Gerry Hadden

Gerry Hadden

Gerry Hadden reports for The World from Europe. Based in Spain, Hadden's assignments have sent him to the northernmost village in Norway to the southern tip of Italy, and just about everywhere else in between.

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Why I Like Catalan and Don’t Speak it

December 7, 2012 ⋅ Post a comment
Spectators hold up Catalan pro-independence flags during a soccer match at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium (Reuters/Albert Gea)

Spectators hold up Catalan pro-independence flags during a soccer match at Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium (Reuters/Albert Gea)

[Note from Patrick Cox: Here's a blog post from our Barcelona-based Europe correspondent Gerry Hadden. It's a great companion piece to his report featured in the podcast above.]

When my partner Anne and I moved to Barcelona eight years ago, we decided we would send our (future) kids to local schools. Schools that teach almost exclusively in the Catalan language. I didn’t speak a word of Catalan and neither did Anne.

We could have opted for one of two French Lycees in town. We could have chosen one of several American or British schools. That way, their education would have been in one of two languages we both speak.

But we went local because we wanted to become a part of our community. We wanted our kids to belong here. At “foreign” language schools, you’re always an expat. You don’t know the kids in your neighborhood. And your friends at school inevitably move away after a few years, when their parents’ bosses transfer them elsewhere.

That’s not the way either of us grew up, and we didn’t want that for our children. We’re also polyglots (I majored in German in college) with a “the more languages the merrier” philosophy. Our kids are now on the road to speaking, naturally, without blinking an eye, four languages.

Eight years on, however, their dad still doesn’t speak Catalan. For some Catalans, that’s an offense. They feel snubbed. How dare I not embrace the language – the most important and cherished aspect of Catalan identity?

But the majority of our Catalan friends couldn’t care less. Many have even congratulated us for having mastered that other official language in Catalonia: Spanish.

Students wait for the start of their first day at an elementary school in Catalonia (Reuters/Enrique Calvo)

As foreigners living in Catalonia, we’re caught in the cross-fire of a divided society. Some Catalans wish Spain would just go away. Others can’t understand such preference for Catalan over Spanish.

This debate is sometimes tedious. Often it is outright hateful, with the vitriol spewing from both sides.

In the meantime, as I say, I haven’t learned it. I can read it, and understand most of it, but I don’t speak it. Haven’t made much effort. The reason isn’t political. It has more to do with water than with politics or philosophy or identity.

Water seeks the easiest route on its journey to wherever it’s going. Language is the same. People learn foreign languages for one of just two reasons, and the first follows the water principal. The second is what happens to water when it spills into a geyser.

Reason One: Necessity. You learn Catalan or Mandarin or Tagalog because you have no choice. You have moved to a country where no one speaks your native language and you have to eat. You can’t go to market, point at produce and nod forever. Also, you have to work. You have to make friends.

In Catalonia I can do all those things without speaking Catalan. Like water, I take the easiest route. Everyone speaks Spanish. Whether they like it or not. Only once in a very long while will a Catalan simply refuse to talk to me in Spanish. This reality drives some Catalans crazy – and it’s led to public campaigns to encourage Catalans not to switch to Spanish in conversations with folks like me. But that hasn’t really worked, because ultimately people realize it’s rude to answer someone who’s speaking to you in a language you know – by using a language they don’t.

Reason Two: Love. Love makes water go in any direction it wants. It can shoot it hundreds of feet into the air, against gravity – even turn it into a gas if it feels like it. I fell in love with someone who happens to be French. Which is why, over these eight years in Catalonia, my French has gotten pretty good, while my level of Catalan has barely budged.

Discussion

15 comments for “Why I Like Catalan and Don’t Speak it”

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=650818824 Anna Donlin

    Fun story. Thanks! Reminds me of my own frustrations as a high school foreign exchange student in Casteldefels. It wasn’t too many years after Franco died and everyone was speaking Catalan. I spoke Spanish but was so lost!

  • Rosa_Fabregues

    J’ai eu la chance d’aller aux Ecoles Françaises a Barcelona, mes parents ont préféré faire des sacrifices et que leurs enfants puissent avoir une autre langue. Je pense qu’il faut ne s’entêter a vouloir que tout le monde soi come on voudrai, il faut vivre et laisser vivre. Salut i bona estada a Catalunya

  • XavierBarcelonaParis

    Anna Donlin. I’m sorry you couldn’t speak Spanish in Castelldefels. Actually I can’t understand why you couldn’t.    http://www.idescat.cat/emex/?id=080569&lang=es#h820.       Castelldefels Población 2011 (Castelldefels Population in 2011) : 63.139; Por lugar de nacimiento; 2011 (Place born): Cataluña(Catalonia) : 33.594;  Resto de España(Spain) : 13.380,  Extranjero(foreigners) : 16.165.                 I haven’t found old statistics but after Franco died mostly Castelldefels inhabitants came from Spain ( maybe between 75-90 % !!).     There is/was no “best city” to learn Spanish in Catalonia because all Catalans speaks/spoke perfectly spanish.
    Castelldefels is/was maybe one of the best cities in Catalonia if you don’t/didn’t want to learn Catalan, not Spanish.

