# Speaking Catalan in Barcelona?



## Ifn (Jan 29, 2017)

Hi, I'm new to these forums. I have the idea of moving to Spain for a year or two before deciding if it's for me. I do love Spain and visit a lot. I'd like to live in the Barcelona area. I speak some Spanish. My question is....will anyone speak back to me in Spanish? I'm willing to speak some Catalan but with the limited language oriented brain cells that I have left, I don't want to lose my Spanish.


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

Its a multicultural city and if you speak some Spanish you'll do just fine...English is also wildly spoken.


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## Ifn (Jan 29, 2017)

bob_bob said:


> Its a multicultural city and if you speak some Spanish you'll do just fine...English is also wildly spoken.


Thanks bob bob. I've been studying Spanish for over 20 years. And don't want to lose it. So good to know there is a lot of Castilano being spoken.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Ifn said:


> Thanks bob bob. I've been studying Spanish for over 20 years. And don't want to lose it. So good to know there is a lot of Castilano being spoken.


You'll be fine with Castellano, but you'll get extra brownie points if you learn some phrases in Catalan.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Yes you'll be fine as long as you aren't looking for work.

My daughter has been living in Barcelona & every job application she made, even those where spoken English was the main requirement - the application form was in catalán.


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## mickbcn (Feb 4, 2013)

Ifn said:


> Hi, I'm new to these forums. I have the idea of moving to Spain for a year or two before deciding if it's for me. I do love Spain and visit a lot. I'd like to live in the Barcelona area. I speak some Spanish. My question is....will anyone speak back to me in Spanish? I'm willing to speak some Catalan but with the limited language oriented brain cells that I have left, I don't want to lose my Spanish.


Everybody will speak with you in spanish if they can see that you are foreigner and don't speak catalan,no problem we don't eat you for don't speak spanish as some spaniard say, hehehe.there are thousand of people from USA living in Barcelona and they don't have problems.


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## Ifn (Jan 29, 2017)

mickbcn said:


> Everybody will speak with you in spanish if they can see that you are foreigner and don't speak catalan,no problem we don't eat you for don't speak spanish as some spaniard say, hehehe.there are thousand of people from USA living in Barcelona and they don't have problems.


Yes, I was worried about the Spanish cannibals.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> You'll be fine with Castellano, but you'll get extra brownie points if you learn some phrases in Catalan.


Yup, and I'd go even further.
I and other people I know found that living there (as opposed to being a tourist) even as a foreigner the expectation was that after a while (months) you would speak Catalan, and yes, official places/ things are in Catalan first.
I was in Valls and other people I know were in Barcelona.


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## ivorra (Sep 24, 2008)

I have lived in Barcelona now for 15 years. Having been through the typical UK immigrant phase of, 'it's fine to speak Spanish - everyone can, you don't need more than a few phrases in Catalan' etc etc. I have found that if you want to integrate here and play a part in the community you DO need to make a real effort to learn the language. In my case that involved formal lessons and many hours of conversation classes, (continuing) but it has been well worth it. Generally the only places were I find the need to speak Spanish are the offices of Madrid based government services such as the Hacienda and DGT.


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## Ifn (Jan 29, 2017)

ivorra said:


> I have lived in Barcelona now for 15 years. Having been through the typical UK immigrant phase of, 'it's fine to speak Spanish - everyone can, you don't need more than a few phrases in Catalan' etc etc. I have found that if you want to integrate here and play a part in the community you DO need to make a real effort to learn the language. In my case that involved formal lessons and many hours of conversation classes, (continuing) but it has been well worth it. Generally the only places were I find the need to speak Spanish are the offices of Madrid based government services such as the Hacienda and DGT.


Thanks for all the good advice


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## bob_bob (Jan 5, 2011)

I did the usual Schoolboy French and army German but when stationed on Cyprus I decided to learn some local lingo...the problem was the locals needed to hone their English language skills (to deal with tourists) and really had no interest in my somewhat feeble efforts at using Greek.

I remember a trip to Spain @30 years ago and talking to a Dutch guy. Our children were very young and he asked if they would learn a foreign language at School and I said French and or German...he laughed and said they should learn Spanish as its used in various forms all over the world.

As a radio ham I'm stunned at the English language skills many overseas hams have, especially the Dutch and Scandinavians (and now the Russians)... The Scandinavians with fluent English sound almost American, I suspect their ancestors influenced the modern American accent ?


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