and necessary, he declared himself to Petra.
Strongly driven by the love for Petra and armed with a cheerful and strong spirit, he faced and overcame difficulties achieving successfully every goal he had set out at his arrive in Germany.
“When I arrived in this city, I suffered a cultural shock,” he says. He did not speak German, he barely knew basic sentences.
After the first date with Petra, Ciro decided to learn German well. The two lovers met and spent whole evenings communicating with vocabulary in hands. He worked hard and as a self-taught he learned to write and read German. For a while, until he became more confident with the language, he even moved away from the Italian community to hang out with Germans only in order to experience a full immersion in German language. He says that “If you attend your community abroad, you always tend to speak your language, this is an automatic process, it is natural. Consequently, in this way learning correctly will take longer. “
His written and spoken German level improved quickly and his job position improved as well.
Regarding hospitality in Germany as immigrant, he says:
“Here there is still some prejudice”.
Regarding hospitality in Germany as immigrant, he says:
” Here there is still some prejudice towards Italians. Germans are quite wary, at least until they realize that they can trust the foreigner. “
And he continues, “This is something that has always led me to do more and more than others. Especially in the workplace. I am of the opinion that the Neapolitan when he works excels. I think the Neapolitan either does nothing or if he does, he does more than the others do. Working as an immingrant at the beginning was tiring because, as I have said, I have always done more than what I had to do and with greater care and attention, this to put an end to the prejudice towards the Italians who inevitably exist here in Germany. There is an atmosphere of envy. I think they try a little to diminish us as Italians … Even if they in fact love our culture. “
rom Napoli, Ciro brought with him his joyful spirit and strength not to fall.
He has worked hard and, over the years, he has held responsible roles in his job.
Ciro is now married to Petra and they have a 17 year old son. They live calmly in Dusseldorff and Ciro is finally able to manages his life without stress. He works for a company that produces clippers for podiatrists, he goes to the gym and he spends time with family and friends. He also brought culinary habits from Napoli. Infact, as a boy, he learned to cook from his mother and today he enjoys cooking for his wife and son, at parties with family and friends.
He loves green spaces and where he lives there are plenty green spaces:
“There are beautiful woods where you can follow botanical paths, when I go running to meet fawns, pheasants, peacocks … A relaxing thing, very beautiful. I’m not a big fan of lakes. Here there are lakes but the water is brown. Then there is the Rhine river, and at 367Km away The North Sea is. It is beautiful. Beautiful as a place, Nordic white beaches, but it is too cold and the sea is brown, full of sediments. ” he says.
Regarding covid emergency Ciro has seen the situation in which all of Italy is located and is perplexed and sorry:
. “I suffer a lot and I’m sorry that the Italians are not in solidarity with each other. Disintegration is evident. I have known about the restrictions that have been in Italy since the beginning of the emergency. Here it has been very different. The Covid period here has hardly been felt. There was a small lock down but life was normal. I stopped working for one month. The schools closed on April 27 perhaps for 3-4 weeks and then resumed with reduced hours (part of the lessons at school and part of the online lessons).
Supermarkets have always been open and now only restaurants are closed. In short, the thing was much lighter than what I saw in Italy. Here we have never been prevented from leaving the house. We could go for a walk with the family, we could go out, instead my sister who lives in Emilia Romagna, in Italy, she was forced to be locked in the house with the whole family for 4 months. This is an absurdity. It is hard to build a solid future in a similar place now. My son makes me very proud. He has been studying Italian for three years and he also is fa of Napoli soccer team. He goes against the current, he does not use social networks. He only uses whatsapp to communicate with friends, nothing else. Neither facebook nor instagram. Sometimes I tell him that maybe he should have been born in our time. This is because I am worried about young people and about their future in a world of people without identity, automated, like robots. “
At this point, with the excuse that spontaneity and humanity are still Neapolitan character prerogatives, we asked him if he plans to go back in Napoli one day and he replied:
“I’m fine here, unfortunately I wouldn’t go back. I have to think about the future for my son. At least I would like to give him the chance to have one.
In Germany, after graduating from school, you find a job instead in Italy the school have lapsed and then there graduation does not mean to find a job.
In this country, studying does not cost much and those who are good go on. Education is public and the right to education is free. The University is not expensive. Hospitals work well here. Everything proceeds according to the rules and, first of all they are clean. Three years ago I lost my mother who was hospitalized at Cardarelli in Napoli. When I went to the hospital I was shocked and sorry to realize that after so many years nothing has changed. The ward was dirty, hospitalized people in disarray, an immense squalor. If everything worked well in Naples as it works in Germany I would certainly go back. Those who were born in Naples also want to die there and I cannot deny that sometime ‘a pucundria me piglia (I become nostalgic).
