Ah Spain!

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Welcome to a Spain. Hola. How's it going, Gatano? It's going Bueno. Tanya A2. E2
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E2. Today you have an Aspane to start our
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episode. I I believe I do have a little Ospain. So it's So
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the other night we were at home and we were just we had the windows open and
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enjoying the city air and and the sounds and we just started hearing this like screaming down the street and Paloma was
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like, "Dad, put your shoes on. Let's go. Let's go find the Yeah, let's go get in the middle of it."
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So of course I obliged and we went down. And like the whole group of at the
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corner where this was, the whole group was the whole neighborhood had grouped together as it were. And there was some
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chaos in an apartment up and then they said, "Oh no, it was just a joke." And there was this group of like teenage
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boys at this cafe, teenage 17, 19, that kind of a age range.
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And they're like, "We don't know if it was a joke." So, we still called the cops anyway, which I just thought was like kind of cool that like
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this group of young men are still like, "No, we're concerned." Like, Yeah. Yeah. But they decided that that
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was the right thing to do at that moment. Yeah. Exactly. Together. And so then all of then the
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cops came and they went upstairs to find out the chaos and they came down and they talked to everyone like on the
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street of like, "What did you see? What was going on? We're a little suspicious. Everything seems fine."
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Mhm. But if you hear of any like if you hear anything else, please call us and blah blah blah. And I and I thought that
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was just I don't know like so comforting like we're in the city and it felt like a small town community, right? You don't
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really see that I'm I've lived in New York and Vegas and LA and you know if
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no one's helping you. No, if if you're getting murdered, someone's just turning their volume up on their TV. They're not they can't be
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bothered. But what was also really fun is I was got to talk to other people that were watching it because I needed
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to find out I was like what's going on? What's the scoop? Right. Yes. In Spanish. How do you say how do you say what's the
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scoop in Spanish? Yeah. I'm like ks el scoop. El scoopo.
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And so I then there was this there's a group of people standing up youth college age talking next to us. I said
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you speak English and she said yes. And we were talking and I was speaking in half Spanish, half English because I try
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to throw in Spanish words wherever I can. Yeah, you're very good. Yeah. And she goes, "Oh, I love that." That
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she goes, "Your Spanish is very good for someone who's, you know, a moron."
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But this will lead us into today's episode. What she had told me is that she had just moved here from the Canary
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Islands and she was like being reassuring to me. She goes, "Don't worry. I just moved here from the Canaries and we speak Spanish down
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there, but I've had to relearn everything up here because I don't understand what people are saying at all.
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Right. Yeah, that's so true. I mean, that is that that that does perfectly
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lead us in because it it is difficult also for Spanish people to move around
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Spain in some of these ways. Like, so obviously everybody knows we're in Valencia. We have a WhatsApp group for
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our community where I had nothing to do with this. There's not a lot of foreigners where we live. And they had somebody had the the
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the owner of the group, I guess, had posted a thing on various occasions saying, "Please to everybody, this can
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only be Spanish. This can only be Castellian because there's people here, not me, but other people from other
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parts of Spain that don't speak Valenciano. So, we can't be communicating in that on this community group, which I thought was sort of interesting
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that it's when we're talking about all these languages. Yes, we have other issues because we're don't even speak
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Spanish properly yet, but even within it, it is a something that everybody has to learn a little bit of all around if
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you're going to be living in a area with another language. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I we've talked I think
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we've talked about this on another episode, too, is that walking around the the street, you're like like rebehas. It
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still sounds like rebeas and valenciano, but it's spelled completely different. And I was like, why are these is this? I
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don't remember learning this Spanish. And then you then you realize, oh, there's a second language here. And sometimes they're posting up signs in
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Spanish and sometimes Valenciano, right? Oh, and the signage like when you're driving around. So our town,
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Naka, the only difference between Valenciano and Spanish is which
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direction the accent on the A is. But both have to be on the signs everywhere when you're driving.
