# Gandia, public schools and valenciano



## Sophia B (Feb 24, 2016)

Hi, i'm new here and not quite sure how this works. I'm also not English so you have to overlook my language.. 
We are moving to Spain and more specifically the Valencia region and most likely Safor/Gandia (or so we had planned..). We have two kids (5 and 10 years) who will go to public school. They are fluent in Spanish (though not the Spanish kind of Spanish, but a south American version..), so that won't be a problem, but now after reading some crazy sounding articles I'm very worried about the Valenciano language. 
I thought it's taught like any other "foreign" language a couple times a week, but apparently it's not the case?? Is part of the education, as in maths and history, taught in Valenciano?? 
My kids already have another mother tongue, and hear English at home, so to too much push for a forth (quite unnecessary) language seems not fair and so now we are re-thinking the whole idea of Gandia  . Which otherwise seems like such a nice area.
Does anyone have any idea on how this is or even better, first hand experiences..? 
I would also love to hear about other foreigners (maybe even with kids) living in the Gandia area, is it as nice as we think? We have earlier lived in Andalucia and thought we should try something little different..
Can someone help me? I'd appreciate it so much !


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Sophia B said:


> Hi, i'm new here and not quite sure how this works. I'm also not English so you have to overlook my language..
> We are moving to Spain and more specifically the Valencia region and most likely Safor/Gandia (or so we had planned..). We have two kids (5 and 10 years) who will go to public school. They are fluent in Spanish (though not the Spanish kind of Spanish, but a south American version..), so that won't be a problem, but now after reading some crazy sounding articles I'm very worried about the Valenciano language.
> I thought it's taught like any other "foreign" language a couple times a week, but apparently it's not the case?? Is part of the education, as in maths and history, taught in Valenciano??
> My kids already have another mother tongue, and hear English at home, so to too much push for a forth (quite unnecessary) language seems not fair and so now we are re-thinking the whole idea of Gandia  . Which otherwise seems like such a nice area.
> ...


:welcome:

I'm not in Gandia, but not far away & I am in the Valencia region.

Yes - generally around half (or more) of the curriculum is taught in Valenciano. When we came here my children spoke neither Castellano (nor any other kind of Spanish) nor Valenciano. They were 5 & 8 (nearly 9) when they started in Spanish state school - & have really had no problems studying in both.

They are 16 & 20 now & switch without thinking between languages, including English, of course


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## Sophia B (Feb 24, 2016)

Thanks for your reply, that's great that your kids have done so good and i'm sure it's possible, but I'm still concerned for mine (and a little terrified of all those school papers in valenciano), and i think we'll start looking at Murcia instead


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## mickbcn (Feb 4, 2013)

Sophia B said:


> Thanks for your reply, that's great that your kids have done so good and i'm sure it's possible, but I'm still concerned for mine (and a little terrified of all those school papers in valenciano), and i think we'll start looking at Murcia instead


In Murcia your children can learn "murciano",similar to south american spanish,instead learn 2 languages.


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## Sophia B (Feb 24, 2016)

Is that true -that murciano is like south american spanish? That would be great since my kids kind of already masters it


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

South American Spanish? That's a broad brush! Anyway, first of all, Spanish is Spanish the world over (well, 500 million of us including Mexico!). So the distinction between varieties is not so significant. Valenciano is a type of Catalan, right? So I don't think that is a tremendous hurdle.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

xolo said:


> South American Spanish? That's a broad brush! Anyway, first of all, Spanish is Spanish the world over (well, 500 million of us including Mexico!). So the distinction between varieties is not so significant. Valenciano is a type of Catalan, right? So I don't think that is a tremendous hurdle.


Valenciano & Catalán are as similar & different to each other as US & British English. essentially the same language but with vocabulary differences. 

Valencia claims that Catalán is a version on Valenciano & vice versa  

Both however are a totally separate language to Castellano (Spanish). I speak & teach Castellano. I'm learning to speak Valenciano. I already read & understand it, but the words & especially the pronunciation are so very different to Castellano that I have to admit I'm struggling!

I wouldn't necessarily agree that Spanish is Spanish either. Most of the staff in my local are Colombian, but the owners are local Spanish/Valencian. The owner's son sometimes helps out & I heard him ask one of the bar staff to speak to him in Spanish Spanish one day, because he didn't understand Colombian.... 
It's mostly a case of vocab., but some words & verbs have totally different meanings!


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