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[take_seven]

So I just looked back at my "recent" entries and realized that there is nothing "recent" or even informative about them. I wonder how many of my friends have even bothered to check my blog in all of this time

Comments

[anonymous]

I'm sure you're a nice person and all, and you write this blog for your friends and family to read, but you have to understand that the entire world can read the statements you put forth. That said, I have to reply to the anti-Catalan sentiments you've expressed on your blog.

Most people who visit another country take some time to learn a little about the place in this world they are going to visit, especially if they are going there to live for a period of time. Regardless of what today's political borders look like, there are many more nations in this world than there are nation-states, and the world is more diverse linguistically and culturally than what a quick look at an atlas will reveal.

I know a great many Americans that have lived in Catalunya for extended periods of time and have not had any problems with the Catalan people; they went there knowing a little bit of history and even knowing the fact that the mother tongue of this part of the world is still Catalan, despite hundreds of years of effort by the Spanish state to eradicate it. The language of this part of the Iberian peninsula evolved concurrently with the other romance languages of the rest of the Iberian peninsula such as Castillian (Spanish), Portugese, Galician, Asturian, Aragonese, Aranese, Extremaduran, and Leonese, and are not dialects of Castillian. I hope you don't actually believe your comment regarding this fact, otherwise you truly are making statements based on ignorance.

It appears I need to remind you that you went to live in Catalunya, a part of the world whose language and culture has been oppressed for over 300 years, where their efforts to restore a normal environment where people can speak Catalan as a daily languge of communication is constantly under attack. To this part of the world, you at some point decided to go and live. Maybe you were expecting something else, maybe since it is currently part of Spain you expected everyone to fit into your pre-concieved view of what it shoild be, and maybe held it against the Catalan people for not fitting your stereotype. How do you expect to be welcomed when you saunter in with the conquistador attitude that because the Catalans have been conquered by the Spanish, they should now bow down and give up their language and culture whenever you deem it to be inconvenient for you. I'm sure a great deal of the people that spoke to you in Spanish were Catalans who were respecting the fact that you did not speak their language, but by the tone of your blog it appears you made no effort in learning their language in return.

If you will be living in Catalunya in the future, how about at least making an effort to understand where it is you are living. And if you have no desire to do that, then may I suggest trying Madrid next time, you won't have to worry about those pesky Catalans speaking their useless language there, or at least not in public god-forbid. I think you and your views would feel right at home there.

Sincerely,
L'Algherese di California