Catalan

To Err is Human

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Day 3 of intensive Catalan.
I  remembered not to speak English first thing in the morning – something in my brain has accepted the challenge and starts the day with Bon Dia.  I told my dreams in Catalan – a bit of a muddle but I don’t think the other person is usually listening much to the details of strange journeys, dreams of a little girl singing to her cat and yet another experience of driving without brakes!  What surprises me is that I think I don’t know the word for brakes, I pause for a moment, then it comes into my head. Like magic!
(Frens by the way)
I have learnt so far on this challenge

  • I know much more than I thought I did
  • If I can relax and just ramble there is lots of vocabulary hidden in my brain. I didn’t consciously put it there but it has been taken in and stored and is accessible, if I am patient
  • It is ok to make mistakes – in fact it is vital.  I have lots of friends here who speak English, some of them very fluently. But they all make loads of mistakes – in pronunciation, in grammar, in vocabulary. It doesn’t make me think any less of them and in fact I am impressed that they speak English so well when I am still struggling with Catalan and Castellano.   

For some reason I put pressure on myself to get it right. It is hard to make that leap into just talking – without worrying about what I get wrong or stumble over. But this is exactly what this week is helping me do. I have taken away my easy option, I have put up a No Entry sign in front of the path of least resistance.I have to take another route and even if it is a bit twisty and turny, we get there in the end.
I really do feel there is something mysterious in this process – as if I am remembering the language rather than learning it.

Day Two – swearing more fluently!

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Today has been good – I found myself talking this morning almost without taking breath and suddenly noticed myself!
Where does it come from? I can only imagine that almost two years of listening is paying off. If I trust what my mouth wants to say then it is almost always, not correct but understandable.


Then I cycled in the sunshine into the town to have coffee and a chocolate croissant with my language helper – a really nice man who volunteers with the Catalan language programme. We meet once a week for coffee and talk for an hour.  I still find it harder to understand all that is said than to say what I want. The temptation is to nod and smile and wait for inspiration. Sometimes this plan goes awry and we look at each other in silence – he is waiting for a response and I have no idea what he was saying!  But I think this is normal and you can’t ask for help with every word. No more than you can look up everything in the dictionary. That way lies madness.

Later Pep and I went to buy paint and sandpaper. We mused about why it is SAND paper in English and GLASS paper in Catalan. I think most words conjure up images as we learn them so I had an idea of a sprinkling of sand in varying grades on the paper while he had always pictured crushed glass.
I also drove to the paint shop, feeling as usual that I am a weirdo for keeping to the speed limit instead of treating the open road as a motorway.
Then a trip to look at houses in the surrounding countryside. We climbed up to an empty house that overlooks the Pla de Llerona.

It had a beautiful peaceful atmosphere but on one side is the railway, the other is the road and above a huge electricity pylon. And the threat of a new carretera which might be constructed underground……and maybe not!
We visited the sanctuary of Fatima – not sure why it is in this place near La Garriga but it is well loved

and then discovered some cornish style roads with no traffic, birds singing and flowers by the wayside

 I want to live here!
On the trip home I had some practice in the art of swearing in Catalan. I am getting better – now I make things up like Cap de Polla! It isn’t authentic but it feels satisfying.
All about driving styles as usual!
Thanks to Oreneta I was inspired to find out how to use the accents on my keyboard so now I have no excuse for not writing Català….like that!  Except that when I write in English I think it is better to use the English spelling. What do you think is the correct form?

Catalan spoken here

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

You know how one thing leads to another and tonight I can’t remember exactly how I got there but I ended up reading this really interesting article by Matthew Tree.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12552276/Life-on-the-Receiving-End-Matthew-Tree

He is a Londoner who moved to Barcelona in 1979, taught himself Catalan and now writes and talks about Catalunya.

