Just The Two Of Us

Do you know that there are two official languages in Majorca? If you do, well done, and count yourself in with the other 6.2% of Brits (assuming you are British; and if you are not, my apologies) who also know. A survey of tourists staying in Playa de Palma (as reported in the "Diario" on 11 July) discovered that there was a general lack of knowledge about the languages as well as a high level of indifference. And it's not as if coming back on holiday makes much of an impact. Only 7.3% of repeating Brits have become aware that Castilian and Catalan share official-language status.

This comes as no surprise in the sense that most visitors are unaware that there is another language, other than Spanish. Many will probably be unaware of Catalan's existence, let alone the fact that it (or Mallorquín) is spoken here. Let's face it: never over-estimate the knowledge of your average tourist.

The survey crops up in the context of the Majorca Council's promotion of Catalan in restaurants (9 July: I Say High, You Say Low). Quite what the survey's findings have to do with this mystifies me. The fact that British, and German, tourists seem to care not a jot what language is used is no pretext with which to suggest that Catalan, or indeed any other language, should be used. I still don't understand quite what this is all about. Restaurant menus, in tourist places at any rate, are usually in several languages, Castilian and Catalan included. Your regular tourist goes to the page with his own language or the one he understands best. He does not go to the Castilian or Catalan page except if he is from mainland Spain.

Another of the survey's findings is that hardly any tourists are ever attended to by someone speaking Catalan. Of course they're not. More often than not, they will be greeted in English. Fatuous is a word that springs to mind in respect of some of this survey. Though this is not an apt description when one learns that only one in four Brits has done anything of a cultural nature while on holiday. I actually would question this. It would be good to know what they were asked precisely and, as importantly, how the tourist defines cultural. A trip to Marineland is probably cultural to some tourists. Apparently, nearly 40% of Brits would be interested in cultural activities, but I hope the Majorcan tourist top brass don't get carried away. People will say anything as part of a survey.

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