It is difficult for me to understand why people are so concerned about languages. I grew up bilingual (Catalan and Spanish), then I learned English, French and many more. I always used the language to communicate and I tried to adapt to the person that I was talking too. In our home in Massachusetts (a real Babel tower), we use 5 languages on regular basis (Catalan, Spanish, Mandarin, Suzhouese and, of course, English). We all understand, more or less, what the other one is talking about, and if not, we go back to our safe haven, English. The only one who seems to rebel at the situation is my 13 month old. He seems to think that everyone in the world (at least his little world) has a different language, that’s why he, so far and I hope not for long, sticks to the universal gugu, gaga.
Sometimes it is difficult for the mainly monolingual Anglo-Saxon world to understand how embedded languages are in our psychology. I find it extremely difficult to speak to someone in a language that is different to the one we used when we first met and when I have to do it, because I do not want to offend other people that may not understand our common language, I feel extremely uneasy. As an example, we are a group of four friends that know each other since childhood, all Catalan, all fully bilingual (Catalan and Spanish). I met one of them speaking Spanish (J) and the other two speaking in Catalan (L1 and L2). When we meet, we switch language depending on whom we are looking at. If I look at J, I will speak in Spanish and as soon as I turn my face to L1 or L2, I will switch to Catalan and the other way around (switch, not mix). It may look stupid, but it is a reality, it shows you how both languages co-exist in Catalonia, how embedded are both in our daily life and how natural it is for us to live in this dual environment.
All those catastrophists that say you have to be careful when speaking Spanish in Barcelona, that people will not answer you if you address them in Spanish, are simply lying, it is a big fat lie. In your first encounter, people will talk to you in the language that comes natural for them and I am assuming that you do not walk around in Catalonia with a Spanish flag tattooed on you forehead to indicate that this is your language of choice. If you politely indicate that you do not understand Catalan, people will switch to Spanish or English (if they know it). I say politely, because if you raise the voice and say, DO NOT TALK TO ME IN POLISH (that’s how Castilian people refer to Catalan), TALK TO ME IN CHRISTIAN (that’s how Castilian people sometimes refer to Spanish), THE LANGUAGE OF THE EMPIRE (i.e. the lost colonial Spanish empire), you may get somewhat less cooperation.
Next month I will go back to Barcelona for a weekend. I will let you know whether things have changed or not, and whether I get arrested for talking to J in Spanish.
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6 comments:
Hi! I am L1 (or perhaps L2, Ian?) and I corroborate that beautiful story told by my friend. Not only that, but you can also find that particular situation in familiar meetings: Each one talking to each other in catalan or spanish depending on listener preferences... and everybody understanding all!!
We are used to do that, where is the problem? It's only in shortminded people!!
By the way, I apologise for my poor English. I'd like to switch to it like I do with Catalan and Spanish but I can't, by now. I swear I'll achieve!!
Your descriptions remind me of my first few months in barcelona when I couldn't speak any spanish. My first roomates were born here, meaning they spoke Catalan at home growing up, in school. After about a month of total incomprehension I realized they were speaking catalan, not spanish, and then my paranoid anti-catalan prejudice kicked in. I felt they were snobby and elitist, but now I can happily say i don't feel that way anymore because I understand both spanish and catalan. I notice people switching back and forth all the time at work. It's instinctual. Even if the person is catalan, and they first starting speaking in spanish, they will speak spanish from then on. Same goes for catalan.
I think the biggest problem is the lack of information out there. Foreigners come to barcelona for something else and think naturally that Spanish, and the mythical parts of Spanish culture pervade everything, and when it doesn't it's the work of elitist snobs. If I came here knowing that Spain isn't a big homogenous block, rather composed of many different "national identities", and that Catalan is a major thing, not (as I continue to hear) a dialect, I would never have had those paranoid thoughts in the first place. I would have accepted this place on its own terms
A brilliantly succinct analysis. How right you are to look past the
bluster and rhetoric and perceive where real power lies.
I live in NW.England, in the UK (or to be more precise the part of it
called England) which, along with Sweden, is probably the most centralised
member state in the European Union.
Those of us who have the wit and wisdom to spot the crap emanating
from the UK Parliament in Westminster realise only too well the
growing economic disparity so evident in the peripheral Northern
Regions of England, compared with our more prosperous cousins "down south".
