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Few questions about moving to Barcelona

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  • 19-06-2008 11:35pm
    #1
    coolplay
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭


    Have recently paid visits to Madrid and Barcelona. absolutely loved the place. the way of living seems to suit me down to the ground, so i'm thinking of moving over there for a year or even more :) I have a few questions though. I'm looking at Barcelona because it's got the best of both worlds, Skiiing in winter and surfing in the summer. There are a few things i'm concerned about though.

    1) Barcelona gets very humid in summer. I was in Madrid when it was about 34 degrees and I didnt mind it because there was no humidity. If anyone has lived there for the hot months how did u find it?

    2) Obviously in Barcelona they speak Catalan as opposed to Castilian. Is it difficult to pick up? If you learn Catalan is it easy to learn Castilian afterwards? I've heard that in order to work in Catalonia you must speak Catalan, is this correct?

    3) I'm working in the IT industry. If I pick up Catalan eventually after moving over, can I hope to get a job in the area or am I restricted to the service industry. The reason I ask is that the economy isn't supposed to be greate over in spain and the pay isn't great.

    Thanks in advance.


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    #2
    Danimalito
    Closed Accounts Posts: 66 ✭✭Danimalito


    1) At times it was too warm to go outside, the heat there can be brutal during july & august

    2) Catalan is like a mix of spanish and french. Learn spanish first, then try catalan. You only need catalan if you're going for a job in the civil service, most people in barcelona (the city) speak spanish to eachother.

    3) There aren't that many IT jobs over there, and pay isn't that great, roughly 50% of Dublin salaries. Don't bother with catalan, learn spanish and you should be grand. There's a demand for fluent english speakers in the IT companies over there.


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    #3
    BarryCreed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 701 ✭✭✭BarryCreed


    are you sure about the surfing bit?? didnt know you could surf in catalonia...

    if you speak spanish or french, you should be bale to pick up catalan by living there. it looked to me like a mix of french and spanish.
    get a phrase book, langauge book for catallan. learn some numbers, some basic verbs "to be" "to do" "to go" etc in the present tense, some basic greetings, and that should be a good base to learn from. after that, its just about learning a load of vocab, and by living there, you'll have no choice but to use the language everyday..go for it..probably wouildnt make a lot of money there, but I could be wrong...


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    #4
    coolplay
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭coolplay


    Thanks for the replies lads. Been very helpful. As for the surfing, it does seem a bit dodgy al right having surf in the med but I did do a few googles and it seemed to say there was, probably not the best surf but it'll do me :)


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    #5
    BarryCreed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 701 ✭✭✭BarryCreed


    coolplay wrote: »
    Thanks for the replies lads. Been very helpful. As for the surfing, it does seem a bit dodgy al right having surf in the med but I did do a few googles and it seemed to say there was, probably not the best surf but it'll do me :)

    jaysus, i must suss it out myself. one thing putting me off going back to a med country was not being able to get up on a longboard due to lack of waves..unless it's western france, or northern spain...


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