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Okay. Right. So this seems like a waste of space kind of. It's not that different,
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but because you have two official languages, uh, you know, you have to have that on everything. So, I think we
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can maybe just jump in then and start with the the languages. We have, right? Spanish and then we have co- languages
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and then we'll talk about the dialects. So, we'll kind of go through that. I will have to say because I don't want to
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upset the Spanish, there is no such thing as Spanish because all of the languages we're talking about are
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Spanish as my Spanish teacher told me that what we are going to Castiano is
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the official language of all of Spain which they will call they will call that espanol. So they do have a distinction
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even the Spanish people have a distinction between the different languages as well
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but they're all like Spanish, right? So, but if you so what we call Spanish in America is really castiano. So, that's
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what we are speaking about. And some people will say Castellian in English, but the Castellian is really a dialect
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of the Castiano if you're speaking to a Spanish person. Well, now we're getting into the weeds. Let's just keep let's we're going to try
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and keep there's there's so much more to this, but we're going to try and give an overview. And let's just say that the
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Castellian Casayiano that is obviously the main official language all over Spain which is spoken by 98 plus% of
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people. So I don't know who those other 2% are but they're probably they're probably speaking a regional language and never learned in an area where the
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regional language is super super strong and and they're not leaving the regional area. No, so that's fine. They don't need to. Uh
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so yeah so it is the official language everywhere and then you have in other areas other official languages but
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everywhere you are you can get official documents you can get everything done in
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Castiano right right that is that that's where
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you can start that's where you can and if you're learning Spanish that's what you're getting and if you're learning Spanish on Dolingo be careful you're learning
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South American Spanish there's going to be words that are different and it's very difficult I to find one of these
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online apps that does the Spanish Spanish. So, just be aware, but that's that's fine. And then there's four other
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official co- co-official languages, and that's what we're going to we'll go through those kind of relatively
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quickly, which the first one being Valenciano and Catalan, which are
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uh very Which one? Cat Valenciano is spoken here. Catalan is in your Barcelona region, the Catalonia area.
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They are very similar languages. I would I personally would say they are a dialect of each other. Whoever want what
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chicken and egg came first, I'm not going to get in. But there are many people in Valencia and many people in
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Catalonia that will tell you they are completely separate languages. And how dare you even begin to say they're
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similar. Yes. Do not come to Valencia and call Valencian Valencia and Catalan. That's
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not going to put you on the right foot here to start. It's like I I it's like the difference between English and
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American. So you kind of get the feeling of that as an English person, probably
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as an American, you might feel the same. They're just very different languages, a lot of different vocabulary, but obviously you can understand each other.
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It's it's, you know, it's a it's like you said, it's a dialect, but but different. And there's a lot of um pride
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and and politics involved in in what you call it. So just don't get into it. It's
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my right. Just say, "Oops, my bad." Um, let's move on.
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And there's about nine or 10 million people that understand it. Does that count us? Because if that counts us, I'm
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not sure that that's See, I I would bring that number down because I don't understand it. I just I
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see it and I know that I'm getting to the point where I'm like, "Oh, that's Valenciano. That's about as much as I
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understand that." I'm like, "I know that's not the Spanish word." Yeah. you can read sort of posters and
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things that are coming in information cuz where we live everything is put out in Valencian but yeah so let's say four
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to five million people actually using it seems like a that seems like a a a better number for referencing because
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that's actually people that are speaking it it's part of their family you know everything so that's
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that's a lot of people now do you want to start us I mean do we we do we dare um and treat our people
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with our listeners with the histories trees of all of these. Should we um I guess we could maybe we can do
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Valencian and Catalan and maybe skip over I don't know. It's it's the one we're closest to. So maybe
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a little history would be good. Maybe a I think what's interesting in the Valencian because we are obviously
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more familiar with Valencian in Catalan. What's interesting is the words and you might recognize some of these words as
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French words, but as I was um told very strongly in my Spanish class by my
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linguistic teacher when we're all like, "Yeah, you know, there's so many French words in in
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Valencian." And she was like, she stopped the whole class. She's like, "Uhuh, no, stop. No, everybody put your
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pencils down. Look at me. Listen." and she gave us a full history of how, you
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know, French and Catalan and every and and Valencian were were started together
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as, you know, as from Latin early early on in in Roman Spain in the in the
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second century BC. So, a very just a little bit ago,
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right, with the Latin in the in the Iberian Peninsula. And all of these languages
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grew from that together. and then separated. So the French words are not French and the Spanish, you know,
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they're just they just all came from the same place. They're all Latin root words. Exactly. And and then when the Romans left, then
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they they picked up their pieces and created their own languages, right? Then French came out of that and and Spanish
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and Italian and all of these came out of that for sure. Yeah. the Catalan that took shape in the
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eastern Pyrenees and modernday Cataloonia and also southern France because it's still spoken there a little
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bit as well and I haven't heard it and I don't understand it enough to be able to tell you the differences of how that
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language differs from the from the Catalan in in Spain or the the cross the border one. Yeah.
