The first time I heard the Swiss German exchange of “Merci” and “Bitte,” (“thank you” and “you’re welcome”) I thought it was as little strange. Having learned French in high school, I associated “merci” solely with the French language. Hearing it used in Swiss German seemed, well, a bit foreign.
But I just returned from Barcelona. There they greet you with an “hola” and thank you with a “merci.” So what do you know—“merci” is a much versatile than I thought and I practically fit in like a local, thanking everyone with it.
In some ways, the people of Barcelona share many of the same issues as the people living in the Swiss German speaking regions. The natives in Barcelona speak Catalan, which seems to be a mixture of French and Spanish. According to a local we talked to, most people speak Catalan and Spanish—since Spanish is required to get around the rest of the country. In addition, English was also widely spoken and it was also advertised heavily by language schools, as you can see above on a placemat we received at a Barcelona restaurant.
2 comments:
Wow, isn't that an eye-opener.
And I thought it was only in Switzerland where we get to hear 3 languages wrangled into 1 sentence.
What I hear all too often:
"Ja, danke. Ciao ciao. Adieu."
Yeah, I was surprised about learning even more crazy langugage combinations! I guess the German-speaking part of Switzerland isn't the only confusing place to live in the world.
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