No mate, you are not alone. This trying to be separate is similar to England/Wales. This seems a good forum, but this really annoys me too! Everone here speaks Spanish, even if after Franco, they want to revert to being Catalan, they always apprieciate my attempts at Spanish and never chide me for not trying to speak Catalan. If you were in Britain,and say living on the edge of England/Wales, which would you learn? English or Welsh?