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Yeah. And then the Valencia's rise in the 13th 15th century sort of meant that
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Valencian started to kind of separate from Castalan and become its own little its own language. Not little language,
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big language. It became its own language. Sort of similar to Catalan, but started to build its own a little bit of its own vocabulary. So
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they're different. They're all different and the same, but they all have the same roots. So, one of the things that has helped me with with Valenciano is my
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knowledge of what I thought was French, but maybe my knowledge of Latin. But don't tell anybody that cuz I'm so
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anti-latin being taught in schools because we had to learn it in school and I'm like, "Oh my god, don't tell me
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Latin's coming back to help me." Well, I will have to say for my daughters, it's helping them with the
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lat. Well, they didn't learn Latin, but there was a whole coursework before we left the States for my eldest in the
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Latin root word stuff. And she's like, "Dad, you know, Spanish is easy because
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I've learned the X, Y, and Z." I'm like, "Yeah, that's how I'm able to learn Spanish, too, is that these words are
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similar to English words because it's the Latin words that those those Latin roots that we're using. Once you've got
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that, you can master a lot of languages or at least get through the day." See, and having being here and learning
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Spanish and trying to learn Spanish and not going as fast as I would like and then having this other language and
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having to kind of start to read that, not attempting to speak it. I have to say all the years that I was learning
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Latin, it would have been much more helpful for me of be to have been learning a language that I could have actually used out in the world and that
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would have taught me the things I needed to then learn another language. So, that's my logic on that.
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But, oh, I I don't disagree. She didn't learn Latin. She just learned the roots of Latin, how it spread around the world.
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That's probably useful. I mean, that's that's kind of a basic useful thing. We spent years learning Latin. And I'll
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tell you, all I did was learn how to copy off my off my neighbor that was really good at it. That's all I learned.
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Anyway, so I think that's probably that's probably enough about Valenciano and and Catalan. Should we move on to
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the next one? I think so. Gathian, our second co-official language. Our
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second which would be where spoken? Galissia northwest. Look at that.
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I did have a problem with that word the other time, didn't I? And 2.5 million people understand this.
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I guess I don't know if they all speak it, but they understand it. I do think it's quite a strong language.
