waingels

Hi All-
For the past year of my life it's sounded similar to a storyline in a film.......
My Argentinian girlfriend was travelling Europe last year......we met on her last night in London before she returned home to BA.
I instantly fell for her and we started talking on skype, which resulted in me visiting her in BA January this year in January.

Since my first visit in January, she stayed with me in London in February for a week and I have returned to Argentina in April, July and am going again next week !!!.
She is going to live with me in London for the first 3 months in 2014 (shes a therapist for downsyndrome people and will have to sacrifice her work during this time).
I love her and feel inspired by her work and her extreme kindness. BUT i also love Argentina, the late night culture, music, football, food, wine and the people. All of her friends/ family are warm and welcoming.

Comparing this to my life in London makes me feel like Argentina would be a dream country to move to, the social life would be better & there is more emphasis on life and family as opposed to work.
HOWEVER I currently work in Investment Banking and i know that the state of their economy will make it extremely hard to find a job in this field......this isn't my main concern as I am not enjoying my current job. But I fear that I would struggle to find decent employment as my Spanish is almost non-existent.

My girlfriend gives me her biased opinion that finding a job would be feasible, but I wanted to ask a wider (hopefully unbiased) audience whether as an 'expat' finding work is hard?? (I'd obviously start to seriously learn the language if i made a decision to move).

Sorry for the long message. Hope to hear from anyone with an opinion!!

Thanks Dan
age 25

fionamw

Hi Dan
I'm afraid I can't help you but I know what it feels like to post something important and not receive a torrent of replies and thought at least this would show people do read BE!
I too love Argentina, but NOT BA - not a popular thing to say, I know that......... ho hum!
Anyway, best of luck and I hope for your sake the answers suggest your chances are better than they would be here in Spain.

BritInParis

Without decent Spanish I suspect it'll be a struggle to find a job or even get a visa to stay. I would start with the Argentine Consulate General in London and see what your visa/residence permit options are and go from there.

http://www.clond.mrecic.gov.ar/en/node/2163

el rubio

Hi Dan.

I did something very similar when I was your age. Here are the lessons I learned:

Without understanding and speaking the language reasonably fluently you will miss out on so much culturally and socially, and most types of work will be difficult, not to mention being on the same level and communicating effectively with your girlfriend (and her friends and family). I did learn, starting from scratch on arrival.

BA is great if you like big cities. Some areas are lovely, others the pits. You need money to be/live in the good ones. Stating the obvious perhaps but don't think the good life is more accessible than elsewhere.

Life in Argentina can be a dream and a nightmare. Ask anyone who lost all their savings in 2001 when the government sequestered the contents of people's private bank accounts, or anyone who wants to travel abroad now and can't get the foreign currency they need, or anyone expecting the state will provide a decent education for their children, or anyone who has been robbed.

In short - keep your options open and your mind on reality.

By the way, 32 years on I still have my Argentine wife and we get to spend a fair bit of time in Argentina so it can't be that bad. We're UK-based though.

Good luck!

waingels

Thanks for the replies . The economics of Argentina are something that make me question the logic of moving to ba . Socially I love it , I am fortunate that my girlfriend is fluent in English (her friends and family too ) .
Her father would rather she moved to London to be with me , and that is something we are trailing as she will live with me for 3 months at the start of 2014.
However I fear her social life , job and beautiful weather Will make her want to stay in Argentina !

el rubio

Like us you will probably end up being continuously torn between the two places for all sorts of reasons.

Great that she and her family/friends are fluent in English but, trust me, if you want to really integrate with them, not to mention engage with the world around you in Argentina, you must learn the language. I was fairly fluent after about six months but I then did three years of evening classes to study for the Institute of Linguists final diploma and consolidate what I had learned (absorbed in fact) informally. This has brought many benefits professionally and socially.

fionamw

As a matter of interest, and it may count against me when you answer, but how old are you and what's your definition of fluent as opposed to fluid, confident, bilingual, etc etc..??
I knew pronunciation and some words before moving to Spain (my mum was born in Argentina but made the fundamental error of not actually TEACHING me Spanish apart from words I picked up at home). I visited Arg. three times and picked up more. I moved to Spain and did about two years' worth of once a week Spanish lessons run by the ayuntamiento but by far and away the best way of becoming conversational is to use it. Having said that my question is because I'm not in a million years going to be fluent the way I'm going - I'm 56 and no longer taking lessons for lack of time and because the levels of understanding in the class were so mixed it made it hard to progress.
I can have conversations, complain in shops etc when necessary, drop the odd one-liner and so on, but all with appalling verb endings and the certain knowledge that barely anyone I speak to in Spanish would know I've got a half good brain between my ears!!!!!

BritInParis

If you're serious about moving and fancy a career change/break have you considered teaching English?

http://www.britishcouncil.org/teache...ifications.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/argent...ng_english.htm

el rubio

Without getting embroiled in semantics I mean that day-to-day conversation is effortless, using correct vocabulary, grammar and constructions and conducted at a normal pace. In other words sounding like an educated local but with a slight foreign accent that doesn't hinder understanding.

Our two children are also fluent (this definition) and had some formal tuition but it's mainly down to exposure and conversing in Spanish at home.

We are a similar age!

fionamw

*sigh* oh well...............

waingels

I've persuaded my girlfriend to live with me in London for 3 months as a trail to see if she would consider moving to the UK. She is a highly qualified/respected therapist for children with learning disabilities , so I am confident that she would easily find work in the UK.

But then again, I'm also learning spanish which will give me the opportunity to get an internal move to BA with the Bank I work for.

At the end of the day, although Argentina is deemed to be a 'poor' country, the quality of life that my girlfriend and her family/friends have is much better than what we have in 'rich' UK ......I'm talking with respect to the culture of eating/drinking outside, more friendly, the weather & Space (all her friends have farms with thousands of acres).
Fingers Crossed!

pr1970

I have a similar story ,I was 30 when I met my Argentine wife in London, whilst she was on a 3 week course. Were are still together 14 years later and living in Argentina.

We did something similar to you, she went back to Argentina and then managed to get a course in London and moved back as a trial and continued her studies in Law there. Have to say the first year or so was really tough, she missed her family and friends and a big foreign city like London can be a tough place to move to, plus she hated the weather. But things improved eventually.
We stayed 12 years and were happy with jobs in the city, but eventually tired of commuting and after having kids and and a family illness back home in Argentina we decided to move there. I too loved the lifestyle there after visiting every other year. Havent regretted it but the language side is tough, wish I`d have studied more. You think you`ll pick it up in 6 months but after 2 years i`m still struggling to learn.
But dont let the Argentine holiday experience make you think thats normal to go out all night and party. People work extremely hard here to make ends met. Its expensive now, even more so since the peso collapse. If you like shopping its the worse place to live nowadays, everything goes up all the time and eating out isnt cheap its uk prices and jobs generally pay half of uk , if that. But on the flip side the weather is great , the friendliness of people and the close family connections are a nice change to London.

Anyway, wont go into too much detail but pm me if you have any questions.
Hope it works out for you.