5 Catalan TV series you should check out

One of my favourite ways of learning foreign languages is to immerse myself in the media that is produced in that language. When I was learning Catalan, I really enjoyed listening to podcasts, reading newspapers, and watching television in this wonderful language, so I thought I'd compile a list of my five of my favourite Catalan TV shows and tell you a little bit about each one.

Temps de silenci (2001-2005, TV3)

Temps de silenci focuses on the life of a wealthy Barcelona family, the Dalmau family, from shortly before the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) until the end of the last century. The series tells the stories of the Dalmau, Comes, Hernández families and frames them through the social, cultural, and political events of the epoch.

I started watching it as a way of revising for my Catalan finals at Birmingham last year and it taught me so much, not just about the Catalan language, but also about 20th-century Catalan history too.

The story follows the personal journey of the narrator, Isabel Dalmau, a young upper-class Catalan, and her working-class love interest, Ramon Comes. It is something of an impossible love because of the prevalent class differences and this serves as a thematic construction throughout the series, intertwining this narrative with the history of Catalonia from 1935 to the turn of the millennium.

In an easy-to-understand manner, it deals with events such as the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, daily life and repression in Catalonia during the Franco regime, the restoration of democracy, the 23-F coup, changing attitudes of the role of women in Catalan society, and the 1992 Olympics.

It was the first period series about 20th-century on Spanish television and its considerable success kicked off a trend that led to other period dramas, such as Cuéntame cómo pasó (Tell me how it happened - a series following the Alcántra family in the later years of the Franco dictatorship and the early years of the transition to democracy) and Amar en tiempos revueltos (To love in times of revolt - set in the times of the Spanish civil war and the early Francoism), being commissioned by the Spanish state broadcaster, TVE.

Merlí (2015-present, TV3)

When I was back visiting friends in Barcelona in December 2015, everybody was talking about this fantastic series that was being aired on the Catalan broadcaster, TV3, at the time. It features an A-level philosophy teacher, Merlí Bergeron, who stimulates his students to think freely through unorthodox teaching methods that divide his students, their families and his colleagues.

Merlí is clearly influenced by films like the Dead Poets Society and there is a conscious effort to bring a basic understanding of philosophy to the audience in an accessible way. Each episode features the approaches of some great thinker or school, such as the Peripatetics, Nietzsche or Schopenhauer, and these link with the events of the characters during that episode.

I've really enjoyed the two series of Merlí so far (a third is rumoured to be coming soon) and it has made me somewhat nostalgic for the passion and excitement of my own sixth form days.

Cites (2015-present, TV3)

Cites (Dates) is inspired by the 2013 British series Dates (created by Brian Elsley - which I still haven't seen).

It mixes romantic comedy and drama focussing on a number of first dates of people who have met via a Tinder-like app. Up to 24 actors are featured in the dates, which often leads to sexual or romantic relationships (unlike my own haha).

From the point that the two people meet (often in a bar or a restaurant), the characters aim to carry out their intentions while undergoing awkward and/or romantic moments (much like me on a date).

The dates are all set in Barcelona (there are very few series in Catalan that are focussed in Catalonia's other cities, it seems) and people of different ages, sexual orientations, and marital statuses are involved.

Nit i Dia (2016-present, TV3)

Nit i dia is a thriller that revolves around the daily lives of police, forensic doctors, and judges who must solve crimes and murders and deal with the darker side of reality.

Nit i dia chronicles the daily life of a coroner and the conflict between her desire to lead a normal life and daily contact with the harsh reality. The series begins on the day that a coroner Sara Grau, who is married to a senior executive of a multinational company, starts IVF treatment; that day, in an autopsy, recognises an unidentified corpse of a stranger with whom she had a brief affair and, from that point on, a chain of events occurs that disrupts the life of the protagonist and all those around her.

It also features wonderfully nuanced characters such as an elderly judge caught between two women, a psychiatrist traumatised by their past, two-faced executives or criminals who cannot stop themselves from reoffending.

In many ways, it is similar to the BBC series Silent Witness, however rather than just focussing on the forensic doctors (as Silent Witness does very well), it is also a portrait of contemporary Barcelona, with its lights and its shadows.