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Uh the the second co the co-official languages in Spain are quite strong in
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in most of them. So there are quite a lot of people speaking them. And I know from here with Spanish friends, even
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though it's a language that needs to be taught in school, also in some, you know, the that's the that's what the grandmother communicates with the
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grandkids to keep the to keep it going, you know, and then the parents are speaking um Castellian or whatever. So there's
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definitely a a desire to keep it going, I think. And Galissian is closely related to Portuguese, and they are they
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historically they they grew up together as little kids, right? So,
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so they were a sort of a a distinct romance variety of the language that was
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formed in the Northwest. And I I mean my my knowledge of Portuguese is zero. I
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find it a I mean just the the the accent and everything. I don't recognize any words in it. So it's it's I have no
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knowledge or base for for either of those languages. And what we've noticed too is um a little bit of a a little bit
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of a decline and revival of all these coefficient languages, right? Like so like during the 15th and
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18th between the 15th and 18th centuries, they called it the dark centuries for securos escuros. Um it was
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just it was the Castellian was coming in or Castillion was coming in um and
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replacing the Galissian as the official in official documents and literature and all that stuff and but you know like you
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said earlier grandma was holding true and it was still spoken amongst the people right while the elite used the
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the the Castellian Spanish. Yeah, I think that the I think obviously these
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languages have good times and bad times and they did have a revival in the 19th
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century 20th century obviously had a bit of a problems with when Franco was in he
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was trying to minimize these other languages. So what's happening with a lot of them is that they had a bit of a downturn with him and then and then sort
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of came back up again after that where there was a sort of a lot of renewed interest in making sure that these
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languages weren't lost and today you know two two and a half million people speaking it and definitely I think in
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all of these areas you'll find more people speaking it sort of daily and and and bringing it down and keeping it in
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the family in the more rur rural areas I think and in if I remember correctly like
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around the late 70s early 80s they had they declared Galistian a co-official
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language with Spanish right so that was kind of it was official we're doing this well and I noticed in a lot of regions
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right right after Franco was the real rebirth of all these like kind of regional identities and bringing back
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these languages that were being oppressed for for and that meant bringing them back into
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schools I mean that's what happened here in Valencia that there there was a time some time ago where they decided
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probably we're starting to lose the language now we're going to make it the language of the schools and so
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everyone's going to have to learn it and so I'm obviously that has helped to maintain the languages in all the areas
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if they if they're teaching everything in school and and we're seeing it here we've talked about this before that our
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daughters at their schools they are still learn even they have to learn a third language right so they they're learning they're continuing well you've
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switched schools but my daughter's right British school so still learning English trying to learn Spanish as a second
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language and thrown in the Valencian once a week as well just to Yeah. So we were Zena was learning
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obviously Spanish because that's just a continuously learning thing and then she was obviously doing Valenciano because
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if you're a private school you can have your all your classes in English
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but you do still have to teach Valencian and then she was also had an elective of learning French or German. So she was
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learning three languages in school at at some point and now in the new school they're it's a it's a Spanish school so
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they're a little bit more serious on the Valenciano and she has more hours of Valenciano now in in the new school and
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she's now just doing sort of Spanish and valenciano. So, you know, it's it's still it's still a it's still a thing.
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And in the public schools now, they have just passed a they've just passed a law that the schools can now decide if they
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want to be have have Castellian or Valenciano language. And what happened with a
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friend of ours who have their kids in a kind of middle high school is that the parents could actually decide which one
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they wanted to do. So, it looked like the public school was going to offer both and you could decide which you wanted your kid to be in.
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I don't know how this is going to wash out because this is all very very new, but I do imagine it might mean that
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there's more public schools teaching in um Castellian,
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right? Well, in the city it's pretty it's pretty mixed. So, there's the schools that speak Castillian and the
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schools that are that are teaching in Valenciano. Um, and there there seems to
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be it's there's kind of a I want to say like a class struggle of who's going to
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whom and what you want out of your kids' education, right? So, I think if you have a very strong Castellian home, you
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teach them Valencian for to maybe you want them in politics here. You want them in that kind of track. And if you
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want your kids to be able to move throughout Spain, you want them taught in Castellian. It's kind of what I'm
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kind of gathering from people I've talked to that it's kind of like that's the path,
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right? Because you can't get you can't get a job in the government here unless you have very good knowledge of Valenciano.
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No. Or a hospital, which obviously is government as well, but any of if you want a job in a university here or the
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government or hospital any any government situation, you will need a a C1 in Valenciano to be able to get a job
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theoretically. And I think even the even if the education changes that probably
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won't change anytime soon because you will have to be dealing with people that their main language is Valencian and
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that has got to be the same for other parts of Spain that have a co- language where there's a a big part of the
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population that is that is their main language. So I think even if the schools change, the
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need for people to learn these co-official second languages will will still remain and will still be something
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that children will have to learn in school for sure. Yeah.
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[Music] So the third language which is my favorite.
