Do I Need To Learn Spanish Before I Move?

This is a common question where online I see a wide range of not-so-helpful answers. I see a lot of immigrants who tell newbies that they don’t need to know any Spanish if they move to a city that’s more popular with English speakers. I’ve even seen people (who do not live here) say that my city is one where there is all this English happening! If you read my book, you know how false that one is. Yes there is a US-rented military base 20 minutes away, but the majority of the members live on the base – and the ones who live elsewhere have no impact on the services one uses in their daily life. They are not working in the businesses you need to use, they’re fumbling through that alongside you.

All this to say that even if you live in a city like Málaga, that I always see being suggested to those who come with no Spanish, you will still have a hard time. Before I lived in Spain, I visited Málaga and all of the surrounding pueblos from the hills to the sea, and I did so in the winter. Not only did I hear very little English anywhere, but the only time I heard it was from tourists or foreigners. That will not help you. Every shopkeeper, store manager, barista, server, bartender, pharmacist... they are all Spanish. They don’t all speak English. Spain is not Barcelona – the country has a very low percentage of overall English proficiency (I want to say it’s around 22%, and if you’ve been to Barcelona you know that is where all of the English lives).

Everything you do as a tourist, you can probably get by with some apologies and Google Translate. But even then, you should learn key phrases before visiting. Countries like Portugal, Greece, Germany, and Belgium have high levels of English proficiency, and you may have been in a big city in Spain like Barcelona (or Madrid, though definitely lower) and thought it was the same. It’s not. And if you’re planning to move yourself to Spain, for daily life you will not be comfortable or fulfilled trying to use English in your daily Spanish life.

I always recommend taking some online courses before you move, and I usually recommend Preply, where you can watch videos of the tutors and even use their filters to choose a tutor who is from Spain and not from a Latin American country. This helps ensure you’re learning something closer to the language you’ll be hearing in Spain. Now of course once you move, you’ll learn that wherever you live has its own little dialect differences (down here in Cádiz province, some of it is unrecognizable compared to what my Madrid-born tutor taught me!). But having a Spanish-native tutor is the best way to go.

Then when you arrive here for your new life, you come with some skills. The more you use what you learn, the better life is. Locals are super nice to foreigners who are trying to integrate, and part of integration is learning their language. Once you are here, most places will have free or low cost language classes in-person if you want to take those, and there are many options online as well.

Another commonly misunderstood fact is that your medical care in Spain will most likely NOT be in English either. For some reason, everyone seems to think that doctors speak English when locals do not, which doesn’t make any sense, because your doctors are locals. They went to Universities here in Spain, taught in Spanish. Their friends are Spanish. Their families are Spanish. Intelligence does not make someone a polyglot. Spain has some of the best doctors on the planet – published in respected worldwide medical journals for their studies and research. It’s all published in Spanish.

That being said, you can find a doctor who knows English, just like you can find other Spaniards who do. It just isn’t the mainstream or the norm. And if you are scouring the region for an English-speaking doctor, that means you are not taking their qualifications as a medical professional into account and you’re only considering their language skills. Knowing English doesn’t make one a great doctor, so you could be sacrificing brilliant medical care in your desperation to jump the language barrier. It’s actually a popular practice here for both newcomers and even those who speak Spanish pretty well, to bring along a medical interpreter. This relieves any nerves about the language barrier and gives you the freedom to go with the best medical professionals, without worrying about anything but your health. I have a friend who is a Spanish language teacher at a local high school – and she takes medical interpreters to appointments for issues that are larger than a routine checkup. Medical Spanish is way above conversational Spanish, and understanding exactly what’s being said (and being able to intricately explain your physical issue to the doctor) is really important. I got lucky that my incredible orthopedic surgeon happens to know English and be a world traveler, and you may end up with one of those too! But I don’t recommend focusing on it. Grab a medical interpreter and go enjoy some of the best medical care on the planet.

But yeah. Learn Spanish. Start before you go if you can, but make it a point to learn it.