As I said, tourism (and property) are becoming the life blood of Catalunya and Spain. As it is, the locals are worried by the slow down in agriculture and manufacturing industries, as tourism has increased over the past decades since Franco's demise. I was trying to explain to the Catalan bank manager how this is a natural process in Western countries (he still could not get his head around it).

Once again, you cannot live in the past. It is certainly up to the Catalans themselves (and any other residents like us!) to decide what they want. Personally I just think it will best for them if they 'internationalise' themselves a bit more. If they prefer to remain farmers, that is certainly their choice and good luck to them, just as it would then be my choice to move on...

I agree with ColinB, most other countries, with similar populations to the catalan speaking world, have gone out of their way to accomodate and speak an international language. (Tourists, visitors and settlers are treated with joy and excitement even - ever seen that here?) I have noticed attempts by the catalans to replace Spanish with English as the second language.... They need to decide and move on....

Speak to any true European, like the Dutch, and they simply cannot understand how a person can speak only one language. In Holland there is certainly no need to speak any other language, but they all do! They also relish the opportunity to use that other language...

That said, I know some people who speak four languages, and NOT ONE of them is English! Also keep in mind Spanish is the 3rd most spoken language in the world. English is a distant fourth!

Rant over...