Ventdelplà (2005-2010, TV3)

Ventdelplà tells the (fictional) story of how a woman from Barcelona, a former doctor no less, attempts to rebuild her life in a small, rural Catalan village in the province of Girona after fleeing with her two children from physical and emotional abuse from her lawyer husband. 

Despite the dramatic nature of the start of the series, Ventdelplà dramatises the dramas, love stories and issues that exist in the lives of the inhabitants of rural Catalan villages.

I must admit: I'm only 50 episodes into Ventdelplà (there are 330 episodes) and it is the only one of the series in this article that I haven't finished, So far, it's featured a woman liberated from an abusive marriage, conflict between rural and urban lifestyles, a character dying from terminal illness and its effects on her teenage son, and the difficulties that a young protagonist must endure after becoming paralysed in a car crash.

The fact that it is set in a rural Girona town is something that is really refreshing considering that the vast majority of Catalan-language dramas take place with Barcelona and its confines. In fact, most of the scenes in this series were shot in the small town of Breda, in the la Selva region.

#WhereToGoInBarcelona - SlowMov, Gràcia

SlowMov is an ecological grocery store, coffee shop, and roastery in the idyllic Barcelona neighbourhood of Gràcia, located on the relatively tranquil Carrer de Luis Antúnez (number 18, just after the Placeta de Sant Miquel). 

Carmen Callizo, the founder of SlowMov, was studying as a postgraduate in Paris when she decided that she’d rather spend the days cooking and making artisanal coffee. 

Trained at Coutume Café in Paris by the renowned Antoine Netien, Carmen decided to open SlowMov in her grandfather’s old workshop in the neighbourhood of Gràcia, which she runs with her partner, François. 

They retain a close relationship with Coutume; in fact, their beans are supplied by the high-quality Parisian outfit. SlowMov's roaster, in full view as you enter the shop, roasts beans with a light/light-medium roasting style - a perfect pourover.

Part of SlowMov mission is to promote local ecological businesses; they have adopted the motto of “haste makes waste”. SlowMov mixes roasting and brewing coffee with local goods, including locally-grown eggs, vegetables, and other foodstuffs. There's also craft beer from the Catalan brewery, Dos Kiwis, and locally-made jams and preserves from La Madre de Miren.  

If you're passionate about well-made coffee or locally-produced goods, then these guys are the people to visit: they're incredibly knowlegable individuals and will often take time out to explain the nuances of roasting and making great coffees through your preferred method. 

    

Me brewing up some beans the other week at SlowMov

If you're lucky, you might spot me in there making a v60 or a Kalita, which I always love to share with my fellow coffee lovers.

Have you been to SlowMov? How did you find it? Where should I review next in my #WhereToGoInBarcelona series? Let me know in the comments below.

Travelling as a wheelchair user - my experiences

As anyone who knows me will know, I’m a frequent traveller around Europe and the UK and so it feels apt that I should write a post about what it is like to travel frequently on planes, trains, metro systems, and buses as a wheelchair user (I don’t drive a car… yet!).

Come fly away with me – my take on plane travel as a disabled person

Over the last few years, I’ve been a frequent traveller between Liverpool and Barcelona for my university studies. Personally, I enjoy travelling by plane, although it took a bit of getting used to at the start. Usually one is required to book assistance to get on and off the plane and around the airport a couple of weeks in advance – or at the very latest a few days before.

So that the airline can ensure adequate space in the hold of the plane for my chair, I have to provide them with weight/measurements of the wheelchair and book the necessary assistance around the airport and an ambi-lift to get me onto the plane as I can’t walk up the steps. Providing the airline with this information has become much easier to do over the last few years as most airlines now provide online chat to book the assistance (yay, no more half an hour waits on expensive phonelines) and I have the information about my chair stored away, so all I have to do is copy and paste it into the chat.

Generally speaking, one has to arrive at least an hour and a half before and the assistance will help me through the airport: my chair has to be tagged, I need help getting stuff out of my bag at security control, and, as I weirdly like to sit at the back of the plane (it’s easier to get me on/off the flight and I’m closer to the toilet in flight), I often need to use an aisle chair to get me on to the plane – this way, my wild arms don’t knock anyone’s head off as I stumble awkwardly down the plane.   

