For everyone who will stumble upon this video in the near and distant future, DO NOT go to a country and just think you can waltz around only speaking English. This is incredibly rude and inconsiderate and if you find yourself asking this same country, immediately think of the answer as "no". Learn the local language and make the effort. Your experience will be far more real and authentic and you'll earn tons more respect.

@PauliusCreates

7 ай бұрын

Did you stop watching video at second 2 or 3?

@pithikoulis

7 ай бұрын

No idea about Spain, but that sounds like an overgeneralization. In Greece for example speaking solely English, is fine since the language is very well spoken throughout (except small villages maybe). And doubt locals will care why you speak English and not Greek

@RiddimKingdom

2 ай бұрын

You’re assuming A) people are going to live there for a long time. B) people have the same access to language education. C) it’s easy. Yes; I agree with you within reason, but expecting someone to speak a foreign language fluently in a short period of time is so unkind and rude. It’s NOT easy. Hence the amount of foreigners who live in English speaking countries for 30-40 years and still speak broken English.

@parasitius

Ай бұрын

This comment tries to generalize all the countries in the world, it's absurd. Honestly Thais, Cambodian, and (from what I've heard) the Dutch are all quite hostile to language learners. You should NOT learn Thai or Cambodian if living in PP or BKK. It will only make you start to hate the people when they gaslight your abilities even though their English is extremely domain specific and limited. Also -- If you're in more touristy areas of certain other colored folk countries, they'll also become hostile if you speak the local langauge because they have the racist view that white = must speak English. Have lived years in Colombia without issue (people are REALLY nice to me). Now suddenly I find myself in Peru on vacation and the nasty woman at the front desk of my hotel pushed back against me speaking Spanish to her in a big way. We're on hostile terms, she thinks I owe her English because of my skin color. This happens at airports too. I know exactly what my level is in each language, I don't depend on my own judgement of my accent but ask trusted native speaking friends to understand if I'm being gaslight or really sound like a beginner etc..

Thank you so much! We are moving to Barcelona next week and all your videos have been very helpful to prepare!

Hi, thanks for the info, but do you think I can still enroll at the CFA school if I’m in Barcelona for a few months? I wanted to find out myself but couldn’t find the link to the adult school you mentioned.

@PauliusCreates

Ай бұрын

hey, I am not 100% whether you have to be resident to enroll, otherwise I don't see why not. Only thing is that the school goes through topics fairly slowly so not sure how beneficial few months might be :)

@NorahsYarnArt

Ай бұрын

@@PauliusCreates thanks for taking the time to get back to me. I’ll give it a go and see what happens.

Monolingualism is a type of supremacy

@PauliusCreates

21 күн бұрын

nope

Hello! I am Catalan and Spanish of course. I was born and have lived my entire life in Barcelona, ​​between the city center and the town where some of my relatives live (15 minutes from the city 😅). In my experience, Catalan is purely institutional and political (if you are going to work in a public entity, school or something else you need it) but I assure you that there are people who were born here and whose grandparents live here and never speak Catalan 😂 And They live their normal lives because there are many people who consider themselves more Spanish than Catalan (in Cat elections the independence movement does not win, the PSOE usually wins and parties like PP also have their audience). And believe me, it's not just your problem not making friends. The thing is that locals are more familiar and from social groups that we have known all our lives, we are reluctant to new experiences. Spain itself is quite traditional even if it doesn't seem like it and even if we want to seem modern. Is this bad? For me not because it is my culture but I also think that we are respectful of others and we do not interfere in their life affairs so anyone who comes here will be able to carry out their work without being judged I think. 🤗 Catalan and Spanish society has a long way to go since our identity is changing (I am self-critical) and debates are needed on immigration and social issues. When we improve our problems, it will be a good time to think about integrating expat. But first we have to fix the issues at home ❤️ Be patient with us. I really like you and I just wanted to give you my perspective.

@Holtelo1

Ай бұрын

Hello! I have no clue where you lived in Barcelona. But at least in Gràcia, Sant Gervasi, Eixample, Sant Andreu... most of the districts to different degree I would say, Catalan is alive and on the streets, not "Purely institutional". I really want to think it comes from your experience and not from your ideas. I trust you can live without using it, even with no knowledge... but calling it institutional simply goes too far off.

