Moving to the area - Page 3

danivali1 wrote on Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:08pm:

I also have an EU passport. I’m half Italian. Will this make it easier?

Susi wrote on Sun Jan 21, 2024 8:24pm:

To come here, possibly yes. To work and earn enough to live on as an autonomo, either in the fields you've mentioned or in any alternative, without a very good level of fluency in Spanish...... highly unlikely. Please refer to my earlier post which gives a bit more detail. To put it in real terms...

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..., I work at several jobs, 7 days a week,  starting at 07.00 and finishing, on a good day, at around 22.15. My work includes teaching in 3 local gyms, an academy and cleaning other people's houses.  I live very frugally and it's pretty much always a struggle to get to the end of the month financially. During my classes I switch constantly from Spanish to English and occasionally include French, depending on the students attending. I now have some Ukrainian students so am expected to include that language as well. Luckily I enjoy my work, but it's NOT an easy life out here for working people. That's why I've cautioned you to do your research very, very carefully. It's one thing to be out here as a retired person with a government and/or private pension, it's a totally different ball game to live here on your earnings. 

danivali1 wrote on Sun Jan 21, 2024 9:41pm:

My husband has a military pension so I was just hoping to get some hours paid work to add to that. I am also a qualified TEFL teacher and usually you don’t need to know the language to teach English in that line of work. Maybe it is different in Spain?

Susi wrote on Mon Jan 22, 2024 1:18am:

One the jobs I have when I'm not teaching in gyms is working as a qualified English language teacher in a language academy here. I work with students from the ages of 4 to 17 and previously, in another language school, I worked with students from 3+ to adult. Although the focus is obviously Engli...

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...sh, all my colleagues and I work bilingually. You definitely DO need to know and speak the language well in order to explain English grammar rules etc to your Spanish students, some of whom may be beginners and have no English at all, others who will be at B1 or higher and will still need to have grammar points, vocabulary etc explained to them in Spanish! Our weekly meetings with admin are also conducted  in Spanish. Whilst this may alter from academy to academy, you can start to see how you will certainly need to have a good level of fluency in Spanish to teach English here. Teachers in most language schools, as well as doing some classes during the day ( including outreach work in local businesses)  work afternoons and nights. My current rota for  classes means I do my gym work in the mornings, through until 15.00 then start teaching English at 16.00 and finish at either 22.00 or 22.30. Bear in mind that most language schools follow the mainstream school term dates. In this area, the mainstream school term finishes at the end of June. My language teaching work also stops then and we start back in October - so in the likelihood that you were in the same position, you'd be looking at a 3 month period ( 4 months in  reality as schools pay in retrospect at the end of the month) without work. Circumstances differ from school to school but you'd still need to plan on getting through the summer without that income. My English teaching salary definitely does not bring in enough income to pay my bills, seguridad social payments, yearly taxes and to get me through to the end of the month - hence the need to supplement this with other work. Again, returning to the language aspect, you will read and know of examples where people, usually retired,  have lived here for many years and have "got by" with a few simple phrases and by limiting their socialising to their own English speaking groups of friends. However, if you are serious at all about earning your living here you really MUST have a good level of fluency in Spanish. The ability to speak more than one language is seen as essential by employers here. I don't know how many supermarket check-out workers, petrol pump attendants or post office employees ( to give but 3 examples) in the UK speak 2 or more languages but here, especially at the coast or in tourist areas, it's pretty normal to find that is indeed the case.

danivali1 wrote on Mon Jan 22, 2024 7:47am:

Thanks for your reply. I do speak two languages, unfortunately not Spanish, however I do understand it as it is similar to Italian haha.