Catalan

Hola,

This photo was taken yesterday in Creixelle. As you can see, I've been working on my tan for he wedding. Still got a week or so to go to top it up before the big day, although my sister keeps telling me that I musn't turn up looking too brown or else I will look like I've been tangoed when I put my wedding dress on - due to the stark contrast. I suspect she just doesn't want to look pasty next to me in the photos. Well with a bus load of spaniards coming too I don't think I am the only one she should be worrying about!

I am pleased to say that I think something is begining to stick with regards to the catalan language. Saturday was the stag party for our friend Fede. With this as the excuse, all the boys went up to Pamplona to the San fermines festivals (Bulls running through streets etc), leaving wives and girlfriends behind. Fede's soon to be wife is called Txell and poor Txell claims that I am the only person in the world with whom she has to speak Spanish - and that at times she struggles to express herself. How does she think I feel!

Txell is from a tiny village somewhere that is very catalan and apparently no one ever speaks spanish there. So, she speaks catalan with all of her family, all of her friends, her boyfriend, at work etc etc. Of course she can speak spanish - and to an untrained ear you'd assume she was spanish and she was speaking fluidly. However, once you start to listen properly, she often has the odd catalan word in the middle of a sentence or a complete catalan sentence in the middle of a spanish conversation. At times she can't think of a word in spanish and so points to something or describes something or says it in catalan and often I know the spanish word before her (which I find quite amusing). Anyway, after spending all day on the beach with me, her spanish was slowing up and she started flipping into catalan and then correcting herself and going back to Spanish. So, I took the brave move of saying "Txell, just speak Catalan to me. I have to learn so lets start here and now." I had to reply in spanish because I can't speak catalan but I was confident that I would be able to recognise enough catalan that we could get somewhere with this. So, thats what we did, and I'm really pleased we did. I was really pleased with myself that, more or less, I understood her for about an hour's worth of conversation. Hooray! a stepping stone has been crossed.

There is no point in me signing up for a course in catalan, I have decided, because we are moving to Valencia. Valenciano is actually very very close to catalan......so I do intend to sign up to a course in valenciano. However, valenciano is not spoke n as widely as catalan is here. The need, therefore, will not be as great. But as it wil help my catalan, I think I will put it on my list of things to do.

Adeu

S xx