Culture within language

When I started my linguistic studies and chose to learn Spanish, I saw language as a rather technical tool for communication. Only later I learnt that there is more complexity to it. It is sometimes said that language always carries meanings and references beyond itself and that the way a particular language is used represents the culture of its speakers. In a sense to speak a language means to do so with the culture which is its reference point. Perhaps we could not truly understand a culture without speaking its language and we also could not properly learn a new language without at least some understanding of the culture that speaks it. Learning a language, therefore, is not only learning the alphabet or grammar rules, but it is also learning the behavior of the society and its cultural norms.

My first encounter with the Spanish culture was through exactly that –language. Although during my first or perhaps a few dozen Spanish lectures at the university it did not feel like that. There were a lot of grammar rules and words to memorize so it all seemed a bit tedious. Only after a couple years, all of it started to connect and I could somewhat understand how it all works. I also feel incredibly grateful that my Spanish teacher was a native and perhaps one of the most valuable things he shared with us were the real-life stories about Spain and its people. However, I still could not even begin to fully grasp what was Spanish culture as I was in some sort of vacuum living in my own Lithuanian environment.

Coming here to Barcelona was a great opportunity to get to know Spain just a little better. However, I must say that my Spanish speaking skills are really not advanced as I only managed to order a few cafés con leche para llevar and asked to pay con tarjeta. But there was something so nice about trying to simply blend in with everyone else ordering the coffee like one of the locals, without using English even when it’s the more comfortable and safer option. I also enjoyed just observing how people react and respond to me speaking as well as noticing how people’s conversations sound like. I must admit, however, that I wasn’t aware beforehand that Catalan was spoken much more commonly in Barcelona. Although I was able to understand less of what people were saying because it was Catalan and not Spanish, I feel like I learnt about and got to know the uniqueness of Barcelona and its people just a bit more than before. And most importantly, spending this week in Barcelona inspired me to continue learning Spanish so that I could do a bit more than just a coffee order in Spanish.