Personally, my favourite airline is Ryanair - although they are often criticised -, as, as long as one is organised with assistance and gets there at least an hour before the flight, they are relatively hassle-free and do not require mountains of paperwork to be filled in on the day as it can be done online beforehand. I’ve travelled tens of times across Europe with Ryanair and never had a problem, whilst every time I’ve travelled with EasyJet, there has also been difficulties on the day and a mountain of paperwork on the day (I can’t write on paper, so this is always fun and rather unnecessarily time-consuming).

Trains are great – but only if there’s a ramp there

I love train travel and it’s my favourite way of getting across the country. Last year, I spent around 16-18 hours a week on trains crisscrossing the U.K. between Liverpool (where I was living), Birmingham (where I was studying), Manchester (for football matches), and London (for weekend work). So, you could say I’m something of a frequent train traveller then.

As a wheelchair user, I need a ramp to get on the train… That sounds simple, right? In reality, it can sometimes be anything but. Officially, one is supposed to book 24 hours in advance to get assistance at the station - although I've found that one can book as late as 1900 the night before (the time that the sheets are sent to the stations) and get assistance the next day. This means that I oftentimes can't spontaneously decide to take off on the train to visit a random city for the day as an able-bodied person can.

Train assistance varies significantly between stations - my local station, Liverpool Lime Street, are fantastic (as are Birmingham New Street), whilst other stations, such as London Euston can require a longer wait (my longest wait for a ramp was 30 minutes and I’d booked assistance beforehand too). 

Whilst there is normally a ramp to get me on the train (provided that I book ahead and get there 20/30 minutes before the train departs – not always easy when you’re relying on public transport to get you there), there have been many occasions whereby I’ve been left stranded at the station I needed to get off at when a ramp hasn’t arrived or arrived 5, 10, or 15 minutes late. This is where train franchises become key. They vary as to how they treat disabled passengers requiring assistance: on some franchises (Virgin and TransPennine spring to mind as great examples), the train manager can unfasten the ramp and get you off, whilst, on others, you can be stuck waiting on an empty train (sometimes one that is boarding for its next trip) for 15/20 minutes until a ramp turns up.

Another thing that’s a bugbear of mine is the limited facilities and seating that train companies give to disabled passengers. Legally, disabled passengers are not supposed to be allowed to get on a train where there is a broken or inaccessible toilet and should be seated in one where this basic facility is made available to them. Again, there are significant differences in my experiences of train companies in this area: Virgin are fantastic and will often move disabled passengers and their companions to carriages with a working toilet if this situation occurs, whilst, on around 60% of the services I’ve been on with a Midlands-based franchise, the one and only accessible toilet has been out-of-order and you’re often just expected to suffer on through (or told you can get off the train at Crewe to use the toilet and pick up the next service).

Train design is something that can be an issue too: most services have fantastic wheelchair seats with tables and adequate space, however on others, one is left sitting next to or staring into a toilet or cannot sit next to the people they are travelling with.

How accessible are the metro systems in London and Barcelona?

Over the last few years, I’ve had plenty of experience with the metro system of Barcelona and London. Both systems have adopted the policy of having sections of their platform raised in accessible stations, so that wheelchair users (and, indeed, others) can get on and off the carriages without the need for assistance. This is great and makes it so much easier to travel at accessible stations.

The downside is that not all stations are accessible for disabled passengers. In London, only 24% of Tube stations are accessible, making it rather difficult to get from A to B on the metro there (although the buses are great – more on that below). One of my most frequent routes in London involves me going from Hammersmith to Kings Cross and then having to cross platforms to get back to Euston Square, as only one side of that station is accessible via the lift. 

In Barcelona, 86% of their stations are accessible and more work is being done to improve this over the next few years; that being said, to get to my campus, I have to make three changes as the (fairly new) station nearest my campus isn’t accessible at all. In both cities, my fellow commuters will nearly always move out of the way of the allotted space so I can park my chair.

