Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho Panther
In 1970 I went with two friends to Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava for two weeks. We shared a table in the hotel dining room with two lads from Manchester. One day one of them made the remark "We British are very ignorant - we travel everywhere and expect everybody to speak English!". I was outraged at this and resolved to remedy it.
On my return I began to follow the BBC's imaginatively named radio course "Starting Spanish". I got on well with this, it was a good course.
The next year we went to the Costa Blanca and I was pleased how well I managed with my fairly limited Spanish. So I continued studying.
The following couple of years we went to Sitges near Barcelona and I couldn't understand a word in spite of my advancing studies! Then on my third visit I learned they weren't speaking Spanish at all, but Catalán!
On a later visit to Sitges I was on the beach and met a charming señorita, and two years later we were married and soon after we had a daughter who herself lived for fourteen years in Spain.
She is now back in the UK and has just made us grandparents.
AND ALL BECAUSE OF AN OFF-THE-CUFF REMARK IN A SPANISH HOTEL FORTY-TWO YEARS AGO!
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What a lovely story. Thank you for sharing it.
Hi
I have wanted to learn to speak Spanish since my children were small. I hate the cold, dark winters of England and for several years spent a couple of weeks each February in Tenerife. After doing this for a number of years, I persuaded my then husband to 'up-sticks' and move to Tenerife for 3 months. We left early in January of 2000 with 3 small children and 1 on the way and returned to England in April. I loved the weather, the people, the language and have never felt healthier than I did then. I did a couple of language courses and more recently a Spanish GCSE. A few years back, my father had an apartment in Mallorca and we had many happy holidays there.
I would love to divide my time between England and Spain or Mallorca when I no longer have the commitment of raising my children (5 years and counting until my youngest is 18! lol). Now that they are older, I have a little more time on my hands and have decided to take up learning Spanish again. It is so much nicer when you are able to interact and chat with the people that you meet in Spain.
February 03, 2013, 08:35 AM
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