Barcelona - Day 1

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Can I Speak Spanish?



As someone who speaks a little spanish, one of the hardest parts of today was deciding whether to try to decide whether to attempt to speak spanish to the vendors, to ask if they speak English, or to just start speaking English to them. I found that the answer depended on the individual situation. If the person started by saying “Hello” then I felt more comfortable simply speaking to them in English. However, this did not happen with the majority of people. I felt that the best approach was to think about what I needed to say to determine if I could get my point across in Spanish without embarrassing myself. One of my fears going into today was that I would try to communicate in Spanish and then just get laughed at because it was not good. However, I found the opposite to be the case. I experienced that if I tried to communicate in Spanish, the people were much more comfortable and receptive to whatever I was talking about. This boosted my confidence overall in my Spanish language skills and I am now looking forward to opportunities where I can refine my oral Spanish communication skills.



Come With Me to This Store

I was fortunate enough to be around Tina and Logan today during our unstructured time as they both speak Spanish. Like I said before, I was not initially very confident in my Spanish skills so I took my Spanish speaking friends with me when I needed to communicate with a local. They never actually needed to step in during these interactions, but they always offered to come with me. It was interesting when the vendors noticed I had a friend with me, they never made any comments or paid attention to the presence of my friend with me. They were always very kind even when I did not say everything right, which was most of the time. I appreciated their kindness and realized that I would extend the same kindness to people trying to speak english, so it made more sense. Overall, interactions with the Spanish people today were very positive, insightful, and helpful.



Francis’ Assertiveness

Of all the interactions today, I would have to say the most surprising was the interaction between our tour guide, Francis, and the other tourists. On two occasions he told people that moved into our space while he was talking to move away because he had been here first. This was a very direct way to approach this situation and a way that my classmates and I decided, would not have been the way we handled it. I do not know if this is representative of Spanish culture, but it definitely shows me there are people here that are not afraid to more assertive than any of us would be.





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