One of the big differences I’ve noticed between the systems – aside from how many of the stations are accessible – is that the fact that in Barcelona, there’s always a clear sign on the platform telling the wheelchair user where to get on, whereas in London, such signage is only present at stations that have a National Rail connection. Not having a sign on the platform makes it incredibly difficult to know where the space to park my chair will be, meaning that I sometimes have to drive across crowds of commuters to find an accessible carriage.

The wheelchairs on the bus go round and round…

Bus access, over the last ten years, has increased significantly: nowadays, almost every bus has a ramp and is wheelchair-accessible.

In theory, this is great, as one should be able to get on any bus one wants, however, in practice, this is often more difficult than it first seems. Badly-designed buses mean that there is often only one space available for wheelchair users on each bus and it is frequently the case that there is not a separate space for buggies/old people with their shopping carts; thus, these spaces can often be taken up by prams or others, meaning that there isn’t always adequate space to turn and park my chair.

Until recently, what was supposed to be the wheelchair space was not legally designated as such: thus, if there was a pram on the bus, the driver was not required to ask them to fold it up or make space for the wheelchair user. This often meant that I could not board the bus and would have to wait for the next one to come along (sometimes this could mean standing for 20/30 minutes in the rain/cold with little protection from the elements).

Fortunately, a recent ruling from the UK Supreme Court means that bus drivers now have to ask non-wheelchair users to move out of the space if a wheelchair user needs to get on. Hopefully, this will make it much easier to travel by bus as wheelchair user, without having to endure long waits because the bus that you want to get on has something other than a wheelchair in the wheelchair-designated space. Indeed, in recent weeks, I’ve been on several buses that have displayed freshly-minted “priority space for wheelchair users” stickers, so hopefully bus companies and their drivers will understand the needs of wheelchair users better in the times that lie ahead.

I find the buses in London and Barcelona to be fantastic for wheelchair users, as they have automatic ramps – meaning that the driver doesn’t have to get out of his cabin and that a wheelchair user boarding does not necessarily slow the bus down – and bigger spaces for wheelchair users: in Barcelona, there are two spaces on each bus for wheelchair users making it so much easier to travel.

Potential future steps to be taken

Let me be clear, I love travelling by public transport, yet, at present, travelling as a wheelchair user requires a heck of a lot of planning and forethought. Maybe one day in the future, trains will have level-access points so that wheelchair users can just roll on and roll off without the need for 24 hours’ notice just for a simple ramp.

In a dream world, somebody would find a way to make the Victorian era Tube stations of London have lifts so that all can use them, not just able-bodied people, but, sadly, finding the political will for such a capital-intensive investment is highly unlikely.

Maybe more thought will be put into designing buses and trains that are intelligently thought-out: putting in fold-up seats so that prams can park easily on buses rather than have to fold-up for wheelchair users (this could also double as a second wheelchair space, if needed) and planning spaces so that wheelchair users are not sat next to/looking into smelly toilets for several hours.

On balance, in the last few generations, great progress has been made towards accommodating wheelchair users on public transport, but that doesn’t mean that things can’t improve.   

5 questions I frequently get asked about the Catalan language

I'm forever being asked by foreigners and natives alike about the Catalan language is and why it was I decided to learn it, so I thought I'd do a wee post answering some of the questions that I'm most frequently asked.

What is Catalan? Isn't it some sort of dialect of Spanish? 

Catalan is a romance language. Simply put, it emerged from vulgar Latin in the 12th Century, much as other romance languages such as Castillian (Spanish), Italian, Portuguese, and modern-day French. It is very much its own language, with its own culture and history. 

Furthermore, it actually has a vast literary tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Blanquerna by the famous Mallorcan author Ramon Llull is considered by some to be the first novel written in Catalan, whilst Martorell's Tirant lo Blanch is said to have influenced the evolution of the Western novel in the Renaissance period.  

Catalan has around 10.5m speakers in the territories where it is spoken and is very much its own language; it is only similar to Castilian in that it shares similar origins and has borrowed some words over time as more Spanish speakers have arrived in Catalonia and other territories (however the Castilian that is spoken in Barcelona has borrowed some words from Catalan too: feina is often used instead of trabajo in everyday parlance).

