Study Spanish or Teach English?

[visionbuildingdotcom]

Hola,

I will be moving to Barcelona once I sell my house, which gives me the luxury of not absolutely needing to work for at least 12 months. So my choices are:-

1/ Study Spanish (and some Catalan as well) for 12 months, then look for an Internet/ marketing job similar to what I do in the UK. If that doesn\\\'t work out, do a TESOL and teach English.

2/ Do the TESOL and start teaching English right away, while learning Spanish in a less formal way.

The advantage of #1 is, I don\\\'t speak much Spanish and I wouldn\\\'t get a regular business job without a lot of training first.

The advantage of #2 is, I would be meeting real Spanish people (not foreigners like myself learning Spanish) and might find it easier to make friends (I\\\'m quite introverted).

Obviously #1 costs me more money than #2, but that is not so important. I am more concerned about my career in the longer term and also making friends.

This is a big decision for me, so any advice or opinions from the Expatrate Cafe would be very welcome. Thanks in advance,


Colin

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[Tracy]

Hey Vision,

I\\\'d definitely go with what\\\'s behind door #2 (reference to bad American TV game show from the 70s). YOu don\\\'t need a drop of Spanish to teach English. In fact, many directors look for pure native English teachers! See the follow message on our boards, regarding the same [!-- BBCode u2 Start --][A HREF=\"http://www.expatriatecafe.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Forum&file=viewtopic&topic=74&forum=1&1\" TARGET=\"_blank\"]topic[/A][!-- BBCode u2 End --]

Good Luck!

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[jer]

Tracy, "Let\'s Make a Deal" RULES! Just don\'t make em like they used to [IMG SRC=\"modules/phpBB_14/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif\"]



Colin, did what you are going to do (without the house selling part that is) and I became an English teacher for 8 months until I realized I hated it (I know, that is considered blasphemy here at the Café   [IMG SRC=\"modules/phpBB_14/images/smiles/icon_eek.gif\"]) and then chose door #1 above. I chose Madrid and not Barcelona but there are plenty of tech jobs in Barcelona as well.



I was already fluent in Spanish so I got a job at a cybercafé here in the center of Madrid and taught myself web design.



I then began to freelance as a web designer for the ExPat community here in Madrid and it went well.



Good luck to you whatever you may choose to do.



Saludos,

jer...[addsig]

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