sábado, 26 de marzo de 2005

Those lazy spaniards from the south

I had a terrible day. A day I didn't want to speak to anybody, I didn't want to see anybody. At last, I turned on the computer and got an email from ozarfreo. He asks me to publish on my blog a short text he wrote:

"As a visitor of the Fruitman's home (which for the
readers of this blog might be something like "the
making of" the Fruitman Chronicles), I want to share
some meaningless anecdotes which may or may not
entertain you. Send complaints to
fruitman.blogspot.com.

Everybody in Spain who is older than two knows about
the traditional opposition between Spanish and Catalan
people. For example, Spanish people tend to think that
catalans refuse to speak Spanish even when they know
you won't understand, and catalans may believe the
topic that southern Spanish are lazy. It is not a
coincidence that the two main soccer teams are Real
Madrid and Barcelona.

So, while going up Montjuic, on the escalator, I see
a loudspeaker on one of the sides.
"And what are the loudspeakers for?" - I ask.
"Oh, sometimes they say something. For example, they
usually have a voice saying "speak caaatalan! speak
caaatalan!"" - answers the Fruitman.
"Really!"
"No"

For a moment I believed it.

But wait! Later, I tell this to a lazy southern
Spanish who lives in Barcelona. He answers:
"But they have something like this! There is an
advertisement that says "¡parla català! ¡parla sense
vergonya" [speak catalan! speak without
embarrassment!]"

So, it was not only joke? I tell back to the Fruitman:

"Jajajajaja!. Yes, it's true there is an ad like this,
but it is aimed at foreign catalan speakers to make
them not be afraid of speaking catalan just because
they don't do it well!"

What I can say of people from Barcelona: they have a
wonderful city by the sea for you to go and visit, and
the Fruitman may show you some places you would
otherwise never venture in, though he may have some
trouble finding them. But I'm not the most indicated
person to point that out."

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