Expatiperro

Three weeks into my time in Barcelona, I can finally justify my existence here. My Catalan class started up on Monday, and for at least the next four weeks, I'll be spending my Monday through Thursday evenings at the University of Barcelona working on my "Oral Agility" (which I believe refers to speaking skills). My professor is a lovely woman named Laura, who fits many stereotypes about Spanish women- she has a deep baritone voice, spends a lot of time in the sun, and is very opinionated and enjoys making broad statements. She is a fantastic teacher, however, willing to correct us when we make mistakes, but always in a reassuring way.

Given the class' name, it's not surprising that we spend almost all of our time talking, debating, and doing group work exercises, which has been not only a great way to work on my pronunciation, but also to get to know my classmates. There are around ten of us, though not everyone comes to class all the time- chalk that one up to the fact that none of us are getting graded. The majority of my classmates are from Europe- two each from Italy and Spain, and a Romanian- but there are also people from Peru and Brazil. What they all have in common, though, is that they not only speak Spanish fluently, but most of them already speak one or two other languages. By far the most impressive of the group is Radu, the Romanian philology student, who I think could carry on a conversion with any European, regardless of where they're from- Romania, France, Italy, Spain, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Barcelona, as far as I know right now. What's been interesting to notice is that the people who already speak multiple second languages are those who are getting the hang of Catalan the quickest. Is it because they have a natural knack for languages, or because they have experience learning new ones?

People's motivations for taking the class have been fascinating to hear, and I think reveals a lot about language politics in Calatunya. I wrote before about how everyone at the University is insistent on speaking Catalan; it turns out that the official language of the University is Catalan, meaning that all official communication, documents, and most classes are in the language. All of my classmates are students at the University, and they all have stories about not being able to understand their classmates, or worse, their professors and exams. For them, this class isn't just to pick up another language, or to be able to go shopping at the market and not look like a tourist, but a necessary skill to have so they don't fail out. The fact that the University conducts all of its business in Catalan, and makes my classmates take this class, says a lot about the importance of Catalan to Barcelonans- as a point of difference to the rest of Spain, and as a way to hold on to and build off of their past.

This first week has been a big fish-out-of-water experience. Not only am I the only American (and thus the resident expert on all cultural exports), but I'm the only one who's taking Catalan for fun, and not to survive in University classes. My speaking skills are weaker and vocab is smaller than my classmates, but then again, I've only taken two semesters, and I've only been speaking it consistently since I got into town three weeks ago. There have been other highlights and funny stories from class, but since this post is getting long, I'll save those for another time. Stay tuned.