Where in Western Europe to move to?

taking
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talking

intend on leaving here,
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living..

was typing too fast.

anyway, nobody wants to discourage you, but you need to be more realistic that its not just showing up and thinking work is waiting for you. there is lack of work in europe even for europeans.
and with the bologna reform the number of university positions have decreased.

if you wanted some place where english is more widely spoken, a better chance of getting work in english, a strong gay community/scene and liberal behaviour, etc, you should have chosen sweden or denmark.

do you think that they dont have teachers already for those?

Any workplace has regular turnover. How do you think those people got their jobs in the first place?

age discrimination is still very much a reality here

Ok. When you say 'here', where are you? Italy?

My mum is 53, but she has a PhD from a prestigious university so I hope that will help.

nostrification

Ok, apologies. I looked up the word on dictionary.com and it wasn't there (which is unusual because it's usually very good).

Please try to be a little nicer in the future, and you will be treated nicely in return. :)

If it were up to me, I would have chosen Sweden or Denmark (exactly), but my parents don't like the weather... out of curiosity, why is it easier to find work in those two Scandinavian countries than in the Romance language ones? (Btw, congratulations on knowing 10 languages, I only know 2 1/2)

I think my mum is likely to send her resume by email, and perhaps conduct any interviews over her laptop, to save going over there.

Hey Epi - Keti was trying to help. If you want help, I'd suggest pulling that corn cob that's stuck up your butt, out.

You charm me, travelinhobo

Forget the Australian passport at home. With the bulgarian passport you can live and work without getting work permits in the following countries:

Estonia, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech republic, Cyprus, Sweden, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Hungary and Portugal.

You can still live with the Bulgarian passport in the other countries but can work as a self employed(no permission needed), or if you want to work for an employer a work permit is needed. Those restrictions will be lifted 5 years from accession or 31st December 2011.

It's a nice dream, but one that is very unlikely to become reality.

Firstly, you haven't mentioned what you intend on doing here beyond living in a cosmopolitan, gay, bohemian city. I presume that you will want to work and/or study? Here you will indeed be limited by language knowledge, at least for the first few years until you reach the necessary level of fluency.

As for your mum, the fact is that she is very unlikely to find a teaching position at a European university unless she speaks the official language of the country where that university is based . The exception would be if she were heavily involved in research and/or an internationally renowned academic. This is particularly the case in the three countries you mention- she might have better chances in northern Europe. There is little merit in her (presumed) native English speaker status- there are plenty of Spanish/Italian/French lecturers who speak English to a very high level, not to mention British and Irish applicants for the (few) available jobs.

Furthermore, even were she to find a job, the chances of being employed over the internet or even via a phone interview are next to zero in these countries. Face-to-face communication is considered to be important in much of southern Europe and therefore she should expect to have to travel to Europe at some stage for interview/s.

And finally, in Europe correcting people on their typos is considered rude, not to mention petty. You would be ill-advised to do so, especially when asking for advice and/or assistance from other people.

Also, in answer to:

why is it easier to find work in those two Scandinavian countries than in the Romance language ones? (Btw, congratulations on knowing 10 languages, I only know 2 1/2)

The reason for this is simple. The Nordic languages are not 'world' languages in the same way as French and Spanish. Plenty of English speakers live and work in Scandinavia and get jobs without speaking the native language (they are of course encouraged/expected to learn in time). In France, Spain and Italy it is almost inconceivable that a monolingual English speaker would get an academic position- can you envisage a monolingual French person getting a job teaching French at an Australian university? Of course not.

Thank you, Vall74 and Stuckbehindadesk.

Perhaps we should consider moving to England, or Germany/Scandinavia...

I don't currently make any money, though I am trying to publish my writing in literary journals. But I can do that online from anywhere - being a writer is something you don't need to be reliant on the economy you're living in to finance.

You know, I come from Europe (Bulgaria), and I haven't noticed this business of correcting someone to be considered rude. People who think so should stop letting their pride get in the way of learning new things.
Furthermore, I don't operate by any conventional rules but my own, and in my opinion if someone isn't communicating clearly they would benefit from somebody helping them to get it right. Keti should be happy I took the time to correct her mistake, because it shows I care about her language skills. I could have just ignored it and she'd never have known she was making a mistake. Now THAT's rude/inconsiderate.

"being a writer is something you don't need to be reliant on the economy you're living in to finance. "

If you move to England I think you'll be in for a shock.

Dave