Guitarman

Hi All

Heard that there are a lot of them living there - old and young. What do they do for living mostly?

Is it possible to get a job in Computing profession without having to speak Spanish?

cheers
G

polaire

British expats do All kind of things for a living. If you do a market research i'm sure you will find your niche.

My British friend owns a couple of house that she rents to vacationnners. Visit http://www.competa-walking-vacation-rental.com to take a look

Good luck !

sibsie

To be honest it's highly unlikely. Spain is full of expats not just from the UK but from Holland, Germany Sweden etc., The competition for jobs is fierce and most companies require you not just to be fluent in Spanish and English but also another European language, usually German.

That's why most people end up in commission only sales jobs or bar work.

Dolphingirl

Sibsie you are too negative. On the Costa Blanca that may be the case however on the Costa Del Sol if you have computing experience it is possible to get a job without speaking Spanish. A number of professionals are coming down here, IT, Web Designers etc etc. Considering there is a high percentage of Brits on this Coast as well as other Europeans you can survive without speaking Spanish although it would be to your very best benefit to being able to. There are a number of Corporate Companies coming down here. There is now an employment Agency down here which is meant to be quite good, Wemploy.com (I think)

The best thing is come down here for a few weeks, do some cold pitching and see what your chances are.

Best of luck
Dolphin Girl.

jdr

Computing profession is a bit vague,

Repairs should be OK, but networking, ADSL, etc definitely need almost Spanish Spanish, or bloody excellent English Spanish if you get my drift.

VanishingDragon

Hi jdr,

You live in Benalmadena! I love it there! My parents own an apartment in Riviera del sol. Do you know the place? not far from Davids Bar.
My parents say they would like to move their permentely in about 2 years time. If they do It would be most likely ill go with them.

jdr

Yeah i have done work there, and a few other places along the coast to Marbella.
Riviera is nice but not as nice as the Pueblo.... I was at Davids bar a few weeks ago.
If you move i think you would stay here and not go back

muttymutt

just thought i'd add my bit as far as spain goes. we live in gandia which is about 50 mins from Valencia. Up here you not only have to speak Spanish but Valencian, the Valencian bit is very important as the locals are very proud of their 'unique' language!! i have found it very difficult to get work here and its not through the want of trying!! most of the Brits i know have either retired or opened their own business. For jobs in IT, if you are prepared to travel there are one or two decent websites which might be helpful to you:
www.empleofacil.com
www.trabajofacil.com
www.inforpeople.com
if you scroll down the page on one of those websites there is a huge list of other sites.

This country seems very much based on 'its not what you know, it's who you know' not only for jobs but day to day living!!

Good luck with the job hunting and the language.

ironporer

I must say that I never cease to be amazed at how many Brits move/want to move to Spain without knowing the language, yet they seem indignant that they can only find menial work once there- as if their being English should make them supierior to all the Spanish rabble. Perhaps this is some regressive gene left over from the Empire days, when by brute force they could force the English language and way of life on the locals.
Why am I just absolutely positive that these are the exact same ones bitching and whining and totally outraged by all the Bosnians, Chinese, Arabs, Indians etc etc who live in England without speaking the language.

Here in the States, a Mexican immigrant who knows no English is condemed to menial, low paying jobs- because the can do little else...even with a good education. Those who learn English do much better both in their proffession, and in adapting to the States.

In Spain, you are little more than wetbacks (no offense to Mexicans, please) hoping for subsistance living on the fringe of the economy.

sibsie

I agree with you to an extent Ironporer. The Brits put the rest of the EU to shame with their lack of knowledges of other languages. I have a Dutch friend in Spain who speaks 6 languages fluently, though he does still work in a bar.

It's a hard one with Spain. The Brits do bring in a huge amount of money and lots of the local economies there rely heavily on the tourist € and the € coming in from people who move there. Whole industries are set up around it.

You can't however compare the Brit expats to the people we have from the countries you mentioned in England. The Brit expats by and large and self sufficient, have enough money to live on and actually make a contribution to Spain. And let's not forget all the money that Spain gets from the EU. How else do you think all those nice A roads were built.

Yes the Spanish moan about the number of Brits, but take them away, I wonder how much they'd miss the Brit and other EU expats and their large financial contribution.

