Walking Bonnie this morning I listened to a podcast of a Catalan radio station El Millor de Casa.
It helps to improve my comprehension especially when they speak fast and I don’t have to smile and pretend to understand as I do in real conversations.

Today starts the huge Barcelona festival The Merce. On the programme they were interviewing people who are involved in one part of the festival, a celebration of music and culture from Asia. It was interesting listening to the interplay of languages. The interviewer was speaking Catalan of course.  One of the guests started off in Catalan but gradually words from Castellano intruded and after a few minutes she totally gave up any attempt at Catalan. The interviewer continued in Catalan, without missing a stroke and clearly she understood all he said.
Then another guest began to speak, he spoke Catalan fluently and this encouraged the Asian woman to try again, her sentences became 50/50 and stayed that way till the end. It also became clear that  Castellano was also not her first language. She said she had been studying it at the Official School of Idiomas in Barcelona.
The way she spoke was pretty near perfect for me – bits and pieces of Catalan and Castellano, an ease of switching and perhaps an underlay of English. I understood her every word.  I thought how brave of her to go on the radio to speak in public. Also I felt pleased that I am now able to track the changes between the two languages.

But as always the most striking thing for me is how language here is such a complex thing. Catalan is the language of the nation but because everyone also speaks Castellano there is a possibility of switching, between people, between sentences, between words.
And it all happens without breaking the flow.  It creates more and more layers in every conversation.