Spanish people and their English

The following topic is usually discussed by native English speakers, however, I would like to share my own opinion on this.

It is true that the English language in the past centuries has spread to all parts of the world very quickly so that it has become one of the most important languages in our world. Especially in Europe and economically strong Asian countries like India, China or Japan the English language has become a regular feature in their education. Nevertheless, it is often said that countries like Spain or Italy do not have a good education due to the English language, which makes me coming back to my mentioned topic: “Do Spanish people hardly speak English? If so, why?”

First of all, I want to admit that I can only refer to my experiences I have made with Spanish people in Spain while living there and in Poland by talking to the Erasmus students. Now, I cannot generalize my opinion but my experience was:

1. Spanish people do hardly speak English and in comparison to students from other countries their English is worse.

2. To my mind, one of the greatest problems due to this issue is that Spaniards dub everything so that they rarely come into contact with the English language.

3. Another experience I have made is that Spaniards hardly ever leave their country. A lot of Spanish students I have met rarely leave their village much less their region or country. On the other hand, they do not need any English in Spain because everything is translated or dubbed except the tourist industry, which again is very popular especially in the south of Spain.

4. Last but not least I would like to point out that, although English is taught in Spanish schools, it is not uncommon to find it being taught by teachers who cannot really speak English. Not only in schools but also at the university the teacher’s English skills are poor even though they may know the grammar rules.

To sum it up, it may be true that Spanish people hardly speak English but do they have to? English has become a world language and it is important to have a global language to communicate with all people around the world but by teaching it one also introduces the English/American culture. And isn’t it more valuable to maintain one’s own culture? There is a lot more behind this topic to talk about. Finally I would like to mention the artificial language “Esperanto” created by scientists, which ought to be easy to learn without including any one group’s culture. Maybe this is going to be the next revolution or maybe it was just a nice idea?!

Last weekend I took advantage of the additional holiday (“Święto Państwowe”) on Friday so that I could spend some more time with my family.

Due to the upcoming marriage of my brother almost everything is in a mess at home. Normally I should already have been accustomed to these circumstances with regard to the marriage of my sister a few years ago. However, it is very exciting to see how many things one has to take into account when getting married. Obviously every marriage is unique because my brother’s problems are totally different from those that my sister had.

Anyway, I tried to help to organize a few things but with every move I made my brother felt uncomfortable so that I decided to study for my upcoming exams – which finally resulted impossible in this mess. But what in the first place seemed to be a totally wasted weekend finally resulted at least as a little help for my own marriage one day, which definitely will be a lot more organized than those of my siblings.

What I have learned from that organization can be put into one simple word: endless.

Cordoba and its weaknesses

Hi there!

In my first post I described my Erasmus experience in Cordoba. Now I want to tell you something more about this city, but this time something more about its weaknesses that some tourist can notice immediately.

In the first place, there is to mention the public transport. Although Córdoba is a quite big city with its population of 312 thousand inhabitants, there are neither trams nor metros. The only public transport the city is offering their inhabitants are buses, which never arrive on time. To most of the places, which are worth seeing, you simply have to walk. With regard to the flying opportunities in Córdoba you neither find an airport, which makes it more difficult for the tourists to visit the city.

Talking about the public transport one has to add that Córdoba neither offers discounts for young people  not even for students. That is the reason why one always needs to take into account the high costs of the expensive national trains and coaches when coming from other big cities.

Due to the tourism in Córdoba its greatest weakness to my mind is the missing access to the sea or the ocean like it has Malaga or Cádiz. Lots of foreigners go to Spain to take advantage of the brilliant weather at the beach, which, unfortunately, they cannot find in Córdoba. Furthermore, there is also missing a viewpoint or a lookout tower to enjoy the panorama of the city.

Apart from that, tourists who don’t speak Spanish probably are going to have problems to communicate due to the fact that there are only a few people in this region of Spain who speak English.