I’m currently on a family trip to Tenerife - hence the book updates on the site. I can’t remember the last time I finished two books in a week.
Despite it being one of those places to which Britons the length and breadth of the country head, this is my first time on the Canary Islands. If you refocus your gaze beyond the tourist hotels and bars filled with the cast of Benidorm, it’s a beautiful part of the world.
Back in the early 2000s, for work-related reasons, I started learning Spanish. I got to the point where I could have basic conversations and could travel around Spain, buying train and bus tickets and generally get by. I was very far from fluent, but I could hold a basic conversation.
As expected, I did not continue my studies; I haven’t really spoken Spanish with anyone in years. That said, there’s still some residual knowledge kicking around and over the past few days, I’ve tried my best to speak Spanish where I can.
And it makes a difference. I can only assume (and from what I can overhear) that most of the hotel staff speak English very well. If you ask a question in English, that’s how they’ll respond. But if you ask in Spanish, you fall into a conversation that doesn’t seem to happen otherwise. It’s a very stilted, broken-Spanish-based conversation but it happens all the same. And then the next time you ask the same member of staff a question, they remember you and help you with the language.
A lot of this is just down to the professionalism of hotel staff, but I feel a big difference in how easy it is to build up a relationship over the course of a few days if you’re willing to get over the initial embarrassment at not being fluent in a second language, and just give it a go.