Best Countries for First-Time Expats Who Don’t Speak Another Language (Yet)
You do not have to be Duolingo-fluent to move abroad.
If you’re sitting there thinking, “I only speak English, so I guess I’m stuck in the U.S.,” that’s… just wrong. There are plenty of countries where you can land, function, and slowly fumble your way through the local language without your life falling apart in the meantime.
Here are some of the best starter countries for first-time expats who only speak English: places with high English proficiency, decent infrastructure for foreigners, and enough local language around you that you can learn… just not under panic.
Table of Contents
- The Netherlands: Peak “Everyone Speaks English Better Than You”
- Portugal: Friendly, Sunny, and Very English-Flexible
- Ireland: No Language Barrier, All the Culture Shock
- Malta: Tiny Island, Huge English Comfort Zone
- Singapore: Hyper-Organized, English-First, High-Intensity
- Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur / Penang): Budget-Friendly and Surprisingly English-Heavy
- “Can I Just Use English Forever?” Here’s the Honest Answer
The Netherlands: Peak “Everyone Speaks English Better Than You”
If your nightmare is standing in a grocery store, staring at labels, feeling illiterate, the Netherlands is your emotional support country.
The Dutch are famously good at English: estimates put English proficiency at around 90–97% of the population. It’s also consistently ranked #1 in the world for non-native English skills in the EF English Proficiency Index.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Get a job in many international companies
- Navigate immigration info, taxes, and government sites (they literally have English portals)
- See doctors, open bank accounts, and rent apartments in bigger cities
Where Dutch still matters:
- Long-term integration, especially outside the big four (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague)
- Certain government processes and smaller employers
- Social life if you want mostly local friends
The government is also nudging migrants to learn Dutch more seriously now, so think of this as the ideal place to land softly in English while committing to Dutch over time, not “I’ll live here forever and never learn a word.”
👉 Official info on living/working there: Netherlands and You
Or find more info on Dutch residence permits here
Portugal: Friendly, Sunny, and Very English-Flexible
Portugal is having a moment, and one big reason is how easy it is to survive your first year on English while you wrestle European Portuguese sounds into submission.
Portugal ranks among the top 10 countries globally for English proficiency and climbed to 6th place in a recent EF index, classed as “very high” proficiency.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Handle most daily life in cities like Lisbon, Porto, and much of the Algarve
- Deal with landlords, cafés, coworking spaces, and doctors in urban/tourist-heavy areas
- Access a ton of English-language info about visas and relocation
Where Portuguese matters:
- Smaller towns and villages (English drops off fast there)
- Bureaucracy and long-term residency stuff
- Actually making local friends who aren’t just other foreign tax refugees
If you want “easy-ish first step into Europe” with the option to slowly level up your Portuguese, Portugal is a solid contender.
👉 Tourism board (in English, of course): Visit Portugal
Ireland: No Language Barrier, All the Culture Shock
If you want to move abroad but don’t want your brain to do backflips over a whole new alphabet, Ireland is the gentle starter pack.
Ireland’s official languages are English and Irish, and all government, education, and public life runs happily along in English.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Everything. Work, school, healthcare, paperwork, grocery store, gossip at the pub.
- Navigate visas, relocation, and job hunting entirely in English.
Where Irish (Gaelic) shows up:
- Signage in certain regions (Gaeltacht areas)
- Cultural life, schools, and language policy stuff (which is very cool if you’re into it)
The main “con” here isn’t language, it’s cost of living in places like Dublin. But culturally and linguistically, it’s an easier leap for first-timers who want abroad-life without fighting a new language from day one.
👉 Official international site: Ireland.ie
Malta: Tiny Island, Huge English Comfort Zone
Malta is a small Mediterranean country with two official languages: Maltese and English. Almost everyone is bilingual, and English is heavily used in government, business, and education.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Work in tourism, iGaming, remote jobs, or international companies
- Deal with landlords, banks, doctors, and government forms
- Study at English-language schools and universities
Where Maltese comes in:
- Local life, jokes, and family conversations
- Smaller villages and older generations
If you want European Union life, mild winters, and the ability to function entirely in English while you slowly pick up the local language, Malta is almost suspiciously convenient.
👉 Official tourism info: Visit Malta – Languages
Singapore: Hyper-Organized, English-First, High-Intensity
If your vibe is “Asia, but highly structured and easy to navigate,” Singapore is a strong option.
Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil, but English is the main working language in government, business, and education.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Live your entire life: work, school, admin, medical, everything
- Join coworking spaces, meet startups, network in international industries
- Deal with immigration and government info in English
Where other languages matter:
- Social life in specific communities
- Business niches or roles where a specific language is a plus (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, etc.)
The trade-off: Singapore is not cheap. But for a first jump into Asia with zero language barrier and world-class infrastructure, it’s about as plug-and-play as it gets.
👉 Learn more via Singapore government portals
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur / Penang): Budget-Friendly and Surprisingly English-Heavy
If you like the idea of Southeast Asia but want something more affordable than Singapore and less chaotic language-wise than, say, rural Thailand, Malaysia deserves more hype.
Malaysia’s official language is Malay, but English is widely used in business, education, and urban life. Government sources explicitly note that English still dominates in trade and industry.
On top of that, Malaysia ranks high in global English proficiency and Kuala Lumpur sits in the “high proficiency” category for capital cities.
What you can realistically do in English:
- Live and work in KL, Penang, and other major cities
- Handle most day-to-day tasks, coworking, and social stuff with other Malaysians and expats
- Navigate many private-sector services (doctors, banks, universities)
Where Malay and other languages matter:
- Government-only processes, small-town life
- Deeper connections with local communities
- Public-sector jobs or very local businesses
If you want warm weather, good food, reasonable costs, and a soft landing in Asia, Malaysia is a very underrated first-timer option.
👉 Official info hub: MyGOV Malaysia
“Can I Just Use English Forever?” Here’s the Honest Answer
Short version: you can survive on English for a long time in these places. You just might not thrive.
Here’s how it usually plays out:
- Year 1: You survive basically everything in English. Your biggest language flex is ordering coffee without pointing.
- Year 2–3: You start hitting walls: government letters you can’t fully read, friend groups that switch to the local language, jobs that prefer bilingual candidates.
- Beyond that: If you don’t make some effort with the local language, your world stays smaller and way more expat-bubble than it needs to be.
So yes, choose somewhere English-friendly. Take the pressure off. But once you’re settled, start doing the basics:
- Learn how to say hi, thank you, sorry, and “my language skills are tragic but I’m trying.”
- Take an actual course instead of hoping osmosis will teach you.
- Accept that stumbling through a grocery-store conversation is part of the expat charm.
You don’t need perfect grammar to move abroad. You just need a realistic country choice, a decent plan, and a willingness to be the confused foreigner for a while.
