How important is learning Catalan in Catalonia or the Balearics
Oct 9th 2010, 10:35 am
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 133
How important is learning Catalan in Catalonia or the Balearics
Is learning Catalan essential for getting a job and being able to live normally and integrate, or will Spanish surfice?
Oct 11th 2010, 2:39 pm
#2
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Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Catalonia, Spain
Posts: 530
Re: How important is learning Catalan in Catalonia or the Balearics
It really depends exactly where you are and what kind of job you might be looking for.
My observation is that on the coast, especially in tourist areas, you could probably get away with castillian spanish but the further inland you go the more essential it is to learn catalan.
I have friends working in Girona and Banyoles who took the free catalan lessons provided nad believe they would not have got jobs otherwise. I don't work and live nearer the coast so I get by OK in castillian. However in some places when I have spoken castillian I have been corrected in catalan.
If you listen you can get a pretty good idea of places where catalan would be required, for example in our local Carrefour the staff happily speak either but in the Esclat which is a catalan supermarket its catalan or nothing.
My observation is that on the coast, especially in tourist areas, you could probably get away with castillian spanish but the further inland you go the more essential it is to learn catalan.
I have friends working in Girona and Banyoles who took the free catalan lessons provided nad believe they would not have got jobs otherwise. I don't work and live nearer the coast so I get by OK in castillian. However in some places when I have spoken castillian I have been corrected in catalan.
If you listen you can get a pretty good idea of places where catalan would be required, for example in our local Carrefour the staff happily speak either but in the Esclat which is a catalan supermarket its catalan or nothing.