  • http://twitter.com/jaumetet jaume nualart ||*||

    In my opinion your position is interesting and quite contradictorious.
    First of all, I must say that I want everybody free to decide what language to learn. Probably I think this way coz I grew up in a just opposite situation (Spain, were speak spanish is mandatory for an spanish citizen and my language was heavily persecuted during years)
    I sais contradictorious for two reasons:
    1- You are going against your own philosophy: “the more languages the merrier” 
    2- If we accept that the number of languages in the world are about 4.000, the 4 languages more similar to catalan are: Spanish, French, Portugues and Italian. I would say that when you speak two of them, then the others are extremely easy. Easy as… water flows in connected vessels.

    Again, it’s ok if you don’t want to learn Catalan, just I didn’t like a subtle smell in your text of status quo:  is not a coincidence that you learn so well Spanish and not Catalan, isn’t it? 

    Last comment: i don’t agree when you say “ cross-fire of a divided society.”. Have you ever lived in a divided society, really? I don”t think so. In a “cross-fire, divided society” you would  not be able to do what you have done at all. Instead of this analysis, you would be more accurate and, basically, fair and gratefull saing that the Catalan society is an example of coexistence of languages and cultures: the local one, Catalan, and the one brought by armies, Spanish..  Lucky you that people living in Catalonia (Catalans or Spaniards) we are able to speak both and respect the other.

    Jaume Nualart (@jaumetet) from Australia

    • ghadden

       Thanks Jaume for your comments.  I wouldn’t say that not having learned Catalan goes against my love of languages.  It’s just a practical matter.  See my post to Liz, above.  No subtle smells here.  When I moved to Barcelona I had already learned Spanish (in Madrid, Cuba, and Mexico).  The inertia is all mine, it’s not a political statement at all. 

      The division in Catalonia only refers to the language issue.  When we moved here the sense of things being polarized was much lower.  Before the housing crash and the economic crisis, we almost never had this debate with our Catalan friends.  Now of course the political discourse has turned ugly and people are getting entrenched.  And many more Catalans than before are embracing the idea of independence and defending Catalan against the perceived onslaught from Madrid.  The division we feel now is real.  Both on a national level and autonomous community level. 

      The answer seems to me so simple, yet so difficult to achieve.  One language doesn’t inherently threaten another.  There’s room for both.  The problem arises, as always, when politicians use language as a tool to stay in power.

      Thanks again!

      • http://twitter.com/lizcastro Liz Castro

        Unfortunately, your statement “one language doesn’t inherently threaten another” belies a basic ignorance of sociolinguistics. “When two languages coexist in the same territory, one of them always ends up imposing itself over the other, for reasons of demographics, prestige, violence, etc. ” (That’s a rough quote from The Rise and Fall of Languages, by world-renowned sociolinguistics expert R.M.W. Dixon “http://books.google.es/books/about/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Languages.html?id=qsyudSYieaQC&redir_esc=y

  • http://twitter.com/lizcastro Liz Castro

    Hmm. You say that for your kids you chose local Catalan schools because “we wanted to become a part of our community”. I wonder why you didn’t choose that for yourselves. And I know you can live in Barcelona without speaking Catalan, I’ve seen many people do it, and perhaps it’s the easier path in the short run. But I would suggest, that as you well know, you can’t fully integrate with the community unless you speak Catalan, not just understand it.

    I have been to countless dinners, meetings, get togethers, in which there were a few people who spoke only Spanish, and yes, people do make the effort to include them by changing to Spanish for them, but as I’m sure you’ve experienced, Catalan speakers quickly return to Catalan with the others around them who speak Catalan—sometimes in mid sentence.

    Just because people speak two languages doesn’t mean it’s the same to them to speak one or the other. Your kids probably speak English and Spanish as well as Catalan, but I’m guessing you speak to them in English, even though you could speak to them in Spanish. I suspect you are not indifferent to the language choice. 