@marinabay2519

Ай бұрын

@@Holtelo1 Sant Gervasi where the PP always wins? Sant Andreu where the Xarnegos live (descendants of emigrants from other autonomous communities in Spain?) Eixample where almost everything lives except four old Catalans and "posh" children who are modern haha ​​and guiris? 😅 Grácia maybe yes (look at the latest language statistics in Barcelona, ​​it is the only neighborhood where more Catalan is spoken than Spanish, in the rest Spanish wins, 50% speak Spanish, 30% Catalan and 20% other languages ). Barcelona is not a good example to talk about Catalan like any relatively large city in the autonomous community and I live in front of a very popular market in the Old Town of BCN. And my family has been in a surrounding town for generations and generations. It is institutional because the posters, education and information are in Catalan (although the latter is also in Spanish). Catalan is spoken by 30% of the population in Catalonia. The great migrations from the rest of Spain in the 20th century and the great international migrations in the 21st century are the causative factor, but at the end of the day, this land is a welcoming land for everyone. Don't come to me and talk to me about what Catalonia is like and what Spain is like please 🤗. We have enough problems, don't come and make us hate each other. I have lived here my entire life and I have met thousands of people throughout the day, I don't base it on a friend or two. I base it on the schools I have gone to, the university, family, friends, relationships, the times I have gone out to party, jobs, thousands of buses and subways and railways, taxi drivers, services I have used, health, lovers, my childhood, adolescence, youth...

@Holtelo1

Ай бұрын

@@marinabay2519 Hello Marina, regardless of origins and polls, even if only 20-30% of city inhabitants use catalan on their daily basis, this just justifies that the language is not simply institutional, but alive and to be found in the streets. Whether the origins of the neighbours are from Catalonia or outside. I won't discuss your experience, as it is yours. And you won't discuss mine neither. I've lived in the city for 25 years so I have a solid experience as well. If you've been able to live well without catalan, cheers for you🤷‍♀, the ones who speak Catalan will keep trying to live using it and spare it from disappear. I won't discuss if it is the language used by the institutions, as it is, and of course encouraged but goes beyond that. This video will be seen by many foreigners keen to come to the city to live, and they shouldn't get the unreal impression that Catalan is a merely written and useless language, because it's not. Other than that, I agree with your first message and I find it reasonable and useful. Last thing I want is to spread any hate either. Have a nice day!

@marinabay2519

29 күн бұрын

@@Holtelo1 Oh yeah, I didn't mind debating you at all. On the contrary, I love being able to discuss these topics. We Iberians are simply very passionate, I didn't want to seem arrogant. I talked about majorities, statistics, everyday experiences... I have always been very curious and sociable and I have not stayed in a bubble, I have explored Barcelona from start to finish since I was born and I have loved and met many people and areas . I have not said that I do not know how to speak Catalan, I studied it at school and I have friends and I have had Catalan-speaking boyfriends and teachers. And it's not just institutional. I mean that for most people it is institutional because in most neighborhoods at home and on the street we develop in Spanish, we consume content in Spanish and we feel both Spanish and Catalan. I am trilingual, for example. The people of the Mediterranean also have the peculiarity of receiving people from many cultures, for example, although the Catholic religion is present in our lives even if it is by tradition (in names, streets, foods, festivals) we are capable of living with other religions, other countries, we are open, free... So no language should be a barrier. It should serve to communicate, not to divide us and fortunately the stage of division is already over 🤗🤗😘 Good night or day (depends on time zone)

@hereter3546

2 күн бұрын

​@@marinabay2519 This has nothing to do with reality. Catalan is spoken regularly by at least 40% of the population in Barcelona and is the heart of the city. Last but not least, Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia. I was born and raised in Barcelona (like my father and grandparents) and have almost never spoken in Spanish. In Barcelona, there are basically three groups that speak Spanish: Migrants from Latin America, migrants from Spain from the 60s and 70s who mostly don't live in Barcelona but in neighboring towns or on the periphery of the city (Franco's dictatorship built whole new housing complexes for these migrants in the 60s and 70s) and the descendants of the fascist government officials who got the best jobs and housing during Franco's dictatorship. This third group is very nationalistic and speaks Spanish by conviction. However, the majority of the middle classes in Barcelona speak Catalan. Catalan is the language of prestige and culture in Barcelona. Without Catalan, you will always be an outsider. I only speak Catalan with my family and friends.