My electrician came to my new place the other day. He used to live in Spain and loved it. But then I discovered that he was at Rota and ex navy. His life in Spain was very cloistered and outside of the base had very little knowledge of how it actually works. There is no real point to this last statement, other than people have different experiences of different places.

muttymutt

WETBACKS!!!!!!!! I don't think so! as far as forcing everyone to speak english, thats crap!! we came over here fully prepared to speak the language and 'fit' in!! although it's a very different story once you are here, unless you live on the Sol or southern Costa Blanca, then having spanish as your other lang. does'nt seem as important.I have no intention of'living on the fringe of the economy'!!!i want to work for a few reasons, one i need the money, two, i get to meet people, three my language skills will develop quicker than they are now. i try at every opportunity to speak spanish ( i do not regard myself as superior, quite the opposite actually!!) but on a day to day basis it is very tiresome and like wading through treacle just to get the simplest things done. i have a huge amount of respect for the Spanish, some of them put the english to shame with their ability to speak english.It seems at the moment there are too many retired folk coming over who have no intention to learn the language, this puts the Spaniards backs up (quite rightly so) so sometimes there is not only the language barrier to get over, but the impression that all english folk are arseholes and have every right to be in spain with or without the correct language.
i have done so many things to try and be part of this country but so far not much has paid off.
if you have any further insight (living so close to spain like you do Alabama!!) i would be interested to hear it!

jdr

At least we dont have to carry a card with " alien " on it...

.

ironporer

To address Sibs comments, in my post, I was not refering to those who move to Spain and are retired/self sufficient and do not need to work. My comments were meant for the continuing series of posters who ask what they can do in Spain without knowing the language. There seem to be an unending stream of people that after returning from holidays in Spain are ready to pack up and move there, without having any real idea of Spain, it's people, culture, economy or history.

I know along the Costa(s) there is a cottage industry there preying on (or should I say "serving" the English ExPat) in such fields as Real Estate, groceries, resturants and bars and 1000 other fields, and that these areas do need English speaking people. However bilingual people would still be more valuable to the buisiness owner, and thus receive a preference in hiring.

To mutty mut's question regarding my "qualifications" or insights on Spain as I live in Alabama, I will say that I lived in Spain for almost 7 years on the Spanish economy, working in Spanish buisiness, am married to a Spaniard and have visited Spain yearly for many years. If I could earn 1/2 of what I do here in Spain I would go back in a heartbeat. I also am fluent in Spanish, written and verbal. I will say however that I have not ever lived on the Costa, nor would I ever want to. The reason I loved living in Spain was that I could go to the local villages and go into a Cafe and get to know the old man drinking vino next to me, or converse with the green grocer at the market. People always seemed to have a great curiosity for a blond haired blue eyed (couldn't begin to count the number of times people called me "Schuster" ) American who seemed to try to understand them and their ways.

sibsie

Ironporer, my experience of Spain as a single female is that it's still a very sexist country. I lived in a quiet place and as a blue eyed, blonde female I did stick out quite a bit. I do think it's easier for a single man to fit in than a single woman. I was usually asked if I was Swedish or German.

Whenever the Guardia Civil came to my house after a burglary, which was quite a few times, they were always aghast that I lived on my own. I did find the Spanish friendly but only on a superficial level. Trying to actually socialise with them properly seemed a very hard feat.

I know the area Muttymutt lives in, and it's not one overrun with expats at all. It's very Valenciano there and they can be hard to deal with. It's a bit like the Welsh who revert to their own dialect when they know that there's a foreigner (English person) around.
I have friends in Catalan who experience the same thing and in fact my Spanish friends also complain about not being able to communicate in areas of Valencia and Catalan.

As for people "preying" on expats. I would only use Spanish workers in my house. I found the worst for ripping people off were the Brits.

ironporer

You are right- Spain is a very chauvenistic/sexist country. Spousal abuse is routinely looked upon as something the woman provoked, or should just put up with. The Guardia Civil, or at least the old timers are probably among the worst- they typically come from very "right" wing families (the Opus Dei crowd), with these traditions very ingrained. You probably did surprise them living alone as a single woman- that is not something that is done much there (hell the whole co-habitation/"Shack-up" thing is still new to most Spanish...they have to pretend their daughters arer "married".

As for the Valencianos- don't worry; most spanish can't stomach them either. Valencianos in particular, Catalanes generally are quite rude, switching to their "native" tongue as an exclusionary ruse. I never was too shy to point out to these "hijos de la gran puta" that their Castilian was much better than my Catalufo. Most seemed to feign surprise, but did switch back to Spanish. Assholes.