hello everybody and thank you for reading my post. i have spent nearly an hour viewing a variety of different posts while gathering as much information as possible as i consider a move in the relative future. having distant ancestors (me llamo daniel arroyo!) from spain and hearing many wonderful things about the country, i believe it just may be the perfect time in my life to make a change, take a risk, and see for myself what there is to discover.

from reading, i’ve picked up on typical discrimination against americans that isn’t new nor is limited to spain. and while i care about the politics of the us, i clearly understand why the finger gets pointed unfairly, but that is the way it is.

bottom line, i’m hoping to learn as much as possible about the experiences of foreigners (not just americans, but i will be able to relate the best to those who have made the move successfully!) about everything from local cultures (i’m leaning towards barcelona to start based on my studies) to ability to locate good jobs (i’d give myself a C in spanish fluency at the moment) and any other information you care to share!

Muchas Grasias Mi Amigo Nuevo!

Hi, Spain is great and Barcelona is fab.  However you need to do more than an hour’s research and your language skills should be an “A” not a “C”. Of course the way to improve both these may be to come over and spend time in Spain. When Americans are slagged off by Europeans it’s normally because they appear ignorant and arrogant - if you are well-informed and thoughtful and don’t complain all the time about how it’s not the same as at home then hey presto, you’ll do fine.  And most Europeans know that individual US citizens are not responsible for Bush’s policies - after all we had Blair in the UK and Aznar in Spain without whose support Bush would never have gotten away with his foreign policy in the first place.  Please be aware if you’re not already that in Barcelona there are two languages to deal with.  You can get by with Spanish but the presence of Catalan makes it confusing to learn either language.  If you want to deal with just one language choose Madrid or somewhere like Seville or Granada.  Barcelona is also expensive (as is Madrid) - the South is much cheaper.  Although in any place you’ll need an income, so you need to consider how you’re going to earn, unless you’re independently wealthy.

MartCross - 09 June 2008 12:44 PM

......  If you want to deal with just one language choose Madrid or somewhere like Seville or Granada.  ....

Madrid certainly focuses on castellano but we have Andaluz in and around Sevilla.  Not a different language like Catalan but not exactly the “Kings Spanish”.

We also have a few americans here and the US airforce base is just down the road at Rota.

Aye, I know what you mean.  ‘Andalu’ is quite different from the Real Academia version and it’s what I know best as I spend so much time in Granada.  But it is the same language and, for a US citizen, possibly closer to the Latin American pronunciation he’ll have learned at school.