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Yes, it is. Go for it then. It's my favorite because it's so interesting to
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me which is the Bosque language which is spoken in the it's the official or
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co-official language of the Bos country in parts of Nevada. So it's it it also you know crosses the border into France
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that whole Bosque region about 750 fluent speakers. 750,000
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fluent speakers. All right. 750,000 because 750 is probably not going to keep it up as a co-official language.
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I'm thinking but thinking might be correct. Okay, so 750,000
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speakers but what I love about this is it is an
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anomaly in the whole world. It is not derivative of any language. Nothing
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compares to it. It's not rooted in Latin. It's not rooted in Slavic. It's not rooted in the Germanic languages.
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It's just its own thing. Like it's from aliens. They don't know where it came from. proof of aliens on Earth. I think
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it's the Bosque language. They just came down. I just think a group of people were just having fun and deciding to let's just be ourselves, you
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know. Yeah. Which very it's very interesting. And I think with all of with all of the
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knowledge that people, not us necessarily, have on linguistics that they really can't trace any of this back
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to anything, I think is absolutely fascinating. It makes you want to go learn it, but I'm having such a hard time getting my Spanish up to where I
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want that I'm definitely not ready for another language. Well, maybe Bas is really easy and we could we could pick it up in no time.
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Who knows? That's always the dream, right? Is Oh, yeah. It's going to be so easy. You just got to be there.
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So, it doesn't work out. I've been here two years. It ain't easy, kids. Oh my gosh, it ain't easy. So, yes, a
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very, very, very interesting language. And then the fourth fourth one is at an
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essay I presume. At an essay an essay. And and you laughed at my 750, but I
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mean to you can you can spread spread the
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news of how many people speak this language. Well, this is a the language in Valdderan, which is a small valley in
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Catalunia, and it only has about 2,800 native speakers, which is not very many,
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but I do love that a language with that few speakers has actually managed to
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maintain itself as a co-official language. And I think it's it's a it's a
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variety of um Oitan which I think is interesting because that is a language
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sort of of dialects of which is spoken in Italy and France and Monaco and like
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all all across a large area and this is the only version of that language that
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has official status anywhere in the world. So even though it's a small amount of people they are a powerful
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small amount of people that vocal. So, I love that. I think that's awesome.
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And like a lot of these other languages we've a lot these other languages we've talked about is that in like 15th
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century onward, there was again a a a decline and then after Franco's
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dictatorship ended, there was a rebirth, right? So people kept speaking it out in private and once his reign had ended
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after he had passed away then again they they brought it forward. Absolutely. And that has a lot to do
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with sort of laws that were created and and again like we spoke about before in in 1984 they recognized that um of of
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putting ads into schools and in the media. So this this is what makes it sort of obviously more people learning
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it. If you if you can't get it into the schools, it's probably going to disappear at some point, especially now with how global everything is. And more
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people moving into areas that aren't even aren't even native in Spanish, any Spanish language, to to be picking up
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these languages is not probably going to happen that much. So, so they've had a modern revival as well. And you know,
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you've got some people speaking it as a first language and maybe there's a few
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more there's maybe a few more than than what we mentioned that are speaking it, but it's all levels of knowledge, isn't
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it? Right. So, yeah. And then I think we we move into now we've talked about the official
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languages. Now we've got to talk about the dialects. And I've lived in New York City and there's 17 dialects of English
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spoken there. So, of course, Spain isn't going to I've been to London. I think there's 530 dialects of English spoken
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in London, probably in one square mile. So, I would say this list that we have is probably the most known dialects, but I'm sure
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even within each of these, there's going to be lots of different ones. So, these are, like you said, nonofficial. They're
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dialects that are spoken in certain areas and more than what we're going to mention, but we're just going to kind of
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gloss over the the main ones. But, I mean, in England and in America, yeah, it's insane, right? every especially in
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England every new village has another sort of regional accent at least which probably come with its own words and so
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we're not going to we could not possibly touch everything but why don't you start with one of the the first one that we
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have here okay so I'm going to start with a language not a dialect now this language will have its own dialects but it's not
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a co-official language which is the a lean which is its own language and it's
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spoken in the was that northwestern area of Spain and into Portugal as well. But
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it is it's it's astral astral
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is it's its own group of languages that
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form how would you say like a continuum, right? So they might not be spoken the same, but they can. So they have
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dialect. Yeah. It's a it's a it's a it's a language that has loads of dialects around that region, including right
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blending into Portugal because things were, you know, more blended then, right? And then this was developed as
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all these kind of languages were, right, that in that vulgar Latin, right? It was Latin came and then they they formed
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their own languages around it as as time went by in isolation, right?
