Originally Posted by sunflower
Do you English people who live in Spain also know Spanish? The newspapers and tv stations and stores and would mostly be in Spanish wouldn't they?
Hola Sunflower, lo siento no tengo mensajes desde Email adviso por lo tanto estoy con retraso en contestacion a su carta.
"Hello Sunflower, I am sorry I do not have Email message notification therefore I am late in answering your letter."
Lucky for me Izy told you. Yes it is necessary to learn to speak Spanish (Castellano) very quickly here. In actual fact they speak Andalucian which has a slightly different pronounciation.
I first lived in an area where I did not have the ability to get Sky TV for English television programmes, so much of my learning was through listening to TV and radio. No one in this village spoke English so it was very difficult at first. Now I live in an area where again very few Spaniards speak English, but most Banks have at least one bi-lingual speaker. Here the children are more likely to learn German first before English.
Its more difficult when visiting the doctor or hospital as they insist you have a translator this can be costly, even if you can speak spanish because usually its not sufficient for them. In anycase they speak so fast you always have to ask them to speak more slowly. That is one of the first phrases I learned :lol: I have now after 4 1/2 years enough spanish to get by. its an ongoing process believe me.
Elle