Centralisation of power is entrenched in the UK political psyche, to
the extent that the token devolution of power and influence granted so
far to the English Regions is restricted to a form that is unaccountable
(unelected) and opaque. These bodies (or QUANGO's as they are known) are
of course populated with political appointees who tow the centralist line
and do not rock the boat too much (in terms of actually countering the
smothering influence of Westminster based control)
Approximately 12 months ago the North-East of England (I call it
Northumbria) was given the opportunity to vote for its own elected
Assembly. This would have begun the slow process of devolving power to
the English Regions.
However the dominant centralist cliques embedded within Westminster
and Whitehall had already succeeded in watering down the proposed
Assemblies powers to such an extent that the people of Northumbria
voted overwhelmingly to reject the Assembly on the terms available -
i.e. it would have had no control over revenues and no capacity to initiate
primary legislation.
This outcome has set back the cause of English Regionalism by ten years
or more.
I am sure there is some kind of theoretical equation that one could
develop to prove a direct relationship between the perceived level of
accountability displayed by a particular elected body to its
electorate and the extent of its control over spending and revenue
generation. There is probably a PhD thesis hiding in that hypothesis
for a budding political science student to exploit.
Therefore I will continue to follow, alongside numerous individuals
from a variety of other minority "communities" around Europe, i.e.
Bayern, Lombardia, Euskadi, Scania, Scotland, Breizh, the development
of the Catalan case with avid interest.
To summarise:
Effective self-determination (at whatever level the Catalan people
decide) can only be achieved with control of your own finances - go for it!
Best wishes
Peter Davidson
Alderley Edge
NW.England
When I was five I first started talking in and hearing Catalan. Before, in kinder garden, I only spoke in Spanish as the "teacher" and most of my "KG-mates" were Spanish-speakers.
I remember once when, in my first year of EGB (former Primary School), a teacher grounded me because I said "I wasn't listening to you" instead of "... hearing...": I hadn't just yet paired the words "escuchar-escoltar / oír-sentir".
I consider myself bilingual as I can speak both languages in a proficiency level, though, normally I think in Spanish. (I said normally because I also think in English --lived in England for a few years and had (have?) a partner whom I use that language with-- and even write my to-do lists in that language especially if using my English "speaking" computer.
I have no problem whatsoever to switch those two languages and not much trouble to switch to English.
Lately I've been joking about the "Estatut" thing: I tell my Spanish speaking friends, colleagues and my father "Lets start talking in Catalan as, if the 'Estatut' turns out to be accepted, Carod-Rovira will come and kick us out of the country if we speak Spanish". It is all a joke, but the thing is that the "Catalans" are becoming very annoying with the Catalan-language thing. In Barcelona now it is Prohibited to have a shop sign in Spanish under a €600 fine. That's, actually, disgusting. And what if I write "Habibi's Bar"? Will they fine me for not using Catalan? No, they wont as now what Franco did to the Catalan is being done otherwise.
I started studying Linguistics in England and now I am studying Hispanic Philology (for the English Speaking people without a dictionary: Spanish Studies). I love languages, I also speak a bit of French and Polish (from Poland not from Catalonia, LOL). Though, I realise that a language is just an instrument. The important is that we do understand each other, as you said.
But, at the end of the day, as linguistics say: "A Language is (just) a dialect with an army and a navy".hearing...": I hadn't just yet paired the words "escuchar-escoltar / oír-sentir".
I consider myself bilingual as I can speak both languages in a proficency level, though, normally I think in Spanish. (I said normally because I also think in English --lived in England for a few years-- and even write my to-do lists in that language especially if using computer.
Habibi,
Where is that act which punishes Spanish shop signs?
I'm just curious because I searched it for months but I just found nothing...
There is absolutely no law that prohibits Spanish in signs. The law says that signs have to be, at least, in Catalan. They can be in other languages too and in fact the spirit of the law encourages that signs are in Spanish too (that is my own interpretation).
Regarding service, that's what the law says:
"1. Companies and establishments involved in the sale of products and rendering services which carry out their activity in Catalonia shall be in a position to be able to serve consumers when they express themselves in either of the official languages in Catalonia".
So if someone refuses to serve you in Spanish he is not only a "gilipollas" (moron) but he is also breaking the law.
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