I only speak Catalan!
October 12th, 2007We’ve noticed a distinct hardening of the attitude of the Catalans in Spain over the last couple of years which has been gaining momentum of late.
Two years ago, any time there were brochures in shops and whatnot, they were always in Catalan and Spanish. 18 months ago that stopped and since then they have only been in Catalan.
18 months ago, we could speak to the shopkeepers in Spanish. Since about 12 months ago, they have refused to serve us in Spanish.
A year ago, we could speak to all our Spanish guests in Spanish. For the last 6 months or so they have refused to speak to us in Spanish. This is particularly crazy as few of them speak French well and many don’t speak English well either. Twice recently we have virtually had to resort to sign language although both they and we speak Spanish! The latest booking was quite comical in many ways as I can understand Catalan reasonably well but can’t speak it: the potential guest could speak neither French nor English yet refused to acknowledge my replies in Spanish which she could understand very well.
Wendy tells me that recent developments indicate that already demonstrations have taken place in Catalonia. Can violent ones be far off?
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Very interesting comment:
we’ve lived in Catalonia (north) for over 20 years and we experienced that then whenever we went there. They prefered us to speak French or English, but NOT Spanish.
In the last years, the Catalans seemed less “stressesd” about it. My daughter lives in Barcelona and doesn’t speak Catalan. She hasn’t commented negatively so far.
As far as violence, I don’t think so, I haven’t heard anything. The Catalan region is the richest in Spain, it got semi-autonomy. Some locals would like more but the situation in the Basque country is much more serious and worrying.