[melenaboija]

> When visiting Barcelona, Spanish is often the 3rd language

Non separatist Catalan here and I can say this is complete BS. There is no doubt that there is more people in Catalunya that doesn't know Catalan than Spanish. I have been raised in a family that has been speaking Catalan for many generations and everybody now is almost bilingual with Spanish. And oh hell if I wish that English was the second language there.

Tired of this propaganda that only causes more pain and exalts nationalist feelings in both sides.

[franciscop]

Just my experience as an occasional visitor to BCN, lots of people will answer in Catalan when you talk to them in Spanish to make a point, but then in the tourist areas everyone speaks English. Not BS, maybe an isolated experience but that was my experience over there (and I only visited tourist-y spots, so there's a strong bias ofc). I'm not saying they don't know how to speak Spanish, I'm saying many people won't to make a point.

[capableweb]

Based on a couple of occasions I've been in Barcelona and around Catalunya, people always answered me in Spanish (both in tourist and non-tourist locations) when I was in Barcelona and surrounding areas, while when I visited Lleida and Vic (and surrounding areas), they always answered me in Catalan (and one time even got visibly angry when I couldn't reply to them in Catalan, only in Spanish).

So my anecdote would be that generally Barcelona seems to be fine with Spanish (and walking around the city I heard a lot more Spanish than both English and Catalan) while areas up north/west seems to almost require you to speak in Catalan.

[GekkePrutser]

Makes sense too as Barcelona is aan international city and has many immigrants from Latin America. And many people from other parts of Spain live here too.

In the rural area that's much less except for the migrant farm workers

[mejutoco]

As a bilingual Spanish-catalan speaker this does not match my experience at all. I was raised in Barcelona and approach people in either language and I can remember maybe 2 occasions were sbdy demanded to be spoken in one specific language. You can see this a lot in groups of friends where people switch languages all the time. It is a beautiful thing to see.

[the_gipsy]

It's not bullshit. It is the 3rd language, in a synthetic effort from the local government.

You could say that this is not bad, ok. But you can't deny it.

[AshamedCaptain]

Sorry but it is bullshit. I actually _tried_ to learn Catalan (I am already pretty fluent in Spanish) while I was teaching in Barcelona out of all places and found it impossible to use it in real-life. Everyone would just speak Spanish between themselves, even other teachers.

[hungryforcodes]

So true!

[melenaboija]

Is not BS it is a synthetic effort from the government? Lol.

Go there and experience it yourself and try to create an objective opinion from it. Another fact, most of the first generation immigrants will learn Spanish way earlier than Catalan, if they ever learn Catalan at all. And I am not saying this is bad, as for practical reasons they will obviously learn the 4th most spoken language in the world before learning a language that is spoken by 7 million people. Besides they know that with Spanish they can communicate with everybody, which is not the case with Catalan.

More rigor and an independent point of view from politicians and media is needed if there is a real will to solve the issue.

[GekkePrutser]

This is my reason for learning Spanish yes. It's just so useful in the world. Catalan is useless outside Catalonia.

If they do secede from Spain I will not learn Catalan, I will just leave. I'll probably have to anyway because I assume Spain will force them out of the EU and there's no way the multinational I work for will stay then.

It feels very similar to Ireland where they also use heavy handed methods to keep their language alive but in a globalized world it would hurt them a lot if it were actually needed to live there. So it has to stay this fringe thing. A lot of it is just to pacify the old people that still associate English with the British oppression (which was brutal to be fair)

I assume this will happen to Catalan too, the oppression is just a lot more recent to them. So it's more fresh and alive.

FWIW I'm Dutch and I wouldn't care if my country abolishes Dutch in favor of English. I view language as a means of communication, not cultural identity. And as such being able to communicate with as many people as possible makes a language more valuable.

[the_gipsy]

I've lived there for a decade.

[lynguist]

Catalan is spoken by 9.2 million people in Spain, Andorra, France, Italy (one town in Sardinia).

[nudpiedo]

That was an overwhelmingly optimistic article made long long ago. The truth is that not even everyone who got to learn it uses preferently within Catalan speaking regions. Let alone southern France or Alguer (Italy).