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isolated from from themselves. So to name a few, we have Atorian, Leon,
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Mirandes, Canabrian, Extra Maduran. Those are some of How did
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that go? Was that okay? That sounded great. I You got a You got a gold star. I got a gold star. Yay.
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Yeah. So, those are some of the languages, the dialects of Atoleians that exist over in
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that part of Spain. And you know they are not spoken by a lot of people but collectively I would imagine there's a
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lot of people speaking that language in different dialects across the region right and then we have Aragon
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which is spoken in northern Aragon. Go figure. There you go. Also not official not a
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co-official language but a another language right. What makes it a language Gaitano?
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What makes it a language versus a dialect? So a dialect would be certain
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words and accents would be different but the base of the language is the same where the a language has its own
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grammatical rules and and I mean that's the basis of it right the grammar
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and their words and the vocabulary and all that but a dialect is using all the same stuff with some
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some little flarey regional flare and what we're learning about the languages here is that the ones the the
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the ones that all started with the vulgar Latin and then split officially became their own languages and then some
27:55
of them have dialects inside of that. So this is another the arrog Aragon essay is another actual language because it
28:02
also started with the ver with the vulgar Latin many many many many years ago
28:08
many years ago I was just a baby and so according to my
28:14
kids you know I still get the 1803 dad were you alive in 1803 uh you won't be alive next year
28:22
so there you go more in a minute Yeah.
28:27
Yeah. So, now we're going to go to dialects. We have a couple. And the first one is Ander Lucian, which is a dialect of
28:34
Castellian. And the the big thing about this is that they don't do the lisp,
28:40
which I think a lot of people maybe like about it when you're learning how to speak it. and and they do have some
28:47
obviously some other there's a lot of other sort of variations to it and dropping some of the consonants at the
28:53
end like the s and but otherwise I I don't think one would have a a huge
28:58
problem understanding I don't think it's a very very far off of Castellian but you know depends on people's accent
29:05
yeah it's like trying to understand Brooklyn from Manhattan you'll get it you know once you get your ear sorted out you can
29:11
you can follow and then the last one the last dialect is what it was what I had had just found
29:18
out about which is the Canarian dialect. And what I thought was really interesting about this
29:23
after I met her and then I did a little research of like what's she talking about? She doesn't know what she's
29:28
talking about. Spanish is Spanish. So again, this is they don't use the the
29:34
zisp sound, you know, and they use instead of vosstros. Now that's grammar
29:41
stuff. So if you don't understand what we're talking about, don't worry about it. when you study the language, you will. And and then you'll start to cry.
