Yesterday I was talking with an Argentinan friend that lives in Spain but actually speaks Catalan (and Spanish, if he wants to, otherwise I couldn’t understand him. Wait, what has this to do with the story?!) and we were talking about guiris and ‘normal’ extranjeros in Spain, etc. I’ve been in Spain quite some times, and although I normally don’t hang out with other foreigners (no offense, but I just prefer hanging out with people with good Spanish skills for the sake of practice and immersion), I know some and did drink some beers with them. To put it straight: their Spanish is practically non-existent. Yes, they live in Spain. Yes, they work in Spain for Spanish companies. Yes, they have some Spanish friends. But they’re still super English/Dutch/German: they don’t speak Spanish and only hang out with other foreigners. The only Spanish they know is to go to the supermarket and get fresh food. For the rest it doesn’t exist.
And that’s a pity. It’s also a thing I love to talk about, especially with Spaniards. I mean, I started learning Spanish because I thought the language sounded cool, not because I liked the culture so much (that came later). But all these foreigners love the culture and Spain itself, but don’t bother speaking the language. And every time I think: WHY?! I mean, Spanish isn’t THAT hard; it’s just a freakin’ language! Many people learned it, and continue learning it. Heck, people learn it without ever entering the hispanosphere; they stay home their whole life while rocking at Spanish. And people that live in the country for years and years (especially YOU English and Dutch!) refuse to speak el p*to idioma.
But where was I? Oh yes, speaking with my friend. So we spoke about foreigners that don’t speak Spanish, but still come to Spain (or any other Spanish speaking country, for that matter) and expect everyone else to speak English. And it’s annoying. REALLY annoying. So here’s my advice: learn the freakin’ language! Yes, learn it. Even for your holidays: learn some of the language, juuuuuuuust a tiny bit of Spanish. Why you ask? It’s really simple:
- How do you expect to be treated as a fully functioning adult in Spain if you don’t speak Spanish?
…and that’s it… Oh wait, there’s more!
- Apart from just acting as a real person and be treated in such a way; can you sort out your own stuff in Spain? And I mean, in Spanish, with people that only speak Spanish and without any translator?
- The best jobs are reserved for… okay, often foreigners get good jobs because they speak English and other neat languages. But as soon as they have to choose, Spanish companies choose for people that actually speak Spanish.
- What if you get ill? The main complaint I heard was that many Spanish speaking doctors don’t speak English well or at all. YOU’RE IN SPAIN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! If you get in BIG trouble (like where you’re about to die if you don’t get help), you’ll be glad you pushed through and actually learned Spanish (real Spanish).
- Spanish police (don’t know how’s the situation in other Spanish speaking countries, but in Spain it can get nasty) likes to mess around with foreigners (okay, any person), so be sure you can understand them.
So yes, do learn Spanish. It’s a cool language and learning it is fun. But really learn it if you’re about to live or stay in a Spanish speaking country for a longer period. It’s necessary, even if you don’t like the language at all and are going to enjoy the culture (wait, it that even possible if you don’t speak the language? Eh…). Again: ¡aprende el p*to idioma! You’ll be thankful you did.
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I know the kind of folks you mean. They live in Madrid or Barcelona or wherever, mostly know other anglophones, and their main social outlet is English-language trivia nights at Irish pubs, or “language exchange” nights where the exchange winds up being largely in English.
This sort of thing is so common that, in the 1990s, the BBC briefly aired a soap opera about a colony of British expats living in Spain.
Especially Benidorm outside the summer (in the summer there are also guiris, but many people from Madrid as well). There was a soap called “Benidorm” (I think) on the British tv about it, but it wasn’t a BBC production and was in 2006 or so.
I hadn’t heard of that ITV soap, which apparently is still in production. I was thinking of “Eldorado”, a 1992-93 BBC serial from the producers of “EastEnders.”
dios mio tienes razon. Estoy en Barcelona ahora con un programa de intercambio y todos los estudiantes de los estados unidos nunca hablan espanol! Me parecen que ellos ni quisieran tratar de hablar en Espanol por que hay casi 500 otros estudiantes en el programa con quienes se pueden hablar en ingles. Caray! Estamos pagando tanto dinero para estar en Barcelona para aprender espanol no solo para tomar y hacer fiestas! Ademas, ellos pasan el tiempo quejando de todas cosas. Estan quejando tanto por que no hablan el idioma y siempre tienen problemas con la familia o con otra gente por eso. La solucion del problema es aprender espanol! Pero claro, no lo hacen. Que pena.
It used to really, really bug me, the idea of people coming to Spain and choosing to live in Spain because they love the lifestyle but they don’t learn the language. I used to have the same reaction as you guys, that it didn’t make any sense and that it was very annoying. I know people who are married to Spaniards, living in Spain, and still don’t speak passable Spanish. It used to confound me….how was it possible that you can fall in love with a person of another country, live in that person’s country and not want to learn how to speak their language? Language is a part of one’s identity, so how is it that someone could fall in love with another person and not also be similarly drawn to learning their language? That was something I used to have a hard time wrapping my mind around.
Then I remembered all the Spanish-speaking immigrants in the U.S. who don’t learn English.
A former co-worker of mine was married to a guy from Uruguay who had lived in the U.S. for 13 years before they met and got married. He spoke very little English despite having lived and worked in the U.S. for over a decade.
Ramses, I think this issue of foreigners not learning the language of the country where they’re living and working is universal, from Tokyo to L.A. You see this in expat communities in China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, etc. Also, on a popular online forum for Spaniards who want to live and work overseas, every single day there are Spaniards asking about how to get a job in the U.S. or the U.K. while having “un nivel medio” of English, which really means a very low level of English. Some specifically want to live or work in Miami because they know that there is a very large population of Spanish speakers there and they believe that will make their job search easier.
But I agree with you that it’s still odd that someone would choose to live and work in Spain and then not at least try to get up to an intermediate-level of the language.
@Elena: What’s that forum url?