It may sound like an odd decision, but hundreds of French students are choosing to study English in Spain rather than in the UK for reasons ranging from the weather to avoiding post-Brexit paperwork.
The obvious choice for French students who want to improve their English is to just cross The Channel and get lessons in the UK while immersing themselves in the English language all day long.
But a report in French newspaper Le Parisien has shed light on a new trend which sees young French people choose Spain instead as the place to perfect their anglais.
Higher costs in the UK as well as the legalities surrounding Brexit now mean that a growing number of French students are looking for an alternative to rainy Britain when it comes to learning English.
Go&Live is a specialist company which organises trips for French students to learn English abroad. According to them, requests for trips to nearby Spain have risen by 30 percent in 2025 compared to last year.
“The United Kingdom remains the main destination for learning English, but Spain is a dynamic and underlying trend,” Xavier Obert, Go&Live president told Le Parisien.
“In terms of purchasing power, with transport and local costs, the United Kingdom is an expensive destination. And then, since Brexit, you need a passport, it’s a little more complicated from an administrative point of view to get there,” he continued.
Obert also explained that during the summer, young people want sunny destinations which also have an interesting cultural offering. “This is the case with Spain. However, native speakers and international schools are everywhere there,” he added.
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Go&Live began to recognise the popularity of Spain as a destination for learning English back in 2023, but since then the craze has only been on the up.
The company also offers English language learning trips to other non-anglophone countries such as Cyprus, Malta, the Netherlands, and Bali.
Students themselves don’t seem to be deterred by the prospect of learning English in Spain, happy to simply spend summers by the beach in Spain and practicing with foreign residents instead.
England is “much less fun in the summer,” one student told Le Parisien.
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And the parents seem to agree that Spain is a better choice over the UK. One parent told the daily in the French capital that “it may seem counterintuitive to learn English in Spain, but I find that this formula really suits everyone, and it’s still the same currency. It’s more practical”.
A two-week English learning summer camp in Spain costs French students a total of around €2,000 with Go&Live.
If this trend continues, could we find more French people with a slight Spanish lilt when they speak English? Perhaps not, as there are tens of thousands of native English-speaking teachers in Spain.
However, these French students are just as likely to improve their Spanish when they’re not in English class, as many Spaniards are not well versed in the ‘language of Shakespeare’ as they call it in Spain (el idioma de Shakespeare).
In 2024, Spain ranked 26th out of 35 European countries in the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI), with a level of English considered as “average” globally but low when compared to other European countries.
READ MORE: Why are the Spanish ‘so bad’ at speaking English?
