Castilian or Catalan

Hi Luchi and welcome to Expat.com!

I hope other members will be able to advise you soon

Regards
Armand

Thank you!

Hi,
I've lived in spain for 23 years and moved up to barcelona last year.  I was quite surprised at how LITTLE catalan I have needed to use - if you go to outlying areas you would need to use it a lot more but in the centre, generally they speak castellano.  If you apply for a job in the public or government departments it is obligatory/  Barcelona is a great place to live and I have met some fantastic people.  I have to move back to the uk to look after my mother otherwise you would never get me away from this place.

Have fun

Hi Luchi,
All Catalans can speak Castilian, but not everyone who lives in Catalunya can speak Catalan.  Most immigrants who come as adults do not learn Catalan, however their children all do because it is the language of instruction in the schools.

When you come as an immigrant and learn only Castilian, it tells those Catalans who care about such things that you are not interested in their culture.  On the other hand, they are pretty forgiving of foreigners.

If you want simply to be able to communicate with everyone, Castilian is probably the most practical.  If you want to become adopted into Catalan society and win their hearts, Catalan is the way to go.

I learned Catalan and have found that Catalans like me for that.  On the other hand, those who live here and don't speak Catalan sometimes hold it against me that I don't speak Castilian.  I meant to learn Castilian after learning Catalan, but after living here for a while I decided that I like Catalan culture a lot and don't care for Spanish culture very much so I never bothered to learn Castilian.

Hope that helps.  It is difficult if you really want to do the right thing because of the bilingualism here.  Those who say you only have to learn Castilian and that Catalan is not important, do not have a good insight into the society here.  The fact that you are even asking the question tells me that you are sensitive to this kind of issue.

my daughter lived in Barcelona, and we spoke Spanish before she moved there.

Everyone in Barcelona speaks Spanish, but many prefer to speak Catalan from a regional pride viewpoint.  If you speak French and Spanish you can understand Catalan very easily even if you cannot reply in Catalan.

I would brush up on my Spanish.

I had absolutely no problems in Catalunya speaking only Spanish.

Good luck!

Hi,

I have lived in Barcelona for 7 years. My work takes me all over catalunya. In barcelona Catalan is just not needed. Barcelona is realy cosmopolitan with people from all over the world and the common language is spanish.

Outside ( I mean a couple of hours drive) of Barcelona the language is catalan. Sometimes when I work in the mountains and I speak to people in spanish they respond in catalan even though from my acent it is obvious that I am foreign. That is just catalan pride (or arrogance). When it happens I just ask them to speak in spainish and normally they do it.

For most rural catalans the language of catalunya is CATALAN! Spanish is the language forced upon them by franco the evil dictactor!

Learn Spanish becuase you can use it all over spain and in many other countries! THEN if you have time learn catalan.

I donŽt understand why anyone would think that people who want to speak their own language are arrogant.  It seems perfectly reasonable to me that a Catalan would want and prefer to speak Catalan.  ThatŽs his native language.

Yes true but you have missed the point slightly....

Catalan is the language of catalunya and I completely agree with what you have said above. However catalans speak both languages fluently as both ar taught at school from an early age.

Spanish being the language of spain of which catalunya is a part of. Catalan being the language of the province within spain. Now to want to speak catalan in catalunya is called PRIDE.

Now Personally if someone speaks to me in a language that I speak then i will repply in that language, irrelevant if it is my native language or the language of the country or province. Just plain good manners and being heplfull. Continuing a conversation in a language, knowing that the other person does not speak it but also knowing that you are personally capable of comunication in another languagge, that is called ARROGANCE.

Being based in Tarragona, outside of Barcelona sometimes you will come acros people that will only speak to you in catalan, regardless of whether you understand it. When it happens to me I ask politely that they speak to me in Spanish as if I was perhaps someone from another part of spain, not native to catalunya.

Also there are many other parts of spain with their own languaage, Basque country for example. Same rules as above apply. Spain would not work if there was not a common language - Spanish.

vote for the real Spanish