The Galician language

The Galician language

When I was in primary school there was a study group on the Spanish language. I took part in it but we mainly danced and learned to play the guitar. After that I only ever learned a little Spanish here and there, so my speaking abilities weren’t really on the bright side when I came to Vigo. But I liked the language and was able to get around. On top of that there was also the Galician, I was confronted with it in a couple of situations.
First of all, my host student took me to get to know her family. They were a lovely bunch of energetic people but they really did not speak a single word of English. While my host student was busy somewhere else, I was happy about how good of a dialogue some of her family members and me actually were able to have. After I had talked to everybody there for a little while, her grandfather waved me over to him. My host student had told me that he was the only person in the family that spoke Galician exclusively, so I was a little afraid that the situation was going to be awkward. But it turned out to be just fine! We could not talk to each other but I was amazed at how we found other ways to understand each other like by using hands and feet.
Another one of those situations was when my host student took me to her classes. The first one happened to be philosophy. I was the only international student there, but I didn’t feel lonely because her class welcomed me very nicely and with a lot of interest. The teacher entered the room and started a monologue about the topics of next year’s class. She went on for 35 minutes until she noticed me and stopped. She looked at me and said something. Because I did not understand a word I only answered: “Perdón, no halbo español.” I think she understood what I was trying to say and she tried to speak Spanish as well. The class told me that she was spluttering something about how she was sorry but she could not speak any Spanish or English or French but Galician only. We looked at each other in confusion for a little while until the class got loud and she continued her monologue. The feeling when neither of us knew what to say or what to do felt really strange but funny and her class mates seemed to have fun as well.
So, to summarise my experiences with the Galician language, it led to some enlightenments, like how little people need to have in common to understand each other, and to some strange but funny moments.