Molt Bé

As you may already know about a month ago Tony and I (With Sue) started to do Catalan Classes. We thought that as we have decided to make this our permanent home, and have no desire to move back to the UK we would take the plunge and learn the local language. 

Tony took some classes when we first moved here, but these are more intense and we are rushing along with both vocabulary and grammar.

We have always manged to read in Catalan, and generally understand when others speak to us in Catalan, but reply and making use of the language ourselves was pretty non-existent. 

At the end of our last class, on Tuesday we were warned we would be doing a little test on all we have learnt so far. Needless to say, as with most students that word 'test' made us panic a little and we've spent the last couple of days practising verb conjugations and how to say things like the time etc. Telling the time in Catalan is very different - not like any other languages we speak at all. 

Anyway this morning we checked our homework and then were given a blank sheet of paper on which we had to write about our daily routine. Not too bad. Once we had written as much as we needed our papers were collected in. We were then invited to make a large circle and present to the class our daily routine orally, with no papers to help. Golly but when I'm put on the spot like that I find it more difficult to think clearly, especially in a language I hardly know. 

Going through the register one by one everyone spoke about their daily routine.  Just before it was Sue's turn she got a call from the Nursery to go pìck up Lily who was a little distressed - how did she plan that one we wondered?! Tony went before me, and I must say I was proud at how he managed it and was given a 'Molt Bé' mark. He hardly stammered or stuttered at all.

Then it was my turn. Yes, I faltered on a few verbs -interference from my Spanish vocabulary, and made a couple of errors in pronunciation, but at the end I too got a ´Molt Bé' 

So there we have it our Catalan is coming along just fine.