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Language on the Camino
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[QUOTE="JAMM, post: 743917, member: 88277"] Languages are very useful but not essential. They make life easier and enable you to connect more easily with the local culture and fellow pilgrims, let alone understand signs that are often mistranslated. Having said that, I think it is possible to do a Camino in the peninsula without speaking Spanish or Portuguese (if you have an acommodating attitude) so do not be discouraged. I speak Spanish and was able to have some great conversations with some of the older locals we encountered. Speaking the language was extremely useful in restaurants and sometimes in albergues: it made life easier and probably opened the door to options others did not have. Someone pointed out to me that I was treated better and this may have been partially true but I suspect it was simply because I was able to articulate questions and locals were able to offer things/volunteer information that they would not have known how to explain in other languages (rather than because they were 'anti-non-Spanish-speakers'). If you do not have the time to learn any Spanish or Portuguese, my suggestion would be to try and read as much as possible about the culture (from gastronomy to history). Speaking a language 'properly' requires cultural understanding. It is better, in my view, to speak with grammatical errors and/or survive with a translating tool but understand context, than deploy perfect grammar and literal vocabulary but have no cultural knowledge. A dinner on the Camino comes to mind: there were 12 of us and I was the only Spanish speaker. The owner of the restaurant offered 'sopa normal' and I translated 'normal soup': I knew what was meant in Galicia by 'normal soup' but everyone in the group, from six different nationalities, had a very different view of what this entailed. None of the interpretations fit what the Galician man was offering. Everyone understood 'normal' but of course normal means very different things and what is normal for one is truly 'abnormal' for others. Languages are also useful when things get a little stressful. We encountered a small group of upset pilgrims with an even more upset shepherd (who only spoke in Galician with a very strong accent) outside Samos; they were unable to communicate with one another and voices were being raised. The issue involved some gates and some cattle and was more of a misunderstanding than anything else but being able to speak to the Galician shepherd -with my Portuguese- and the German pilgrims -in my dodgy German- and mediate between them sorted out the issue. The above, I think, applies to all travels but I think some linguistic and cultural knowledge can enrich the camino experience. If you cannot manage any dose of the above, for whatever reason, just smile a lot, prepared to be surprised and be considerate. [/QUOTE]
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