29:47
And then you'll start to cry. And they also don't use the day to denote possession. So it's no like
29:55
casa de Maria, it's casaria. Okay. Now, if you're noticing that this is the
30:01
language that would this is the Spanish that was brought over to the new world and that so it's the it's the bridge
30:07
between Ander Lucia. So this kind of came from Anderucian uh dialect. And they most of the early settlers to the
30:14
new world were from the Canary Islands, which I did not know. And that's so if you're from the Latin America, you'll
30:21
understand the Canary. That makes a lot of sense because some of that that makes so much sense. I mean, I didn't know that the Canary
30:27
Island had had that part of the language going for it. But it makes sense that the Latin America has all those little
30:34
nuances that are different from Spanish. And I just assumed it was something that was happening over there. I never
30:40
thought that it was something. [Laughter] Same with me. I didn't know that. So
30:46
when people know when they say So when people say I speak Latin
30:52
American Spanish, rarely you speak Canarian Spanish. So
30:59
giving the kudos to our to our new mother. Exactly. I do want to go there. I do want to go to the Canary Islands. They
31:04
look beautiful. trip. So, I think we've done the languages and
31:10
we've spoken a little bit a little bit about what it's like living in an area with a co-official language, but we can
31:16
sort of pop into some other parts of that as well. I have to say personally,
31:22
it's a lot more than I thought it would be. It didn't really I didn't put maybe as much thought into that as I probably
31:29
should have when we were moving because it didn't cross my mind that it really would be sort of everywhere. as alive as it is
31:37
alive, right? It's alive. Yeah. I mean, everything is like, "Do
31:42
you want this in Castellian Valenciano?" And I'm like, "Can we have an English tab, too?" But I mean, I remember when I
31:48
was getting my What was I I was getting something I needed to get something for to get something done here. So, I had to
31:54
go to the government office and I put my address in and he wrote it down just, you know, changed an N for I'm like,
32:00
"Oh, no, you misspelled that." He's like, and he gave me this look of like this is the Valenciano. This is the way it's done. And that is
32:08
actually probably the place where it's very complicated is in addresses
32:15
because every street has a Valencian name and a Castellian name. So, and
32:22
sometimes what I what's happened to me on multiple occasions is I'll put an address that somebody gave me into
32:28
Google and then it'll change it and it'll put me somewhere else and I'm like initially I'm like that's not what I put in and I
32:34
put it in again and it changes it and then you obviously don't know where you're going or you wouldn't be using
32:40
Google Maps or anything and it's it that is very confusing. So now I always get pins from people like give me a pin of
32:47
where your house is. I don't want to be messing with this thing cuz I don't know. And sometimes it's kind of the
32:52
same name and sometimes it's something totally different like it's because of how that person's name was or whatever
32:58
it is in in in Valenciano versus Spanish. So that's kind of I think one of the places where I wasn't expecting
33:05
to have problems finding people's addresses and that is a problem. And and
33:11
what I also find about the Valenciano and the Castilian here is that you hear
33:18
when you hear it, they like the accent's the same. So I don't do you know what I mean? Like I when they when it's coming
33:25
out of their mouth, I'm like I don't know that Spanish word. You're like maybe that's Valenciano they're speaking because I can't tell. It's not like you
33:32
went from like a Germanic sound to a lovely like Spanish sound, right? It's like it's it's they're very similar in
33:38
the sound to your ear. So you're like, I don't know what you're saying. No, it's very difficult. And I don't
33:43
know about other parts of Spain whether, for instance, they're, you know, let's
33:50
say they're speaking Basque and then they're speaking Castellian. And I don't I would imagine that they're probably using maybe the Basque accent on their
33:56
Castellian up there as well. So that there's a there's something where you also can't tell. Definitely here. And if
34:03
whether or not that's happening in other places, I don't know. Someone will talk to me and because of my level of Spanish, I'm not fluent. I'm
34:09
not completely fluent in Spanish, so I don't necessarily know if somebody's using a word I don't know in Spanish or
34:15
if they've moved to another language. And that makes it really, really hard. And I was literally just standing outside of the post office attempting
34:22
and failing to mail something yesterday and there's a line and you know, if
34:27
you're waiting in line, you're you know, you have to ask the lines in Spain, that's a whole we could probably do a whole poo poo about lines in Spain
34:34
because you don't stand in line. You basically ask who the last person is and then you go stand wherever you want and
34:40
everybody is keeping track of who the last person is. So when somebody comes in to to join the line, they ask who who
34:48
is the colo, the tail of the line or who's the ultima. They will ask who that person is. You put up your hand and then
34:54
they know who they're behind. So you're all kind of standing around. That's very rural in the city. We have a
34:59
we have a pick a number. We put our thing into the machine and it spits out a number. Okay. This is very very chill, very
35:06
Spanish. Like if you're waiting for your pastries out outside of the city or your whatever, like that's how it's working.
