Speak Catalan!

The other day I was walking with my 22-month-old son through the Eixample district. A stationery store caught his eye. There was a sign on the door that read: "Here we speak Catalan. Also Spanish and English, but our hearts sing when you speak the language of our land." I thought: perfect! I went in and said hello in Catalan, and... they answered me in English.

Yes, I have blue eyes, blond hair, and very, very white skin. I'm Russian.–but in Russia English is not spoken–And that scene, seemingly anecdotal, is a summary of my linguistic life in Barcelona.

I arrived in Catalonia in 2013, after completing a master's degree in Madrid, where I became fluent in Spanish. When I moved to Barcelona, I immediately started Catalan courses at the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization. Aside from that, I watched movies and series, participated in activities, and participated in a Catalan reading club at a library for a whole year. Today, I have a fairly high level of Catalan, between C1 and C2. I understand everything, I go to the theater, and I see stand-up comedy in Catalan. But when it comes to speaking, I don't have much practice. And it's not for lack of willpower. I regularly encounter situations like the one I described in the first paragraph of this text: I walk into a place, they look at me, and decide which language to speak.it fits me(usually the one they find that best suits me is English).

In the vast majority of cases, I don't even need to open my mouth. Sometimes, we start speaking in Catalan, but this only lasts until I say a Castilian idiom or make a mistake. Then the switch to Spanish or English comes.

This is very typical of Barcelona–In Olot or Girona they don't make the change for me.–I understand that Catalan-speaking Barcelonans want to be kind. But being kind isn't the same as being servile.

1.When they speak to me in English because of my physical appearance–Light eyes, white skin, vague accent—I'm automatically labeled as an outsider. And that same filter is applied to people of other appearances, often with even less pleasant results.

2.You can't learn a language without making mistakes. And yet, in Catalonia, many people give up trying to speak Catalan because as soon as they make a mistake, they switch languages. If you want to speak Catalan, it seems you have to speak it.perfectlyBut without error and practice, perfection is not possible.

3.Catalan disappears as Catalan speakers try to guess which language this foreigner will feel most comfortable in. Honestly, it doesn't matter which language I feel most comfortable in (Russian), speak your language, which is the language of the territory. I can manage.

My proposal is simple. Just wait. Wait for the other–even if it is very foreign–say: "Can we speak in Spanish?" or "Do you speak English?". Until this phrase arrives, we must continue speaking Catalan. This sends a very clear message: "You are here. This is the language of the land. And it can be yours too."

This gesture can also be a form of resistance to touristification: reminding everyone that visitors are the only ones who come from outside, and that there is a language of their own here. If people arriving in Barcelona can spend the day speaking English or Spanish without anyone speaking to them in Catalan, or wait for them to make even the slightest effort to request a language change, what motivation will they have to learn it?

Every time I try to speak Catalan in Barcelona with a Catalan speaker and they respond in another language, a part of me breaks. Because the message I receive isn't just linguistic. It's identity-based: "You're not from here." But I live here. I pay taxes here. I raise my son here. And I'd like to hear that I belong, too.

So, please speak to us in Catalan. Also to us foreigners.