When we decided to go to Europe and walk the Camino de Santiago we thought it would be a good idea to learn at least a little Spanish. At that time we were planning to walk the Catalan Camino and would spend about six weeks in Spain. Of course we have since decided to walk the Portuguese Camino and although Portuguese is a Romance language, we quickly learned it is very, very different from the others. That said, we have kept up with our daily DuoLingo Spanish exercises and recently had the opportunity to test what we learned during two port visits in Spain over the past two days.
For those learning a new language you quickly realize reading is generally the easiest, followed by speaking and then listening. Frankly, we were surprised how much we could get out of reading sign posts at the gardens, museums and other venues. As for speaking, we realized we could think about what we needed to say, practice in our head, and then give it a shot. As for listening … not a chance.
We arrived in Valencia Spain and due to a less than ideal weather forecast decided to go to their world class aquarium (more on that later, but it was awesome). We tossed out phrases like “two tickets please” knowing full-well the expected reaction. Feeling good. In fact, while visiting the aquarium a young family started strolling away and we noticed one of the youngsters lost their shoe. I started calling to the family “he lost a shoe” and out of nowhere, with cat-like reflexes, Julie pops out “zapato”. The family turns around and was very thankful we got their attention.
The following day we were in Palma de Mallorca. Again we would use phrases where we generally knew the outcome (dos cervasas por favor). Fast forward to the afternoon and we are having drinks at an outdoor cafe on the beach. Joe asked the waitress, in perfect Spanish of course, where to find a bathroom. A flurry of words followed and all he caught at the end was “la Puerto”, which means “the door”. She then quickly turned and went to assist other customers. Armed with that information, Joe got up and started looking for “the door”. Fortunately it was a small building and around the back there were two doors. He tried to open one and heard a woman respond suggesting he chose the right door. The next four days are in Italy and France, before we return to Spain on our final day of the cruise on April 29th. We will then have two more weeks to practice our skills. Wish us luck.