35:11
Like nobody needs to stand in a certain place, right? So I end up standing near a group of
35:17
people and this woman is like ti and I was like what? Okay, I that was two words. I really
35:24
should be able to get this. And she said f. So I'm now I'm thinking of the soup, right? I'm I'm
35:30
right. Right. the Vietnamese. You're like, "Is there a Vietnamese place in our neighborhood?" I mean, I'm thinking like, "Well, really, cuz we haven't found it. And if
35:36
there was, I feel like we would have gone." And all these things are going through my head. And then, of course, what's going through my head is is this
35:43
has to be Spanish because that's the first thing. And then I suddenly I'm like, "Oh, maybe this is so it could be an abbreviation because there's a lot of
35:50
abbreviations." Like, instead of saying, you just say porfa. So, there's abbreviations you learn as
35:55
well as there's other languages. I still don't know what that was. I finally figured so
36:01
you don't know what she's I finally figured it out because she did the cigarette kind of thing. She was looking for a light for her cigarette
36:08
and and I and but it was funny because it was just again one of those moments where I'm like which language is it? Is
36:14
it an abbreviation of Spanish? And obviously when your Spanish gets better, these things improve. But having to
36:19
think like that way all the time when someone's speaking to you is is you know kind of difficult. Obviously if somebody
36:25
knows you're a foreigner they're not going to start speaking to you in Valenciano. I'm almost sure. But you know,
36:31
well, I know there's a there is a woman at the grocery store, one of the cashiers, who is very nice, and I know
36:36
she's speaking Valenciano to me because I don't and I'm like, I can't make out one of these words.
36:41
She's she's taking it on as her job to make sure that you're learning Valenciano, too. Exactly.
36:46
And I don't think it's that difficult in the sense it's kind of structured similar to Spanish. And there's a lot of
36:51
words, like I said before, that I that I understand and I can see because of my knowledge of French, even though it's not they're not French words.
36:58
Um, Latin Latin direct I am understanding it because of my vocabulary in French but it the whole
37:04
thing is just it's it's really interesting and that is a bit of a challenge that obviously you wouldn't have in other countries and other areas
37:10
where they don't have the co-official languages right um and then also just stuff that gets
37:17
put out right like if there's an event the posters are in Valencia everywhere here I don't know if it's
37:22
like that in the city if you get stuff from the city hall obviously you can get it in both languages oh no stuff is you It's both languages.
37:29
You I mean you'll see like Fias posters in Valenciano. You'll see them in Spanish and you're just like I will I think I
37:35
know what you're talking about. Like I said the rebe has signs. They're in one store will have them in Valenciano. One will have them in in
37:42
are only in Valenciano out here. They're not I can go to the city hall and and
37:47
get information in in Castellian, but the the things that are put out and the
37:53
posters that are put out and the JPEGs that are put out on on WhatsApp groups and everything, it's it's all in Valencian. So, right,
37:59
you need to at least be able to read it, which is honestly the easiest part, reading another language. I think
38:05
anyway, it's the speaking and understanding other people talking which really it's the getting the words in your mouth from your brain and to think in that
38:11
language. One day maybe I'll think in Spanish a little bit. I don't know. I know. Yeah, I think it's but but
38:18
overall it works. You can always get the help that you need and you can always do it. But it is it's a it's it's a little
38:24
bit more frustrating than I thought it would be to have the extra language and have to kind of wonder whether your
38:31
Spanish is because initially I was like, "Oh my god, my Spanish is so bad. I can't even understand what this person's saying." And they literally just said
38:36
like three words to me. And I feel like I should be beyond that. But I'm not.
38:43
So now I use it as an excuse which makes me happy. I'm like, "Oh, it's Valenciano. I don't understand it.
38:48
I don't get that at all. I've never had a chance." So you make it work for you. Right.
38:54
Exactly. So on that note, I think it's time to wrap things up and say goodbye until the
39:00
next one. Until the next one. Bye. Ciao.
39:06
Hey, can't get enough of us? Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Ospain Podcast and on our website.com which we will be
39:13
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hear about. See you next time. Bye. [Music]