Mina_Alicante

Hi everyone!

I thought you might be able to offer some help or advice.

I am a Spanish person with a PhD in English Literature, and I live very close to a couple of British expat communities in Spain. I have lived in the UK for a couple of years (both in the North and the South), so I think I can say I can quite understand British culture, which I totally adore and can't get enough of.

My question now is - as a person who gets what British people are really like and with my qualifications and native Spanish, could you think of any jobs that I could apply for in expat areas in the Alicante region? I am desperately looking for a better job and I have always felt like dipping my toe into the expat work market as I love to be around British people so much. I think someone could benefit from my knowledge of your real general tastes and needs and of real life in Spain. I have worked as a teacher, translator, writer, doing admin, customer services, etc.

If you had just any ideas or tips I would be super grateful as I am wondering where to start.

Thank you so much!

VFR

Hello Mina.
For sure you being Spanish & speaking/understanding English so well would make you in demand for a good many Expats/new arrivals etc in places like (?) Benidorm.
Why not start via Local Facebook sites ?

Mina_Alicante

Hi VFR,

Thanks a lot for your reply. That's an idea. I will look for FB pages and groups. I will also prepare a CV in English to start distributing it. I am actually going to Benidorm this week, so I might as well start.

Albir_Tom

Hi mina,

I must say your English grammar is impeccable, fair play to you for that I have never seen a Spanish individual write in such context.

If your speaking is as good as your writing then I would definitely contact a company in Benidorm called "round town" I'm sure they would definitely need somebody with your standard of English who can also mix with the Spanish locals.

Spanglish goes a long way here.

MikeJ

Perhaps you could offer a 'concierge' service for newly arrived Brits. For example, help finding a home, interactions with local officialdom, familiarisation with the local area and general assistance in settling in and living in Spain.
Of course you would need a good familiarity with the locality and the rules and regulations together with a good network of contacts - but all that should be straightforward.
I'm sure a little market testing would soon establish if there is a demand for such services and how much you could charge.
You would soon build up a lot of new British friends and acquaintances and get to know them when they are at their best (and worst).

Mina_Alicante

Hi Tom and Mike,

Aww, thank you both so much! Those ideas actually sound great. I am gonna contact Round Town for sure and look into the concierge idea too. I would actually love to do something like that. Let's see what happens!

Horlics

Too funny.

Mina_Alicante

Why?

VFR

Spanglish.
IE mucho lovelyo.

Mina_Alicante

VFR

Its the local dialect in Benidorm (or so I'm told)

Bigmomma1

What about offering 'Linguistic & Translation' services. Lots of documents/forms are only recieved in Spanish, so help in translating and/or completing them would be beneficial.

scot47

A Dragoman ! That is more than an interpreter - a mediator between cultures !https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragoman

Retired in Euskadi

With all the many hotels around that whole area, what about the local tourist board. In the big hotels (and maybe the smaller ones too) there are always day trips advertised to here and there. A fluent English speaker would be ideal to explain the various places. And most Dutch people would understand English too.

Recently in Tenerife we had an excellent Spanish guide (una tenerfiña) to a banana plantation and a dreadful one to Mt Teide who just liked the sound of his own voice.

Mina_Alicante

Thanks for the ideas and the encouragement. I will visit the tourist offices in the area!