Language on Camino

[Richard Ferguson]

I have a few comments about language on the Camino.

I read that Spainards have the lowest rate of speaking foreign languages
in Europe, so many will not speak English.  In Galicia, a couple of times, I
asked a question in Spanish and got an answer in Gallego!  I think that I
understood one answer and got nothing out of the other.  Do not assume
that Spainards speak English, they may not even speak Spanish
(Castellano)!  However, I did not test their English skills, as my Spanish is
pretty good.

What I found is that I conversed with Spanish pilgrims in Spanish
(occasionally switching to English to allow them to practice English), and
with all other nationalities in English, as a general rule.  One German lady
had such a good British accent that I assumed that she was actually
British.  I spoke to everyone who was not a pilgrim in Spanish.  At one
point I translated for a hospitalero who did not speak English.

If someone is in the business of dealing with tourists, they will usually
speak a little of several languages, although I sometimes have to rescue
my spouse and friends when they find exceptions to that rule.
Shopkeepers are less likely to speak English than hotel clerks.
Obviously, the younger, the more urban, and more educated the european
is, the more likely that they will speak multiple languages, including
English.  The other problem is use it or lose it; if you learn a language and
do not use it, you gradually lose the ability to speak it.

One problem that I have is that, although my Spanish is good, and my
French usable, I am not really able to speak them both on the same day.
If I have been speaking Spanish for days, my mind cannot adjust itself to
speak French, it comes out mixed Spanish/French, pretty ugly.  So in
practice I cannot carry on a conversation in French in Spain, Mexico, or any
Spanish speaking country, or for that matter manage a Spanish
conversation in France.  This is probably not a general affliction.

I am a critic of foreign languages as taught in the US, especially in high
school.  I went to France with a US high school student with two years of
French, and she had no ability to understand what was said, to speak, or
even to read most things.  (This is a student who got an academic
scholarship to college, so a very good student).  I think they tend to teach
grammar and rules, not the spoken language.  My personal experience
with languages in school was the same, two years of high school French
and two years of college did not teach me to speak.  I learned to speak
Spanish and French after I was 30 years old, not in a traditional academic
environment, often with tutors.  I have seen some college students of
foreign languages who spoke well, so some good teaching is going on at
that level, or maybe just good students.

Obviously learning a language as a young child is the best and easiest
way to learn a language.  One study found that people who learn a second
language as a child actually use a different part of the brain than those
who learn it later!

Vaya con Dios!

Richard