LISA SAWIN

Im new to this me and my husband are thinking of moving to Tenerife next year neither of us speak spanish but are willing to learn has anyone else moved there with no spanish language?

jojojojojo

I'm sure they have! There are a lot of English speakers there and I'm sure you'll gradually pick it up. But try beforehand to learn as much as you can

Jo xxx

Rosemary

I would have thought that it is imperative that you learn the language to a good level if you are planning on opening a business there because even if you only catered to the Brits you will still need to deal with Spanish suppliers.

Rosemary

lovethesun

As oddities rightly pointed out, if you are planning on opening a business then yes for the suppliers. Otherwise depending on which part of the Island you are thinking of moving to depends how much of the language is necessary. If you are moving to Santa Cruz end then yes you definitely will need Spanish but if moving to the South, (Las Amercas end) then no. I lived in the South and although I went for Spanish lessons etc I never got chance to practice it because everybody speaks English!
Now moved to Estapona so may have a chance of improving my Spanish

Dick Dasterdly

I would agree with the last post.
If you are moving to the expat touristy resorts on the South coast, you will get by without too much problem.
However anywhere else on the island or if starting up in business then learning the lingo is pretty much essential.

avocados

I moved to the province of Las Palmas without any knowledge of Spanish.

Don't worry about it, as nobody cares, irrespective of where your are living - touristy or local. You'll find after a while that they're only interested in your money and not your linguistic skills.

Besides, learning proper Castellano before coming to the Canary Islands is a waste as their version of the language is very different.
I hate the chicharro accent - they seem to specialise in chopping as many letters as possible off the spoken word and then speak as if through their nasal canal and without moving their lips. They seem to think its "cool" !!

e.g. Cansado becomes cansao (pronounced cansow), pelado pelao, mas agua becomes mauwa, estas becomes ta, lunes becomes lune, veinte pronounced beinte; I could go on and on. Almost forgot, Autobus doesn't exist here, it's Guagua.

So in effect, you'll attempt to speak properly and they'll grunt back with something unintelligible. Canarian is easier to speak than mainland Spanish, but more difficult to understand imo.

It is so nice to visit Madrid or Salamanca and listen to the real deal, music to my ears.

Anyway, I have been shacked up with a Canarian for over 8 years now, so as long as you ignore everything they say, you'll be fine, lol.

agoreira

That's certainly not exclusive to the Canaries, parts of mainland Spain does the same, especially Andalucia. Certainly the "la 'd' intervocálica" disappears all together, 'ta bueno very common, veinte should be pronounced beinte, (un baso de bino), maomeno for más o menos etc. I'm fairly used to Andalucian accents, but talking with a young guy on skype from Lanzarote was even harder for me! Like you, give me someone from central or northern Spain every time. I had a teacher from Valladolid, what a lovely clear accent, a pleasure to listen to.

lovethesun

It makes me laugh how everyone (including me, for sure) want Spanish/Canarian people to speak clearly, it is like asking all of us to speak only the queens english. I am from the north in lancashire and nobody cuts words more than I do but unless my attention is drawn to it, like now, I really don't think about it because it is just my accent, however as correctly spoken English, it really is quite shocking, very broad and very cut just like their regional accents.

agoreira

Nobody is asking that they speak "clearly", just commenting that they speak anything but clearly! ¡La variedad es la salsa de la vida!