Language on Camino

[Rosina Lila]

I find the notion that Spaniards have the lowest rate of speaking foreign
languages in Europe to be fallacious.  The simple truth is that many  simply
choose not to learn English.
The friends that I have made in Spain who are college teachers or, what we
call, professionals, are fluent in French, or Italian or both. They tell me that
they chose to learn these languages as students.
It may be that the shared "romance" linguistic foundation influences the
choice of languages to be learned (although Rumanian is also considered a
"romance" language but it does not seem to be a popular choice), or it may be the
phonetic affinity between the so-called Latin languages (although, again, it cann
ot be said that French is phonetically that close to Spanish or Italian) or it
may be some lingering remnants of the ancient enmities between England and
Spain, but, at least among the Spaniards that have befriended me, and the young
in their families, there seems to be no burning desire to learn or speak
English; although, of course, there are many who do learn it.
Something similar happens in Italy; it never ceases to surprise me that in
the smaller towns, outside of the tourist hub, one may find people who speak
English poorly, or not at all, and yet they speak perfect Spanish, or French.
And why shouldn't it be so? Surely those of us who go to Europe a lot have
noticed that Italy is full of French and Spanish visitors, particularly during
the summer, that France is full of Italians and Spaniards and that Spain is
full of everybody. With the shared Euro and the impressive economic strides of
the European Union this can only become more so.
I am happy to report, however, that here in New York City the number of
students in our colleges taking foreign languages has grown impressively, and that
Spanish is the most applied-for language.  Of course, this may  be a
reflection of those political realities that have compelled not only George W. Bush to
learn Spanish, but our own NY Governor Pataki as well (I hear that our
colorful mayor Bloomberg is taking lessons; he recently attended the funeral mass of
a popular Cuban entertainer and addressed the mourners in Spanish, more or
less); but it may also be the commercial realization that Spanish-speaking
countries in our American continent have become huge trading partners of the U.S.
Among other publications, Fortune magazine reports that Spanish-speaking
executives are very much sought after.
Lest this message appear to be too far off-topic, let me add that a few weeks
ago the president of Brasil, Lula, announced a government-funded "cultural
bridge" university with sites in various cities of Brasil and in Santiago de
Compostela, to promote mutual-language learning and culture sharing, with
emphasis in Xacobean history and themes.
In one of the Brasilian Camino lists today there have already been more than
one hundred St. James' day salutation messages.  The Brasilians maintain the
old form of the name of the Apostle:  Tiago, whence San Tiago.
So, Happy San Tiago day, everybody. Parabems a voces.

Rosina


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