> you are very likely to come up against some high language barriers etc.

This is not a problem I personally experienced for English speaking countries. Started learning when I was in kindergarten, always immersed in the culture via TV and internet, did English and English writing as a hobby pretty much since starting high school. Until they hear my accent, most people assume I'm a native speaker.

So I lucked out on that front.

The hard part for me was the visa. But that is also a solvable problem.