Phone the press office in the Town Hall at San Fulgencio and you'll get the reply " City council of San Fulgencio, good morning" because the Councilperson in charge of that department is British and doesn't speak Spanish.
This is a clear example of the reality of a municipality in which 75.8% of its 10,583 citizens are foreign and 50.1% are British. There are 2,552 Spaniards and 5,311 Brits.
Marimar is a sanitary medical instructor in Guardamar del Segura and knows San Fulgencio very well. " There is no relation between the two communities. Generally, most of the British live in a macro urbanization and rarely go into the town ."
Juan, a neighbor of San Fulgencio, corroborates this by adding, "the people spend their money in British shops, bars and restaurants. They don't see the need to learn Castilian. When they need an interpreter , for example at the doctor's, they use their children to help out".
I sincerely hope that never happens here in Bigastro. It is difficult learning the language at our age but it is very rewarding. Even if you only learn a few sentences, they'll get you a long way with most of the locals and if you get it wrong, they will help you out.
I can't help but feel that those Brits in San Fulgencio are missing out on a lot by not trying to integrate more into the local culture.
1 comment:
So do you know the Councillors at San Fulgencio personally? Maybe if you did then you would be able to write your blogs with a bit of truth. Both the English Councillors speak Spanish and communicate very well with their fellow councillors. Don't you think the English Councillors have a hard enough time trying to get the Spanish people to respect them without English people like yourself spreading vicious rumours!
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