Articles · Five Things I Learned in Barcelona · Lesson 1 of 5
Day-to-day life
One day, I’m speaking in my mother tongue with jeepney drivers, and the ate sa karinderya about mundane things. We talk about the weather, the price of petrol, and how the price of basic goods keeps increasing. I was in a world where I had a wide range of topics, from small talk to deep, philosophical discussions.
The next day, I found myself in a world where I couldn’t understand anything. I want to say more in conversations, make new friends, say hi to the pareja mayor who lives in the building next door, but the words get stuck in my chest. La anciana still calls me “reina,” and that’s enough for me.
Suddenly, I could only participate in small talk that lasts at most one minute. Two minutes, and I start panicking because they start mentioning words I don’t know.
I want to enter conversations, especially since la gente española is warm and talkative, but I get anxious because solo hablo un poco español y me contestan en mucho español. Do you see the struggle?
I found myself using Google Translate in Mercadona because hita ng manok is suddenly muslo de pollo or even cuixa de pollastre in Bonpreu.
Spanish bureaucracy
Speaking Spanish is also vital in navigating the bureaucracy, which Spain is so famous for. As a foreign citizen, I needed to register my accommodation at the ajuntament. This is called the empadronamiento, or simply called empadron.
There are not a lot of public officials who can speak English, and understandably so. I am the one who came here, so of course, I have to adapt to the language and customs of the locals.
No one really cares if you get it perfect. Everyone here only cares about understanding and being understood.
As a perfectionist (yes, I am self-aware), I was scared of making grammatical mistakes. But as my Ecuadorian friend Michu told me, “Cody, you have to allow yourself to make mistakes, it’s the only way you can learn the language”.
I guess that advice not only applies to learning languages. No one gets moving abroad “perfect”. There is no scoreboard measuring how well you are doing in another country.
But you know what? No one really cares if you get it perfect. Everyone here only cares about understanding and being understood.
You can only do so much to prepare
There are things you can prepare for, but not everything.
In December 2023, I was applying for various master’s programmes when I decided to move out of my grandmother’s house.
I had not received any admission letter yet, but I told myself I needed to gain skills on how to live alone, especially since it would be my first time going out of the Philippines for a long time.
Part of my preparation is learning how to cook my favourite Filipino dishes. Yes, I would be far away from home, but at least I know how to cook a hearty sinigang during cold and rainy days, or fry lumpiang shanghai to pair with tinto de verano in summer.
I prepared the practical things, like ensuring that I have good health insurance coverage, and some thick jackets for when the weather becomes colder.
However, these things I could NOT prepare for:
- I had to go back to the ayuntamiento thrice for my empadron
- Experiencing my first winter and everything that comes with it
- Shifting my mentality from Philippine Peso (PHP) to Euros (EUR), and trust me, this is a very big jump
- The loneliness, which brings us to my next point.