Fun facts about the Spanish language – and a guide for learners
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 @ 6:24 PM
IF YOU'RE planning on relocating to Spain, or buying a holiday home and spending a considerable chunk of your life there, you can't avoid learning the language. Even if you're going to be based in a very cosmopolitan or touristy area where multi-lingual shop and bar staff are frequently found, it can be costly having to pay a translator whenever you have a medical issue, or need to resolve complicated issues with utility boards, authorities or other service providers.
Learning Spanish is essential to managing your day-to-day and socialising once you live in Spain (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
And even if you're quite happy to hand over your cash to someone else to do the less-simple stuff, it can be isolating living somewhere where you can't even swap small talk with retail workers, bartenders, or total strangers at a bus stop. Especially in Spain, where striking up conversations or even just engaging in brief exchanges with total strangers is completely normal and everyday.
It takes many years before you can chat easily in another language in the way you would in your own, but classes in your area – sometimes free ones run by town halls or expat social groups – will guide you through it, so you only need to focus on practising what they tell you to practise, not on figuring out how to even begin. And if the pace of the class is too fast, speak out – it could be everyone there thinks so and is embarrassed to say so. There's no shame in having to go back and repeat the same exercises again and again, even if everyone else has grasped them; many foreign residents in Spain who now speak like natives were in exactly the same position themselves at one time.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com