On Saturday it was St.Patrick's Day and I was celebrating with my Irish friends in a bar watching the 6 Nations rugby Tournament. Naturally the bar was packed with English speakers from England, Scotland, Wales and of course Ireland along with French, Italian and for some reason Portuguese people. I say 'for some reason' as Portugal are not in the 6 Nations, so they had turned up to just to enjoy the International atmosphere with some excellent sport thrown in. Spanish people were noticeably absent; admittedly, Spain is not a rugby playing nation, but then neither is Portugal.
This got me thinking about the necessary attitude to language learning that is needed if you want to acquire and use another language - the desire to be international and enjoy sharing your time with people from other nations. A few Spanish people did turn up later, to celebrate St.Patrick's Day rather than watch the rugby, but they came more with the attitude that they wanted to practise English which didn't really mix well with the atmosphere. It really was not the time or the place to do that, it was not a Language Exchange event where the idea is to practise your language with other people who want to practise too. It was a time to enjoy being with other people regardless of their native language and to enjoy something in common, a sporting event and the National day of Ireland. This is exactly what the Portuguese were doing. The Portuguese were there joining in with what the afternoon was about, and I was impressed by their level of English and by the way they were on the same wavelength as everyone else.
Why is it, then, that the Spanish people who came had more trouble assimilating to the atmosphere? Maybe it's because they are in their own country and the rest of us are abroad and for that reason we automatically think more internationally. It's possibly the case. However, and it's very well-known as many Spanish people have told me, that even when abroad Spanish people tend to stick together and do not mix with people from other nations. I went with a Spanish friend, who speaks excellent English, has travelled and lived abroad, but who sat observing in the corner and commenting on how much the international community mixed together; without realizing that you don't have to be foreign to mix. It is this insular tendency which is problematic for Spanish people in acquiring and using foreign languages. Possibly. It is also because Spanish is such a strong International language that it hinders the desire or the necessity to want to acquire and master another language. Maybe. This is definitely the problem for English speakers.
For me, the Portuguese, in stark contrast to the Spanish, were able to mix perfectly well with all people that afternoon. Why are they so comfortable with speaking English? I think one of the major reasons has to do with that fact that Portuguese TV is not dubbed. Films and TV shows from abroad are shown in the native language with sub-titles meaning that Portuguese people from a very young age are used to hearing other languages, primarily English spoken. From a very young age they are assimilating the language, recognizing it, hearing it, picking it up and learning it. English is not a strange language for them, it is and always has been something every normal for them, so they have the facility and comfort to use it naturally in all situations. Being accustomed to hearing and using another language opens up the mind automatically to the world beyond your native borders, it opens up different cultures and ways of thinking to you that you feel comfortable with; they may be different, you may not like them or agree with them, but you are aware of their existence and this makes it easier to feel comfortable being in an international atmosphere.
Spanish people, on the other hand, have been brought up in an entirely Spanish environment where English is clearly a foreign language to be learned at school or at a Language Academy; it is something different and separate from their normality. It is true that this is changing now in Spain. English teaching in school has been improving a lot and it is possible to put the TV on in the original language, something that was impossible not very long ago. But it is still something that you must choose to do, you actually change the language to be either in English (or whatever language the film is in) or in Spanish, it's not done automatically and for this reason a lot of people do not do it or do it when they need to study. As I have mentioned before in my blog, this tends to create stress and people feel they must understand and so when they don't they lose heart and feel that they will never understand English. Bring used to listening to other languages from birth makes it something normal, thereby avoiding this stress. As for the Portuguese and their obviously different approach to dealing with foreign people on Saturday.
This has a great effect on Spain and especially now that we have an economic crisis with so many people unemployed. I was told, again on Saturday, by someone who works in the Human Resources department of a big company, that they prefer to employ a native English speaker who speaks Spanish; or a foreign person, like a Portuguese who speaks excellent English, than a Spanish person with poor English. I think this is very telling.
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