davidbroughton

Hi all

I'm new to the forum and am considering a possible move to Spain. It's early days yet, but I am trying to narrow down a few areas to go and have a look at.

My first concern is the language issue. I am currently having Spanish lessons in the UK, but am aware that the Spanish spoken in Spain can vary greatly between regions.

The first area I am considering is Andalucia, either costal or further inland, but I am primarily looking at the province of Malaga. I have been told that the Spanish spoken in this area carries a very heavy accent, which makes it difficult to understand, even for people from other parts of Spain! Is the accent in this area as unintelligible as I have been led to believe? How does this vary between urban/rural, costal/inland, east/west etc.? This might strike some as being an odd question to ask, but I would prefer to move somewhere where I can understand and be understood.

The second area I am considering is North Costa Blanca. What is used as the primary language in this area, Valencian or Castilian? Is the Spanish spoken in this area generally easier to understand than the Andalucian variety? How difficult is Valencian to learn? Would I really need to learn it to fully integrate, or is it possible to get by with just Spanish?

Sorry, so many questions!

Looking forward to hearing your experiences, and any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

lynnxa

Hi

I live & work in the North Costa Blanca

while the local language is indeed Valenciano, and a lot of the locals will speak to each other using it, they still speak Castellano to us foreigners, and in my town I think they speak pretty clearly, although when your ear is tuned in you can detect a Valenciano influence................

my kids are in school here & study in both, & I can read it pretty well, and understand quite a bit when it is spoken, I have never said anything beyond BonDia

I really don't think not speaking Valenciano has hindered me at all - in fact the local Spanish are usually impressed that I can speak Spanish!!

agoreira

My threepeneth, yes, Andalucia can be quite strong, in some areas, really strong, however, I wouldn't let that put you off if that is your first choice area. People get used to it. If you go to a valenciano speaking area, you'll still need castilian, you'll just be giving yourself another language to learn.

Rosemary

I live in a smaller town than Lynnxa and everyone speaks Valenciano all of the time. Although nearly they all do speak to us in Castellano there are many that cannot communicate well in it and we find that there are quite a lot who still persist in speaking in valenciano to us so we have to muddle through. The children are taught almost all of their lessons in Valenciano too.

I always say that I do not speak Valenciano at all but when my OH was in hospital I found that there were lots of things that I automatically said in Valenciano and could not in fact think of the correct Castellano. This probably occurred due to the length of time that we were dealing with the nurses who all spoke Valenciano to each other all of the time.

Rosemary

Lynn R

I live in Andalucia, in the Axarquia region east of Malaga. In the town where I live not many people speak English, and my neighbours have a very strong local accent which after 4 years I still find very difficult to understand. My Spanish is not fluent but pretty good, or so my teacher told me (studied to advanced level) and I never have any problems understanding people, or them understanding my Castellano, when I travel further north in Spain.

bil

Andaluz can be difficult at times, very fluid and hard to pick the words out, but the area is warmer than the north, so I went for the south of Andalucia.

Interestingly, the hamlets can often speak a varety of andaluz that is unintelligible to me even after living next to them.

The more urban the area, the less you would need Catalan or Val. The more rural, I'd guess the more useful it might be,

agoreira

Many years ago,when my Spanish wasn't that bad, I stopped in Archez and asked some old guy for directions. He went on for a minute or two, and I thanked him and went back to the car. My wife said, "What did he say?" "Not a ***** clue!" I think I missed 90% of it! Same once with a guy from Huelva, completely lost me.

HBG

I’m reasonably confident in Castellano and understand most Valenciano, but the latter is a dead language spoken by a tiny proportion of Spanish people in the north of the Valencian community. It is of no use in the rest of the Spanish speaking world.

The Andalucian accent is pronounced but Spanish speaking people elsewhere understand it, in the same way as a Geordie will be understood in New York.

I don’t have much knowledge of northern Spain, but understand the accents when I’ve heard them. Apart from the Basques, of course.

Rosemary

[QUOTE=HBG;9203761]I’m reasonably confident in Castellano and understand most Valenciano, but the latter is a dead language spoken by a tiny proportion of Spanish people in the north of the Valencian community. It is of no use in the rest of the Spanish speaking world.


