Getting along in French on the Camino ?

[JP]

I am thinking of doing the Camino in May 2014. I speak a bit of Tourist Spanish learned while vacationning in Cuba and Mexico, but I was wondering if I can get along speaking French or should I really ramp up my Spanish studies ?

 

[mspath]

I am thinking of doing the Camino in May 2014. I speak a bit of Tourist Spanish learned while vacationning in Cuba and Mexico, but I was wondering if I can get along speaking French or should I really ramp up my Spanish studies ?

Jean,

Of course it would be wonderful to be fluent in Spanish, but most pilgrims get along with basic tourist Spanish and their native tongue. After all on the Camino you don't enter a bar to buy a used car so the absolute need for a wide vocabulary is minimal. When all else fails there is always pantomime! For a current Forum account of how some pilgrims deal with menu translations see >> http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/menu-translations.19368/.

Bon chemin and Buen camino,

Margaret Meredith

 

[SYates]

Brushing up on your Spanish will make your Camino certainly more enjoyable as you can speak with the people that live along the way, understand the Pilgrim's menu better ect. But the lingua franca amongst pilgrims is most of the time - English ;-) So yes, you can get along with only English and French, but any additional language you speak will make things more fun. SY

 

[julie]

Your tourist Spanish would be sufficient but there's no harm in brushing up if you would like to do that. However, don't put yourself under any pressure, you can get by without Spanish. My only knowledge of the language was being able to say hello, please and thank you. I very quickly learnt to read a menu and became adept at mime.

Speaking French will be useful to you as a means of conversing with a wider number of pilgrims than you would have with just English alone.

 

[AnnieH61]

I used the Memrise app to learn some useful Camino Spanish before my walk this year and it was helpful.
I used the word for blister early on!
Buen Camino
Annie

 

[oursonpolaire]

French will certainly be helpful in the first week or so, as it appears to be the second language in Navarre and the Basque country. Along the way it will be more useful than English, and I found that Castilianophones (!) could usually make sense of my French more than they could my English-- I used French with pharmacists and museum staff in Leon and Galicia and found it a good means of communicating. Even so, some Spanish will be much more helpful than none.

 

[JP]

Thanks every one, pretty much answers my question. French and Spanish have similar words and grammar, so that is a big help to me. I can pretty much get around a menu and simple questions. In final analysis, I better start studying if I want to interact with the locals !

A few important Spanish word. Ha! Ha!

- Dos cervezas, por favor.
- Café con leche, por favor.
- el bano, por savor ?
- Cuánto es ?

 

[SYates]

- Dos cervezas, por Favor.
- el bano, por Favor ? or better - ?Donde esta el cuarto de baño, por favor?

But you are right, French has a lot of similarities to Spanish! Just replace the French words you know with the Spanish words you will learn and you will be understood easily. The word order is very similar. Just remember that the French place the adjective before the noun, whilst the Spaniards put it after it.

French - BONNE cuisine
Spanish - comida BUENA

SY

 

[JP]

Thanks that S in Favor was a typo, I corrected it. Sorry, my keyboard can't do spanish punctuation. I am finding out that they are differences in Mexican/Cuban/Dominican Republic spoken Spanish, just like American and British English. I now undesrand why one of the Mexican kids working at the Hotel we were vacationing at last December on the Mayan Riviera was making fun of the Spaniards staying at our Hotel. He was saying in jest naturally that Mexicans spoke a truer form of Spanish.

 

[Stellere]

While I'm pretty sure I could get by on the Spanish that I already have, I see learning Spanish as part of my camino. I'm walking in March (which just seems SO FAR AWAY), and I started learning Spanish in May. It's nice to be able to focus my excitement and nervous energy on something useful and challenging that also enriches my life in general. My hope is to be functionally fluent before getting there - and (ojala!) truly fluent by the end of my walk. We'll see!

I would highly recommend Coffee Break Spanish for basic survival skills. But if you want to go deeper than that, I'd recommend finding Skype language partners!

 

[Stellere]

Oh, and I'm fluent in French. Knowing French is a HUGE help when learning Spanish. I don't think I'd be progressing the way that I am if it weren't for my French!

 

[JP]

I looked up the "Coffee Break Spanish" site and it looks like an easy going way to get some usefull vocabulary, Thanks for the tip !

 

[Green Tortuga]

I used the word for blister early on!

And those are some fine-looking blisters you have there, too! =)

-- Ryan

 

[piogaw]

there is a useful list of camino vocabulary (4 pages) on the camino de santiago guide 2009 at www.caminoguide.net.

buen camino.

 

[Helen Burns]

Speaking Spanish certainly makes things easier in the marketplace but it's amazing how much can be communicated without words. Some of my fondest memories are of spending time with pilgrims whose English vocabulary was as scant as my Spanish.
Buen Camino.