M’has censurat una resposta a un comentari racista (el racisme cultural és una forma de racisme, evidentment). Còmplice.

Overall, you don't need to speak Catalan but Spanish should be a given, especially foreigners who originally came from a Non-English speaking nations and only know some broken English with little vocabulary and even more so for anybody wanting to stay long term and integrate. I mean, why even bother moving to Barcelona in the first place as someone that prefers English, which is cool but why be ignorant, lazy and dumb and move to BCN of all places? There's places in the EU that are way more suitable like e.g. Ireland. If you only want to stay for a year and then go back to your country, you could technically skip the Spanish if you're that uninterested in what the huge Spanish speaking world has to offer but understand that if you're not at least activally trying to get to a descent conversational level, you will forever miss out on literally EVERYTHING from the local culture to music to humor....simply everything

@hereter3546

2 күн бұрын

Then he would definitely have to learn Catalan, because the language of Barcelona is not Spanish (which is ultimately the language of migrants who are not really from Barcelona), but Catalan. If you want to get to know the culture of Barcelona, you have to learn Catalan.

Catalan is a waste of time language. Totally focus on Spanish. Catalans are just proud about their language and culture, but foreigners bothering with Catalan makes no sense.

@felixarquer7732

Ай бұрын

Disrespectful, supremacist, racist, imperialist. It's good to think before you speak.

@parasitius

Ай бұрын

That's a hell of a sweeping conclusion. A absolute hell of a sweeping conclusion. It's completely irrational the way people associate population numbers with value in learning a language. I learned one of the top 5 most spoken languages in the world. Does that make it more valuable than Catalan? Having spoken it at a conversational level for over 20 years now, I in fact have only ONE trusted and close friend who speaks it natively that I make good use of it with. Beyond that, I don't use the language beyond the level of ordering in restaurants that I had already achieved decades ago after just 6 months. What if I learned Catalan and ended up with 2 close friends that spoke mostly only Catalan? This is the ridiculousness of looking at the population size in my opinion. Life circumstances matter tremendously

@duncansmith7562

Ай бұрын

@@parasitius obviously life circumstances matter tremendously, but let's take a close look at the one life circumstance you presented. "What if I learned Catalan and ended up with 2 close friends that spoke mostly only Catalan" First of all, your 2 close friends would EITHER speak ONLY Catalan, or MOSTLY Catalan. Those 2 are mutually exclusive and you can't mix them up. The truth is, your 2 close friends, IF they speak Catalan, would also speak Spanish, so you could have a perfect conversation with them every time in Spanish, PLUS you would have Spanish to use for all those other places in the world that use Spanish! My sage advice was to learn Spanish and ignore Catalan. If you can find 2 people that speak ONLY Catalan and no Spanish and your aim in life is to befriend these two oddities and never speak to anyone else, go for it!

@Holtelo1

Ай бұрын

@@duncansmith7562 Hello Duncan, you can't simply ignore catalan if you live in Barcelona. You can ignore using it, but you will learn it eventually whether you like it or not to certain degree. Let me develop, if you move around, from posters in the street, to the official communication in let's say, metro, and basically daily things you will learn to at least understand it to a certain degree. Of course, you can live perfectly only in Spanish, many people does it since decades, but they do understand. so, I strongly advice to at least understand some Catalan. If you want to melt with locals or have a long time residence I suggest you to simply learn some catalan, and if you feel like into it learn it fully. I understand what you mean, if you have 2 friends that speak in Catalan, why don't talk to them in Spanish if they also can? That's purely selfish. Why would someone have to change the language because you're too rude to have some understanding? It could be even possible to have bilingual conversation. Not unusual. In any case, I find obvious that you talk from the privilege of the english speaker that moves around the world not needing to learn anything, no wonder why the least fluent in more than one language are english speakers

@duncansmith7562

Ай бұрын

@@Holtelo1 I have lived in Northern Cataluña for over 2 decades. No lectures needed on living in Cataluña, thanks. I'm a polyglot, speak 8 languages and teach 4 of them. So, based on your horrendous ability to judge people, we'll leave it there. You got this terribly, terribly wrong.