This article is a good introduction to the history of Catalunya, the reasons behind the push to be an independent state (again!), and the reality of anti-Catalan prejudice in Spanish-Spain.
I came here first as a fairly typical visitor to Barcelona, without any knowledge of the history and only a vague awareness of the importance of the Catalan language. I wanted to learn ‘Spanish’ by which I meant castellano and I loved Barcelona so it seemed a good idea to do it here. Dancing tango meant that I was often in the company of Latin American people who also spoke castellano so I was quite resistant to the idea of learning Catalan. Barcelona also has many immigrant residents who don’t speak Catalan and it is common in the cafes to ask for a cafe amb llet and be ‘corrected’ by the waitress who frowns and says ‘cafe con leche?’
But little by little I have tried to educate myself and of course now am learning Catalan. It is the language of my new family and of Granollers. It is a language I enjoy rolling around my tongue – the words are satisfying.  It is also a language which has survived in spite of  massive attempts by the Spanish state to stamp it out so there is an additional pleasure in playing a small part in resisting oppression.
Do read the article if you are at all interested in learning more about Catalunya. It is very readable and clearly written – might take you half an hour but it’s worth it, especially if you are one of the many people who visit and care about Barcelona.
Here is one quote to whet your appetite
In 1881, any legal or commercial document written in Catalan – from a testament to a tram ticket – was decreed null and void.
The Catalans’ insisted on using their own language despite all of this – in 1924, the architect Antoni Gaudí once famously said to a policeman who, infuriated by being addressed in Catalan by this venerable old gentleman, asked him if could speak Spanish: ‘Of course I can! I just don’t feel like it!’ he replied, before being taken in for questioning)  (Matthew Tree)

I recently had a satellite dish installed at home in order to receive BBC and ITV programmes. The man who did the job was English but has lived here for more than ten years. He seemed pleasant enough until I asked him if he spoke any Catalan and his whole attitude changed. ‘No’ he said ‘ I don’t and to be honest I don’t want to. I hate the sound of it. My wife feels the same – all the English here do’ 
I said quietly ‘well just as well that I’m Scottish’

Heated Discussions

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

On Wednesday I returned to my Catalan class feeling unprepared after a month of speaking English in Cornwall.
I was also feeling a bit jaded after leaving my Lamorna home and returning to several problems here as well as facing the house again which now feels empty after the death of my mother not in law. I haven’t felt able to write about that yet but just to say that she was a great support and a good friend to me in my first year here and I feel her loss acutely.
So, after resisting the temptation to stay at home and ‘study’ I cycled through town to the school and rejoined my class which is a mixed group of people from Latin America and Morocco.
Near the end of the session we were discussing sport and suddenly a slightly boring (to me) lesson grew legs and started to run.  One moment we were talking about which sports we like and the next we were having a heated question and answer session about Islam, the wearing of the veil and the burka, Palestine, war in Iraq, Libya, Tony Blair …….

It started when one normally quiet Moroccan woman in a headscarf said she can’t attend gym classes or the swimming pool because of her religion. All classes here are mixed gender and she can only go if it is woman-only but that doesn’t exist in Granollers.  Everyone started asking questions. Why can’t she chose to do as she likes, why wear the veil, what is written in the Koran…etc etc.  A man from Morocco spoke about the European fear of Islam and the situation in Palestine.  Someone else asked if she would have to wear a veil if she travelled to Morocco. The conversation was so fast I could hardly keep up let alone contribute anything. Most people speak fluent castellano so when their catalan fails them they fill the gaps with that.
I think that in the UK we are so nervous of saying the ‘wrong’ thing that we don’t ask lots of questions about religious and cultural differences so it was refreshing to hear everyone just being curious. But it also made me slightly anxious.  It was like a tap which once turned on could not be stopped.

Mention of the UK and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all eyes seemed to turn to me – suddenly I realised what it is like to be seen as representative of all things questionable in your country.
How close sport is to politics.  Perhaps language classes like old fashioned dinner parties should avoid all mention of Politics and Religion and ….Sport. Or perhaps not?

Vaig Vagar Sola Com Un Nubol

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

 Thank goodness for the cold I’ve had. It made me relax, stop and start to enjoy the days here.
While it has been raining in Barcelona and Granollers – it has been sunny and dry here in Cornwall.
Colder of course – but dry!
I’ve been trying to speak Catalan every day but it’s shocking how strong is the pull back to English.
And when I do force my brain to engage in another language (it feels like forcing – like I am pulling a hungry dog away from the discarded sandwich he wants to eat) it just spouts out a mixture of Catalan and Castellano and sometimes French in a sort of sulky ” there you are then, any old foreign word will do!”

A man in a cafe yesterday spoke to us in Castellano.  How long did he live in Spain? – three months!!!!!
He sounded very good to me – oh God why can’t I learn quicker?
And my dear partner?  He too is speaking fluently and understanding almost all he hears. Yes he makes mistakes and continues to use he/she rather randomly but he doesn’t stop to struggle with almost every verbal tense he needs. Nor does he forget the words for teaspoon, saucepan, wheel……
In a years time will I be fluent?  I am beginning to doubt it.  I know the answer is Speak Speak Speak.
And most important SPEAK IN CATALAN or PARLA CATALA !