Remember when I speculated that I might not be the only foreigner currently with a huge learning curve due to the language gap? Foolishness. After meeting Blanca from China yesterday (not her given name), my theory suffered a serious blow. In her early twenties, she's been studying Spanish only four years to my eight-and-then-some and, actually, I'm considering whether or not her Spanish is better than my English. !Increible!
Nevertheless, I did happen upon three very simpatica locals in the cafeteria during coffee break and they quickly put my language insecurities at bay ... for the time being. Chari and Eulalia are from Cadiz while Merche is from nearby Puerto Real, which coincidentally is where I have to go to the police station to get my student visa stamped and authenticated and made all official-like in the eyes of the Spanish government. I mentioned this in passing to Merche and she immediately offered to take me to the police station herself in the coming days. Wow. I had not anticipated the genuine kindness from the locals here! A huge plus for visiting the area, and I'm quickly learning part of the reason Cadiz itself is so charming and highly desirable as a European vacation destination.
Still, after listening in on their animated conversation over cafe con leche, I'm beginning to realize the language is quite different here than in other parts of Spain. The Cadiz accent has a tendency to drop the endings of words. Take for example the Spanish word for thank you, "Gracias." In Cadiz they say "Gra-thee-ah" (the Spanish lisp of "th" for soft c's and z's is generally practiced throughout Spain; yes, that means that locally Cadiz is pronounced, "Ca-deeth"). The same is true for the Spanish word for good-bye, "Adios." In Cadiz, they say "A-dee-oh," which is fine and good when speaking in simple phrases, but I can only imagine what all I'm missing while sitting in class lectures with my nose firmly planted in my English-Spanish dictionary. !Ay, caramba!
!Es otra lengua totalmente!
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