Top 5 tips to live in Dominican Republic

OK I will start:
1.   Learn at least some basic Spanish
2.   Learn to Adapt.  Don't set your standards too high.  No we do not have 24 hour electric, potable water, mail service, traffic laws that are obeyed and so on.
3.  Remember you are a guest in THEIR country behave accordingly.  Pushing your standard on to  the local population DOES NOT WORK
4.  Be very careful as to who you choose as friends here
5.  Be willing to be part of the community.  If you live like an outsider you will always be an outsider.  This does not mean you have to live in the poor barrios but where ever you live give something back.  Amazing how much respect that will get you.

Bob K

1. Come with an open mind. Leave your morals and judgements at home, you are here in THEIR country.
2. Come for the right reasons, not for some guy, or some girl, or some bottle of rum.
3. Learn how to behave - learn the culture.
4. SLOW down,  take it easy,  life is too short to stress over stuff.
5. Keep what is important at the top of your mind,  don't sweat the small stuff, enjoy the journey.  Ask lots of questions and don't believe what you hear unless it gets repeated a lot....... 
6. Never ask directions -  they are always wrong.... (That was a bonus tip)
7. Everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you thought  (Extra special bonus tip)

Learn that the word Manana does NOT mean tomorrow here.  It means not today.  So if someone tells you they will be back or finish Manana it really means we are not going to do it today. No real reference to a future date.

Also if someone tells you I will be there Monday morning.  Assume it can be any Monday or even Tuesday in the future and that morning actually goes from sun up to sunset.

Bob K

Oh Bob you made me laugh,  its true!!!

Learn the Dominican way,  don't try to teach them YOUR way.   If you do, expect lack of respect for you & shoddy treatment by all.   Patience & the Spanish word  "puede"   means "can you" & is a very polite way of getting results..  It is not telling someone to do something, but asking if they can.   A world of difference showing them respect.  Such a simple word that garners amazing results.   Try it in your daily life even if it is only one of a few words you know.

Great points Gypsy.

Planner, my pulse rate climbs when you talk to me.    Thank you for knowing I'm not some off the wall idiot,  only once in a while.do I slip.

Hello Expat.com Your favorite team! what a long name ehh

The 10 dominican commandments are:

1-Emigrate with papers in order (legal status)
2-Have some financial solvency
3-Speak the official language
4-Be respectful to locals and their culture
5-Have a good bottle of Rum Barcelo Añejo
6-Dance Merengue and Bachata
7-Have Mangú as breakfast
8-Bring Repellent
9-Relax
10-Go to the beach daily

Hope it helps

Beach daily is so important

Bob K

Gypsy I have tons of respect for you honey.

Beach daily.................oh man.............. I am not with the program!!!!

LOL

Beach daily for the days I have missed while in our 11 month long winters )))

We suggest speaking the unofficial language - Dominican Spanish.  Drop the "S", e.g. school is pronounced ecuela not esquela.   Some words have different meanings; if you learnt Spanish from a Chilean, please note that guagua is not a baby, it is a microbus     It could also be youtube.com/watch?v=9x_Zmt4S01s   

There are 2 schools of thought on this -  one is  learn the "local" language which is some form of spanish OR learn it correctly.  IF you intend to do business here or work in any real capacity, learn Spanish not Dominican. 

BUT learn the Dominican slang so you know what is going on!

I am still working on my Spanglish

Bob K

You guys in DR are about to lose a valuable resource, Mr Natural
If you don't believe he is valuable, just ask him.
He is threatening to move to Ecuador if he can find people who will fund him.

Bob K wrote:

I am still working on my Spanglish

Bob K

Perhaps most important of all is a 'sense of humour', or in at least one Dominicana's Spanglish a 'sense of human'.

Who is MR. Natural???
Will I miss him for real or like a bad pimple on my butt????

Bob K

So agree with you Arcadian. The Spanish Caribbean people is completely different from Latin Americans. That's why I personally don't call the Spanish Caribbean Latinos, I prefer the term Caribbeans. Their culture is completely different even if the share the same official language.

Cheers

There was a life in DR before Mr Natural, and there will be a life without Mr Natural too if he decide to leave.

Mr Natural ?   

The only reference I could find was to a mythological comic book character ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Natural_(comics) ).  If this his him  {"...he's an unrepentant sybarite. His straight talk, while refreshing, can get him into trouble, as when he was kicked out of heaven for telling God it's "a little corny" in "Mr. Natural Meets God". " }   

There is an ongoing role for mythological characters, e.g. half-satyr half-socrates.

We are Latinos -.-, people from your country USA and for example Australia decended from Anglosaxons, but you peolple have different culture, accents and slangs. That doesnt mean you are not from the same ethnicity.

Lets try to stay on topic please................  5 tips..................

Here is a tip that is good anywhere the sun is intense.  It's a cheap sure=fire cure for sun spots, those little white spots that appear on exposed skin.  They are unsightly, but harmless.  They can be very small to larger than a 50 cent coin.   Before you shower, put straight from the bottle,  Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo on the spots.   Let it dry for 15 t0 20 minutes.   Do this every day for a week to 10 days.   VOILA !!   The spots are gone!!!     You can leave the stuff on for hours if you wish,  no harm done.  Leaving it on for long periods does not hasten the removal of the spots...20 minutes will suffice.    The sun spots can be just a few or a multitude,  the cure is the same.   " Out damned spot !".  OH, if only all our ills were as easy to cure. .

Interesting tip!

OMG!!!!! It's true!!!!! Jajaja some day, but not today....

1) Learn at least some Spanish ASAP.
2) Keep away from other expats except very occasionally.
3) Marry a Dominican.
4)Do not live in an ex-pat community with walls and bribable security guards.
5)Build your house in a Dominican community as a Dominican house NOT US nor European.
6)Have good security for your house, metal grills and bars with possibly a dog.
7) Don't go parading around bars etc. flashing your money as if there were no tomorrow.
8) Where possible make friends with your Dominican locals.
9)Never lend a dominican money.
10) Bring good ear plugs.
Remember - when in Rome do as the Romans do. I've been here over 10 years, never a moments trouble.

Great post.....

Granca very good post. Thanks

Bob K

Granca2..... You said it all.
We are very lucky to be accepted here
on this beautiful Island.

Thanks for the great tips all. Moving to the DR next year and it sounds like paradise.

Gord welcome to the forum.

Where in the DR are  you  moving to?  We have been here on the north coast for over 9 years now and still living the dream.

Lots of good folks here on the forum with lots of information and ideas.  Please feel free to ask and keep us updated on your move.

Bob K

Welcome Gord!  Lots of great info here, read read read...............

Hoping to move to Sosua from Toronto Canada. My wife and I will be taking a vacation in December to Sosua to have a look around and check out some houses. We intend to move there full time and retire. Going to listen to the tips and have lots of beach time. Also good to hear that everyone on the blog is into the respect the culture which is great.

Hey Bob K, so you live in the area we are looking at! You are going to be a mine of information for us.
Excellent

No problem ask away.  We built a villa here and also own a condo in Cabarete that we lived in while building and no rent it out. For our first 5 year of so we sold real estate here in Sosua/Cabarete so know the area well.

Where are you looking?

Bob K

Not sure yet but have been looking online at real estate. The Century 21 site looks promising as we are looking in the $80,000 to $110,000 price range. Hoping for 2 beds and 2 baths with a pool. Retirement will be so hard work!! lol

Thanks Planner, all sounds too good to be true!! Living the dream ............

Actually you need something to do like hobbies, volunteering or something otherwise you can get bored.

BUT retirement is a tough job, but someone has to do it

Bob K