LAB

Hello Everyone!

I'm an 18 year old boy from North-West England and I've just finished my A-Levels at college and planning on starting university this September. I will be studying Spanish and Italian as I've always had a passion for languages and Mediterranean Europe interests me so much to the point where I desire to move to either Spain or Italy after I graduate to hopefully find a job in languages as a translator or interpreter etc. (I already speak advanced Spanish from my 2 years at college and also studied it in high school) I will also spend my third year of uni split between both countries on a job placement provided by the university.

With the current Brexit situation do you think it will be difficult for me to achieve this? I have worries about the uncertainty I now find myself in.

Thank you so much if you have taken the time to read this, I really appreciate it!

All the best!

Maur-Ross

Welcome to the forum. I do not know the answer. My nephew studied languages and spent one of his university years immersed in Madrid. He eventually went on to work for a well-know computer company, at first in the international call-centre from Glasgow. He worked his way round various roles in the company using his Spanish to foreign clients. He was there about three years improving his Spanish all the time. My sister had a renovation house in Spain and he helped with all the building translations and workmen etc. He also spent all his holidays there speaking only Spanish. This week he has moved to Spain as part of the same company as a staff trainer. He has good wages as still working for original firm. He said that you have to get experience of being the country and speaking the language at every opportunity. He personally felt for him it had to be a longer term plan which has now borne fruit

Rosemary

Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst BEVS moderates Europe. Moderators are there to ensure that the site runs smoothly within the rules of BE. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

Problems and complaints should always be addressed to a moderator who will look into the matter and deal with it efficiently and fairly. Our members who post in the Spain Forums are usually friendly and helpful with a wealth of knowledge about the issues of living in Spain. I hope that you enjoy your time participating in the forums.

Please let me know if you need any further help.

Rosemary

Boseley

Hotels in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, employ non E.U. personnel on Reception, for example Russian linguists, so if you obtain the language skills and they need them, no matter where you are from, you will find work.

Best of luck!!

mikelincs

Would that generate a living wage though?

Pulaski

The biggest problem you face is that languages are not a highly valued skill on their own - if you move to Italy or Spain (unless you find work as a translator) you will be effectively competing for jobs without a marketable skill, just fluency in the local language, which is pretty much what local, non-graduate school leavers have.

People with a foreign language are highly value if they are an engineer with a foreign language, a scientist with a foreign language, a lawyer with a foreign language, etc.

As you already apparently have a fair degree of fluency in two languages, IMO you would be better served either studying something else with "a minor in languages", or working on your language skills as a side hobby, and perhaps continuing studying languages part time as a second degree after getting a degree in some other career-supporting subject.

Boseley

To find the answer to that question you will need to ask a hotel receptionist.

dmu

+1
If the OP isn't scientifically minded, a Masters in European Law followed by application to a Bar in the country of his choice, could lead to a career as a trilingual European Lawyer. From what you read on forums, there are plenty of expats with legal problems in their respective countries, seeking English-speaking lawyers....
As to the consequences of Brexit, no one can know....

philat98

Good advice Dmu!
Italy for example is jam packed with law studios and they charge about four times as much as their UK equivalents and not many speak English.

chopera

Absolutely this. You've got your whole life to learn languages, but getting a decent job (especially one in another country) requires skills that many employers want and not so many people have. Languages are a bonus that might add to your CV but, apart from language academies, they are not the primary skill employers are after. This is probably a bigger factor to finding work in Spain/Italy than whatever happens after Brexit.

cricketman

Just to back up what everyone else is saying

Study something useful at university e.g. science, management, engineering, IT etc

And at the same time improve your Spanish

Nobody needs to do a degree in Spanish. That is a waste of time and will impress nobody.

Train yourself in something useful and at the same time get your language skills. That is the best way to prepare yourself for what will be a very difficult job market in Spain or Italy

By the way, I employ recent graduates from Spanish universities, and many of them speak great English, so you need to better than they are!

Rosemary

Many of the Spanish graduates that I know have done their degree in something like engineering and then gone on to complete their masters using English as the language of the course. To my way of thinking that takes a lot of courage, determination and dedication which I believe is to their credit.

Rosemary

cricketman

Yep, and many degrees and masters in Spain are now bilingual, Spanish and English

All that means that a foreigner coming to Spain has to be very special in order to compete against very talented young graduates willing to accept 1,000 euros per month of salary

Assanah

The most important question for you is whether or not you will be able to get a work permit once the UK has left the EU. For now you are still a EU citizens but once you are done with your studies who can know what then will be?

As it is the UK government declared aim to curtail the rights of EU citizens to live and work in the UK, I think that EU countries will respond in kind. So have a close look at what your government is planning for EU citizens and you likely will get a glimpse of your future.

Anyaway, I think you will have a good amount of red tape coming your way because once the UK leaves the EU you will have to deal with 27 different national immigration laws. Work immigration is (still) a national matter. So every EU member state will be making their own rules with regards to UK citizens. Maybe you will qualify for a work visa for Spain, maybe for Italy, maybe for both, maybe for none. It will make moving around the EU for work a pain in the ass. Hopefully, the countries will establish some kind of working holiday visa for young people. That would make it easier for young UK citizens to get working experience in the EU. Obviously, highly qualified people or people with qualifications in a sought after profession will probably always get a work visa but for the rest....it is really difficult to predict what will happen to the rest.

If you are interested you can have a look at the work immigration laws of Spain/Italy for citizens of non-EU and non-EEA countries. Maybe that can give you a glimpse of the future to come??

rspltd

It's quite interesting that before World War 1 there was virtually no restrictions on labour mobility across the continent. Work permits were gradually introduced due to security concerns but it was substantially a bureaucratic exercise. The baddie we have to blame yet again is the European Court of Justice. There was mobility of workers which gradually was eroded by decisions of the Court to become mobility of persons. Now the Court will be out of the picture and irrelevant to the future, perhaps the UK can go back to a sensible policy and who knows other EU countries may go the same way. That should give the Court something to do for years.