How much Catalán can you understand?
This is obviously not for people who speak it, or probably for most of the people who live in Spain, but if you're a non-native Spanish speaker who thinks they can understand Spanish pretty well, give this a try. I was surprised how much I could understand. I couldn't really follow the conversation, but I could pick out an awful lot of phrases and sentences. I thought it was interesting, anyway.
5 Answers
I understood a fair bit as well Kevin but I wonder about native Spanish speakers ...... can you follow a conversation in Catalan? I'd be really interested to know .....
I could pick out words and phrases I recognized, but that's about it. But then again I'm not surprised, I can barely keep with Spanish at regular speed.
While the various sounds of the words and the rise and fall in the patterns of speech generally seemed more closely related to Spanish than to Portuguese, I could only make out the occasional word here and there but I have perhaps only heard Catalan spoken once or twice in my life at close quarters before so that I could even hear the words, apart from this video of course.
It seemed a little easier to me to make some sense of the written text below...in contrast to the fairly rapid flow of conversation issuing forth from the video. Context is all important and when you know what the topic of conversation is about it becomes a little easier to make-out (understand) what the people invoved are saying.
Likewise, when I have stayed in various hotels in the region of Cataluña, Spain eg Pineda de Mar and Calella and visited the aquarium on the sea front at Barcelona (more than once!) I followed the written text on the information boards firstly in Spanish, then in French and sometimes looked at the words in Catalan so that I already had some idea of what was being explained.
Really, I have to say from my experience of learning languages, that unless you have like a key to deciphering the mysteries of any language usually gained either through receiving lessons from a native speaker/teacher or by virtue of being brought-up in that country as a native then you are likely to remain as an outsider and excluded from understanding what is going on in people's conversations.
Yes, you could pick up some words and phrases that seem to be the same/similar to another language you already know - such as Spanish or French, and even, if you have a high EQ (emotional intelligence) and are able to perceive and interpret body langauge accurately you would still have only have picked up half the message at best !
Certainly, it was an interesting experience listening to that video but I won't be losing any sleep over what I don't understand lol
I Would think that an hispanic person would have real problems with Catalán except,perhaps, for the people living near Cataluña. I am from the U.S. and when I was in Madrid for some reason people thought I spoke as a person from there. I didn't consider this too bad since a Catalan accent is probably better than an American accent in Spanish. Many people don't know the the regional dialects are spoken among the natives and Spanish is spoken as a second language in all parts of Spain except the central part. Even near Madrid they speak Campesino en the country which I find very difficult to understand.---Sergio
Wow! I was also surprised at how much I could understand! It makes me consider learning Catalán... 
It sounds beautiful! Thanks!