    And it’s interesting that you note that although practically all Catalan speakers talk to you in their second language, because, you postulate, “people realize it’s rude to answer someone who’s speaking to you in a language you know – by using a language they don’t” I wonder why you don’t recognize that after 8 years of living in a Catalan speaking community, it’s rude not to make an effort to speak to them in their language.

    Finally, I would add that because of Catalans’ accommodation to Spanish speakers, and the attitude of people like yourself, it’s actually difficult to live in Barcelona without speaking Spanish. I happen to know three people who speak Catalan but not Spanish: my US-raised children. We spent a school year in Barcelona in 2010 and they had significant difficulties at the time despite speaking very good Catalan. It turns out that your theory doesn’t hold for Spanish speakers: they have no compunction speaking Spanish to people (children!) who don’t understand it, even with a common language as an alternative.

    So, to build on your “water” analogy, I think you have to realize that the Spanish government, and Spanish speakers like yourselves spray a firehose at Catalan speakers everyday. Sure, at that point it’s easier to just go with the flow, but it’s myopic, and I would even say self-serving, to pretend that that is a natural flow.

    • ghadden

      You’re absolutely right Liz, we would be more a part of the community if we spoke Catalan.  And if I had the time I’d learn it.  But between my more than full time job, my frequent traveling, raising my three kids, my desire to speak even better French and Spanish, and the 46-year old hard drive between these ears I don’t see it happening.  Taking the easiest route isn’t a point of pride, it’s simply my reality. 

      Of course I understand that many Catalans would prefer that I spoke Catalan, and that they could speak to me in Catalan (many do, actually, and we have two-language conversations).  You could argue that I’m just as rude by not speaking Catalan, but practically speaking I respectfully disagree.  I can’t respond in Catalan, but they can respond in Spanish.  For me to respond, I’d have to roll up my sleeves and study the language, and as I’ve said what little time I have I dedicate to  my family or other pursuits. 

      I don’t see living in Barcelona and finding yourself having to speak Spanish as a problem or difficulty.  I would say that if you live here you absolutely must be able to speak one of the two official languages.  It would be rude and absurd to expect people, for example, to speak English.

      As far as the firehose analogy is concerned, as I mention in my blog I recognize that some Catalans are offended by a foreigner like me living here, only speaking Spanish, although understanding Catalan.  Again, if my life were different I’d dive in.  Where does that leave me?  As much a part of the community as I’m able to be.  With lots of Catalan friends, and an even larger circle of Catalan acquaintances who admire us for having embraced the Catalan language – via our choice to educate our kids in it.

      • http://twitter.com/lizcastro Liz Castro

        Thanks for your thoughtful reply, Gerry. I get that it’s hard, I just think the benefits far outweigh the costs, and that it’s harder in theory than in reality. I bet you know plenty of Catalan right now and could probably speak more than you think. It’s just a question of starting.

        And again, I must insist that your assertion that you “absolutely must be able to speak one of the two official languages” is basically false, since as you so aptly describe, one really only has to speak Spanish, and as I explained, knowing only Catalan is currently not really enough.

        The truth of the matter is that bilingual societies are inherently unstable. Sociolinguists agree that over time (and not much of it), one of two languages that occupy the same sphere (like Catalan and Spanish do), will eventually die out. I think that would be a shame, and is well worth the effort to counteract.

        It occurs to me that what really bothers me about your article is not that you haven’t learned to speak Catalan—my great-grandmothers never learned English in the US, despite living there far longer than you in Barcelona—but that you and others so brazenly and publicly defend that position as your right.

        • ghadden

           Thanks Liz.  I have never read anything about the inherent instability of bilingual societies, thanks for pointing me toward the literature. 

          I’m not brazenly defending my position as a right.  I’m just explaining – yes, in a public forum – why I haven’t learned Catalan.  But I guess if you frame it as rights issue, I’d have to say it is technically “my right” not to learn it.  It is always my right not to do something.  To my mind, however, my particular case is not at all about rights, it’s just about one man’s circumstances.

  • http://twitter.com/hudin Miquel Hudin

    Your water argument doesn’t hold itself. This go-with-the-flow metaphor would only work if you mentioned that the water were armed and oppressive.  Catalans speak Spanish because of 300 years of their being an occupying force, just like Hungarians stuck in Western Romania speak Romanian, Austrians in Tyrol speak Italian, and a whole slew of others.

    You made a decision to stick only to Spanish basically out of laziness and while it seems that the Catalans don’t have a problem with it, you obviously don’t understand Catalans at all.  Due to literally centuries of being shat upon by Spain, they’ve become experts in hiding their real opinions and you would never know it as they talk about you in Catalan with one another.

