Hello all. What a great site this is. Im in much need of some advice/suggestions regarding living/working in Spain (either Madrid or Barcelona). Im looking to come over in mid-June. My main concern is that, as yet, i cannot speak any Spanish. Not too keen on taking any old job like digging holes/bar-tending, where i assume little/no Spanish would be required. I have 12 years sales experience working in London and 6.5 years (late 1996 until last month) living/working around the world, mainly in the US. Had to return to London last month, but i still have no desire to live/work here. I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing from anybody with some info.....Cheers and TTFN

So you're of English citizenship? If so, you can of course work legally in Spain. And if you'd hope to get a job in sales where you're experienced, I'd have to think Spanish would be required since the clients would most likely be Spanish. Even the English-language newspapers in Spain are operated by relatively small offices and I'd imagine those jobs are precious what with the sagging economy and high unemployment in Spain.

I hate to say it but teaching English might be your only option - at least in the beginning. If you start out with this you can look for other jobs at the same time. Sorry I couldn't help more. Good luck to you!

Saludos, MadridMan

Thank you for your speedy reply #2. Yes i am British, and know that i can work legally, but its whether i would be able to find work that is my main concern. I accept that it will be impossible to get straight into my regular profession and can deal with that. I understand that there are thousands of Brits living in Spain and i assume that not all of them speak the lingo. I wonder what they do to make a living????(Im not interested in living on the 'costas', where its as 'English' as it is in the UK.) Do you know whether i might be able to get a delivery driver's job while im learning the language....? As i mentioned earlier, i have worked all around the world, but of course the main countries were Oz, NZ, Canada and until last month USA, where the language barrier was never a prob. I have looked into the Tefl set-up, but do not have any teaching certificates. OK. Thank you for your time. PS Are you in Spain or the US?

Why not look at www.surinenglish.com?

They have quite a few jobs advertsied in their classifieds.

I speak hardly any spanish my self and have been here for 3 years and although it has been difficult, I have managed fine to start up my own company with alot of clients.

All my clients mostly speak english with very little spanish themselves.

I am sure you can get a barjob easy here in the south of spain.

Alot of bars I go to have staff who speak no spanish (which upsets the spanish people).

You should post what you are looking for on many forums like this one and another two at....

www.marbellaguide.com/forum
www.marbella.com
www.andalucia.com

These are 3 decent web sites where you can post what you are looking for.

marbellaman wrote:
"I speak hardly any spanish my self and have been here for 3 years"
"All my clients mostly speak english with very little spanish themselves."
"Alot of bars I go to have staff who speak no spanish (which upsets the spanish people)."
---------

And then you English protest when pakis, indians, or others don´t assimilate into the English culture, don´t learn English, and create guettos... You are doing EXACTLY the same in Spain.

You have been 3 years in Spain and you haven´t learnt almost any single word of Spanish. Don´t expect any sympathy from the Spaniards when your talant is clearly of making guettos in our country. If you want to live in a country and assimilate into it the first thing you have to do is learning the language. If you haven´t realized it yet, Spain is our country, we have a language, costums, traditions, etc. Accept them and learn them. If not you shouldn´t have come to our country.

And BTW, how would you react if you were in your local town in England, you went to a bar or a pub and everyone there spoke only Chinesse and no English?. In your own country!. You are doing the same in Spain. Don´t expect that the Spaniards consider you different from any other immigrant groups in Spain (like Columbians,Romanians, Ecuatorians or Chinese) if you don´t learn our language and create guettos. For us it is the same English people creating guettos than Moroccoans creating guettos. So don´t expect any sympathy from Spaniards if your countrymen keep doing what they are doing, and showing no interest in assimilating in Spain.

BTW, a person from Pakistan is a Pakistani not a Paki (slang+offensive). Though it may seem you have only shortened the word, it's not right. It would be like saying 'Sudacas' instead of South Americans.

I would definitely say you could get by teaching English while you learn Spanish. It doesn´t pay paticularly well, but you can get by. If you are on a budget, check out the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas in your local area, they offer language classes very cheap! They aren´t that great, but they are extremely cheap. I was taking Spanish for foreigners there last semester. I think that it cost me something like 60€ for the semester, classes 4 days a week. Eventually when you get some Spanish, maybe you can move on to something else. I would say maybe 1-2 years learning spanish and teaching english though.

two years to learn Spanish...hmm just how slowly is that taking it!!

It is generally believed that one can attain BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills) in one to three years. That would enable you to communicate with people socially, shop, get and give directions, solve minor problems, etc. With these skills you could wait tables, work in a store...that sort of thing. It takes from five to seven years to attain CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) which is what you need to do well in the university, communicate on a corporate level, or have deep philosophical conversations. A lot depends on how eagerly you approach language learning, among other things. Some folks who already have a second language, have a strong desire and are linguistic risk takers may cut either of those time periods. Some folks are afraid of making a mistake, have no other language experience, and feel learning another language is a drudge. They may take longer.

The U.S. State Deartment expects its Spanish students at the Foreign Service Institute to get to a professional working level in speaking and reading after 24 weeks of intensive language instruction. This is a lot more than just being able to get around. Foreign Service Officers must be able to conduct interviews in the language and discuss a wide range of topics with their Foreign Ministry counterparts. The classes are five hours per day with a native speaker as instructor and a class of no more than six students with at least another hour of language lab each day. While this is quite intensive, any language taken in a country where the language is spoken can have the same or greater level of intensity if the student has the time, interest and drive.

How about doing an unskilled job for the first six months to a year while you get a good grounding in Spanish either by studying on your own or doing a part-time language course? Working would be a great way to get know the real Spain and you would be using your Spanish in an everyday context from the word go. Personally, if I had the chance to live in Spain, I would be prepared to do any sort of job to live there... well, almost any sort;)

Just wanted to add that I have always found the Spanish to be very helpful and accommodating to foreigners learning their language. It doesn't matter if you don't always get it right, as long as your communicating.

hi Ian,

If you don't speak Spanish, there will be very few options for you as far as work is concerned. As others have mentioned, teaching English may be the only way to get started.

You could also try applying to British companies in Spain.

You could also try working "autonomo" (basically, freelance), and teaching English. I knew several people who were doing this and made more money than teaching at language schools.

Some companies (such as banks) will hire English teachers as "autonomo" and they will pay you more than you could earn at an academy. The only catch is that you have to set aside money to pay for your taxes.

Being a British citizen, you do have several options, but not too many if you don't speak Spanish.

Any more questions, please ask

"Experts agree", spanish is so easy for an english speaker to learn, that you will certainly be seen as "less than bright" at best (if not flat-out ignorant, arrogant, and anti-social) if you can't at least begin pick it up after a couple of months.
You will prabably learn castillian (and the dialect local to wherever you choose to settle) very quickly if, as you suggest, you avoid the narrow and deathly boring world of the "coastie ghettos" (the racial/cultural stress of foreigners desperatly trying to recreate their home cultures in Spain is sad and repulsive), and instead go for something interesting in the "real world". Good luck!

By the way, contrary to the case in "other cultures", the spaniard will always warm up to the foreigner who demonstrates an interest in learning spanish - and your blunders or accent will almost always be seen as endearing before they ever offend. You can't lose!
(Besides the working-class job, be sure to consider the barstool after the workday is done to be a classroom as well.)
Of course, as happens anywhere, a person percieved as unwilling to learn to the local lingua is written-off (sometimes politely, sometimes not).