this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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Got humbled about my language learning in a meeting with other learners (piefed.social)
submitted 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) by Sagan@piefed.social to c/casualconversation@piefed.social
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Context: I've been learning Catalan for around 4 years now, and I am around B1 level (I can speak to people, but I know my grammar is still quite broken, and I lack vocabulary)

I've been looking for a group to practice the language, and most of the ones I found were with mostly beginners, where I would definitely be the most advanced learners. That kind of gave me a fake sense of "I made it, I speak the language"

I tried another group recently, and I just realized how far that is from the truth. Most of the people there have been learning for less time than I have, and their catalan is at least as good as mine, or quite a lot better. Special shout out to a guy who's only been here for a few years and speaks almost natively (the native speakers were very impressed as well).

Well, seems like it was the kick I needed to get back to practice. Just ordered the B1 book I've been delaying, and I'm considering getting classes again (I've been putting them on hold to focus on other stuff).

PS: Si algun parlant de català veu aquesta publicació, no dubteu a unir-vos a nosaltres !barcelona@piefed.social

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[–] Sagan@piefed.social 10 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Thank you, I do indeed live in !barcelona@piefed.social !

Regarding the Catalan vs Castilian discussion, I prefer to focus on Catalan at the moment. I can speak Castilian okay, but Catalan is the language of Catalunya, so it makes sense to me to learn it as a mark of respect to the local people, and to integrate in society.

People sometimes say that Castilian is more useful as it is more widely used worldwide, but that's shortsighted in my opinion:

  • at the European level, English is much more widely spoken than Castilian (35% vs 13%, and that's without the UK: https://languageknowledge.eu/countries/european-union), so by that logic, every people in Spain should learn and speak English (and indeed, there are some areas of Barcelona where you can now only live in English, so that phenomenon is already happening)
  • the local language is always going to be more useful than whatever powerful language is also present locally. If you move to Zurich, learn Swiss German. If you move to Denmark, learn Danish. If you move to the Netherlands, learn Dutch. If you move to Québec, learn Québecois French even if English or European French are more widely spoken.

Your 70-year old neighbors don't really care what language is spoken in Europe or worldwide, but they'll care if you don't learn their language.