52.5% of people in the Comunitat speak Valenciano according to the latest (2008) survey and it is spoken throughout the Comunitat and in northern Murcia. If we are at a street party here the locals will speak Castellan to us but a small number have to have it translated to Valencian because they cannot follow Castellan.
I find it quite amusing when I read that only a tiny proportion speak it in the north, we live south of Valencia and apart from Cullera, a resort town for the Spanish, all the other towns around the people communicate in Valencian.
I have just spent a long time in a large teaching hospital and guess what all the nurses, doctors, ancilliaries(over 3000 of them), communicated in Valencian.
So anyone out there considering moving to the Valencia region needs to take into account the language spoken.

Graham

davidbroughton

I am surprised; I expected the percentage of Valenciano speakers to be much higher.

While the language isn't high on my list of priorities, it is definitely something that I feel I should consider. Ultimately, the decision appears to be between moving to an area where the Spanish is difficult to understand versus moving to an area where half of the people converse primarily in a different language!

Are there parts of the Comunitat that are predominently Spanish speaking?

Thank you all for your input so far.

lynnxa

Valenciano is alive & kicking & at least half of all studies in the schools are in that language

even those in schools where castellano is the predominant language, roughly 40% of studies will be in valenciano

so I'd say it's probably growing, too

all road signs (at least in my area) are in both languages

however, a foreign adult doesn't need it, and I agree that it is of little use outside the immediate region, except in Cataluña, since catalán is almost the same

interestingly, many English children have told me that they find Valenciano easier to learn than Castellano

Dxf

Hi

I live in the Cádiz region; there are people in Marquesado area of Chiclana that can't understand the accent of the Pago del Humo area of Chiclana!

So yes accents can be very regional; and very difficult to understand as one gets older and deafer. But when I travel to other regions of Spain, then they have always understood my Castellano Spanish. Indeed I have been complimented on it in Galicia where they speak Gellego (spelling?), and therefore Castellano is not their mother tongue.

However think about the TV; some stations are nationwide, and are understood. Therefore if you speak with the accent of the TV - you will be understood wherever you go.

Davexf

agoreira

Agree, I have always maintained the same, if you speak correctly, they'll always understand you, alas it's not always true in reverse! They answer you because they understand you perfectly, but often you can struggle with their answer.
Gallego.
I find just about anywhere north of Andalucia is easier to understand, the middle and the north, so much easier. Mind you, they automatically slow down to speak with us, I can understand a Spanish friend without any problems, but hearing him on the phone to someone, it's more difficult to follow.

Rosemary

There are a few of my friends that I understand very clearly and they do not slow down for me and a few others that I barely understand no matter how slowly they speak. As they all grew up in this town I find it difficult to comprehend why they are so different unless it is the simple fact that some people actually speak more clearly than others. One of my neighbours who is an orange farmer only speaks to me in incomprehensible Valenciano but occasionally I even manage to get the guist of what he is saying. Well normally this only happens if he has used the same phrase to me before to ask how my OH is or to tell me what type of orange he is giving me and whether we can eat it or juice it.

I help a young lady with her English but I cannot understand a word she says in Valenciano and struggle quite a lot with her Castellano. Even though I slow down considerably for her she does not do the same for me which suprises me because she knows how difficult it is if I speak too fast for her.

My OH mentioned Cullera, there we find the Castellano that is spoken is very clear and I think that this is because they have Spanish people coming on holiday from a lot of different places but the majority I believe are from Madrid.

Rosemary

JLFS

My advice would be to forget about regional languages, as it has been pointed out, adults dont need to learn unless they are going for "opositions" which I very much doubt.

It seems some worry about the differences in the languages even before they have mastered the one that is spoken all over Spain.

It is not that important. Nobody will expect incomers to learn the local language.

I disagree that there are people who cant speak "spanish" as apposed to their regional language, from my experiance the ones that claim that they can only speak gallego or galego, do so for political reasons, ie they belong to the " bloque". (a political party in galicia)

And usually they have no interest in what goes on in Spain or the rest of the world, they are very narrow minded and probably dont have anything interesting to say anyway.

The following link is what Spanish folk think of regional languages, and it is interesting to see their view.

Chill out, be cool, you will have enough to learn without Valenciano, catalan, galego and the rest of the "padding2 that people think they may need.

http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_quot-...il_1333899_s10