“Catalan has opened many work and social doors for us”

Natalia Angarita was born in Colombia and at the age of 16 she moved with her family to Cardedeu. A few months later, thanks to school and making new friends, she spoke Catalan without any difficulty. Anthus is a Sicilian jazz singer and songwriter who discovered the Catalan language in Ireland through friendships he made while living there. Later, having settled in Catalonia, he incorporated Catalan into his life. Until a few days ago, Natalia and Anthus did not know each other at all, but thanks to the No em canviïs la llengua platform, they met up to talk about their relationship with Catalan. The first thing they both say is that when people have the slightest suspicion they were born in another country, they address them in Spanish. It often happens to Anthus because of his accent, despite the fact that he speaks Catalan fluently. “They confuse having a different accent with having difficulty speaking the language, and then they change to Spanish thinking they’re doing me a favour,” explains this young musician, who soon fell in love with Catalonia due to its culture, traditions and folklore.

Natalia, on the other hand, was taken by surprise when she arrived in Cardedeu. “I had no idea of the existence of Catalan, but the school and people were very inclusive and I soon tried doing language exchanges,” she recalls. Rosario Palomino, who started No em canviïs la llengua, says that 80% of foreigners who come to Catalonia “don’t know that there are two official languages.”

They both speak of the Catalan language as a source of opportunity, which has opened up work and social doors for them. Before saying goodbye, Anthus has a request: “We must take care of the health of the language, not forget quality and not be content to speak it in any old way, or Catalan will end up as a dialect of Spanish.”