Different folks, different strokes! I took french for several years at school and could not repeat anything I learned. You're worse than some, but better than most!
this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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That's the spirit!
Good luck with your studies!
Why did you choose Catalan instead of Spanish? Maybe you already speak Spanish? Do you plan on living there?
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.
In addition to what the OP said: you aren't really part of a community until you speak the language they do, because language is a huge part of what gives people a sense of belonging. Someone who speaks only Castilian might be able to "survive" in Catalonia just fine, but they won't "live" there, it's like they're living elsewhere.