    You don’t actually “like” Catalan.  If you did, you would learn it and, as a fellow Anglophone, I seriously doubt you abilities to read it as the grammar can be exceedingly different than Spanish in many ways.  Sure, you may get the points of it, but you miss the details.

    And of course, this gets to the professional level.  I realized that I needed to learn the language in order to be successful in my profession which is working with winemakers here in Catalonia.  Sure, much like you, I could go around speaking Spanish with them, and I have in the past.  But, once speaking Catalan, there was an embrace of trust and an openness that I simply didn’t see when talking with them in what is a second language.  Surely a journalist would understand this?

    My wife is Catalan and that makes it seem like an obvious point as to why I should learn it.  But honestly, we only speak English at home and I’ve spoken Spanish with her family for the last five years and, like many expats in Barcelona, it could have continued this way, but no, I made the decision to learn the language which is best summed up in this article.

    http://www.hudin.com/blog/the-catalan-language-question/

    Needless to say, learn Catalan, or continue to be nothing more than a guest in what you call your “second home”.

  • http://www.facebook.com/roger.evans1 Roger Evans

    I lived in Catalonia for only two years, and I speak Catalan only imperfectly; but I frequently return and keep up many close and vital relationships with Catalans. I can tell you that you deceive yourself if you think that holding yourself aloof of your Catalan neighbors linguistically is not to some extent felt as an insult. Taking advantage of their good nature in these matters might be bad enough, but you’re also being somewhat opportunistic (however unconsciously) in profiting from their historical disadvantages under long occupation. On some level, it is the fault of the Catalans themselves for allowing you to be so serene in your attitude; but I, as an American, have no right to judge people who have been so thoroughly schooled in hiding some of their most basic feelings in favor of survival.

    I hope that you’ll rethink your position out of mere neighborliness and human solidarity if nothing else, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your children became instrumental in causing you to do so.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1131055062 Michael A. Travis

    Mr Hadden, I found your post interesting for its candor about balancing priorities and human nature. And it seems to me that you’re being criticized for your candor about being a (to some, flawed) human. Balancing the demands of career and family is never easy, but to your critics it is not enough for you to be reasonably polyglot and able to understand the local language; you must somehow find the time to master speaking it too. If you were stationed in Bremen, would these folks criticize you for failing to add Plattdüütsch to the Hochdeutsch you learned in college? The admirable fact that you have mastery of English, Spanish & French enables you to make yourself understood in large swathes of the world. (German, a language I also speak, is not in the same league as a world language, but still an international language.) It is unfair for others to criticize your priorities, your limits and your openness about them. 

  • anna reguant ridó

    good choice for your children, i wish you loved catalan too… ! usually, people are more interested in important languages, talking in geopolitical terms, as french… I don’t think that sums it all… power and love are not the same.

    i loved french when living in france, i loved catalan since I was born as my mother tongue, i loved spanish since i realized it was the mother tongue of many of my friends, I studied english to have an international language, it was very useful for traveling and surfing the internet… I started loving it through literature and films, and definitely, when my sister moved to the USA. trying to improve it through this website, what a pity this was my first podcast to listen. 
    I encourage you to learn catalan too!

  • http://twitter.com/thecatlanway kate wilson

    this is an interesting discussion but ‘methinks he doth protest too much’ !  If you already spoke Spanish when you arrived, I can’t see any reason not to have spent the past 8 years learning Catalan.  Are you resisting it?   Busyness is important but in the end it is to do with priorities and if you already understand Catalan then it is not such a huge step to start speaking it.

    I arrived three years ago. I was struggling to learn Spanish and resisted Catalan for a year even though I was having a relationship with a Catalan. I felt two languages were too much to take on. I also have many Catalan friends who changed language to suit me but of course regularly shifted back to Catalan as soon as politeness allowed. I actually felt a bit annoyed by this – but it was my ignorance of the situation and the history and the politics of it all!
    Once I decided to learn Catalan (and I remember the moment when the dam broke open and the water began to flow through)  everything became so much easier. Surrounded by the language I took it in easily, friends were delighted to help me, everyone I meet is supportive and I feel that my water is now flowing down the easy and open channel!

    You already speak Spanish, your children speak Catalan, your friends speak Catalan, you are living in Catalunya, you understand Catalan ……what could be more obvious? Start to speak!

    I have met so many people who say they understand it all but never speak it – lots of Spanish people who have lived here for 20+ years say this. What’s it about?  Prejudice?  Fear? Stubborness?  Who knows but what I do know is that I couldn’t live here without learning the language.  Of course we all have the choice but choices also have consequences and now that I am able to communicate with people in their own language I can see what a difference this makes to being accepted.  Kate