La Coruna
That was seriously one of the best weekend breaks I’ve had in a good long while. I think it was due to the combination of being back in Spain, the company and the actually city/village we visited that contributed to making it a special break. I’m going to dedicate a whole post to the main reason we actually went there as it definitely warrants one, however I’m going to talk about what I thought of La Coruna the people of La Coruna and the importance of language.
The last time I crashed into a similar barrier was when I was in Milan, last year. The barrier I’m refering to is the one of language. I could put the blame on the people of La Coruna however I know that this is in fact a problem or issue that exists the world over. Many natives of the world either don’t care for learning (or at least trying to learn) another language or don’t have the opportunity to learn one. In both major cities and minor towns there are many, many people that simply do not know another language apart from their mother tongue.
In a similar fashion Anglo-speakers believe that they should be able to get away with knowing only one language and that it is enough to get them by in this world. As the boundaries of man between himself and others become smaller and thinner it becomes more apparent that this is actually not the case. This laziness is in most cases brought upon by the widespread of Anglo media. Hollywood, music and TV has had an incredible amount of influence on perpetuating this laziness.
Even though I know 4 languages (in varying degrees of fluency) I know how hard it actually is to learn a language. I’ve been trying hard for several years to learn French and have found it pretty hard as I’ve never been to France nor have I ever lived in a French speaking language but I’ve not given up trying, you never know when it’s going to come in handy. Case in point was this weekend when the only language that I had in common with several of the people I met was French (there were several French teachers amongst those people we met).
I’d really like to thank David (who’s the most laid back person alive and a very nice guy), his girlfriend Elena (who is without a doubt the most outgoing person I have ever had the pleasure to meet), Bea, Eva and everyone else that talked to us or tried to talk to us (there were many but I honestly didn’t catch their names). The fact that all these people were so accepting of us seriously made the whole situation that we couldn’t actually converse with them properly even more frustrating to be honest.
Along with the food that we had (I seriously recommend the beef if you’re in the city as it most definitely is a specialty), the people that we met, the nightlife all gave La Coruna that special place in my heart. Of course I couldn’t finish this post without thanking my partners in crime for both organising and elevating the entire trip to the next level. Russ, Joe we’ve got to make this into a regular thing.
CHINQUE!!!!!!!!!
Sounds like you had fun! :)
↓ Quote | 28/3/2006
So, I take it that Spanish is not one of the 4 languages you speak?
I was rather embarrassed when I visited Spain two years ago because I took Spanish for 7 years in middle school and high school, and graduated with what I thought was a fair degree of fluency. But after 4 years of not using it, I arrived in Spain and could barely understand a thing. I blamed part of this on the fact that all my previous teachers had latino accents, so I was not used to the castilian accent, and my comprehension did improve rapidly over the course of a few days. However, it was still very surprising to me just how little I could understand at first.
↓ Quote | 28/3/2006
Nick - That I did buddy, that I did.
Blake - Nah, Spanish unfortunately isn’t one of the 4, although between Greek and French I was able to actually comprehend certain things but it would take at least a year of living there to pick up the language and I’d be trying a lot harder.
The fact that you picked things up quickly is a sign of decent foundations. It’s true though if you don’t use the language you’re going to forget things, it’s only natural really. I guess that’s one of those things that you can’t really do anything about apart from practicing, but unless there is a daily reason that could be extremely difficult.
↓ Quote | 28/3/2006
Don’t worry Blake. I’m Spanish and I hardly understand latinoamerican spanish, not only the accent is different but a lot of words and expressions are.
However, the main reason for the poor english level in some parts of Spain is the lack of original movies, tv series and else. Everything is translated!. This also applies to France, Italy, Greece and many others.
Anyway, Khaled, next time I strongly recommend you to visit Madrid.
↓ Quote | 30/3/2006