  

Where's it spoken? 

Broadly speaking, there are two distinct forms of Catalan that have emerged: català oriental (Eastern Catalan) and català occidental (Western Catalan). 

Eastern Catalan is spoken in most of Catalonia (especially in the provinces of Girona, Tarragona, and Barcelona), the historic region of Roussillon in south-east of France, and in the Balearic Islands. The accents between these areas vary significantly, however. The 'central' dialect of Catalan (that which is spoken in Barcelona and Girona - albeit with different accents) is taken by many to be the "standard" form that is taught in most schools and imparted by the Catalan-speaking media: hearing the distinct Mallorcan dialect for the first time was something of a shock to my system whens I moved to Barcelona in 2014 and, at first, was rather difficult to understand (although I've now got the hang of it). 

Western Catalan is spoken in Valencia (where it is known as Valencian), the province of Lleida, the franja d'Aragó (the Catalan-speaking communities of in Eastern Aragon), and in Andorra (where Catalan is the official language). The debate over whether the Valencian form of Western Catalan is distinct from other forms is one that has got much attention in recent years and given the difference that exists between the Catalan spoken in Barcelona and in Valencia, this is a valid debate; that being said, from a linguistic perspective, there is much less difference between the Valencian dialect and other forms of Western Catalan - say, that of Lleida.

Curiously, Catalan (in its Eastern form) is also spoken in Alghero, a port town on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it is the co-official language. Part of Alghero's population descends from Catalan conquerors from the end of the Middle Ages, back when Sardinia was part of the Crown of Aragon.

How did you learn Catalan? Where can I learn it?

This is a question that I get asked so often here in Barcelona that I'm thinking of having my response printed on a t-shirt: an English person speaking Catalan is still a relatively novel thing for many here.

When I was studying Castilian (Spanish) for my A-levels, I decided that I wanted to learn Catalan during my degree. I was fortunate enough to study at the University of Birmingham, whose Hispanic Studies faculty had a wee Catalan section (a lecturer, the wonderful Elisenda Marcer, and a teaching assistant), and so I took Catalan classes there for my first and second years. 

I got the opportunity to study my third year at the Universitat de Barcelona. Prior to classes commencing, I took a more advanced course in Catalan at the Escola d'Idiomes Moderns of the Universitat de Barcelona so that my Catalan would be up to scratch (and also to get to know the city better). 

That course was a great investment as around 75% of my classes at my beloved Facultat de Dret were in Catalan, and at the Col-legi Major Penyafort-Montserrat, where I stayed two years ago and am now, many of my friends held conversations solely in Catalan. Needless to say, my Catalan majorly improved during my year abroad (it's now my favourite language) and upon my graduation at Birmingham, I received the Catalan prize.

If you want to learn Catalan, then your best bet is checking out your local university to see if they have a Catalan lecturer/teaching assistant. Here are the universities that I know for sure have a Catalan Studies department: King’s College, London; Queen Mary, University of London; and the Universities of Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cork, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Kent, Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford, and Sheffield. If there's not one near you, get in touch with the Institut Ramon Llull.

So, do people in Barcelona just speak Catalan then?

No, Barcelona is an (almost) completely bilingual city. The vast majority of people here are equally comfortable in both of the local languages. Generally, the way it goes is that if you speak to some in Catalan and they respond to you in Castilian/Catalan, then the conversation will thus continue in Castilian/Catalan; if you speak to someone in Castilian and they respond to you in Catalan but you can't speak it, they will respond in Castilian. 

I haven't heard of any negative experiences where someone has spoken to a local in Castilian and they have refused to respond to them in Castilian: Barcelona is a very tolerant city and its linguistic openness is one of the things that makes it so great.  

Contrary to the rumours in the Madrid-based press, speaking Catalan doesn't make you an independentist. There are, of course, many Catalan-speaking Barcelonians (and Castilian-speaking too) who support greater sovereignty for Catalunya and many who back independence, yet, equally, there are many Catalan speakers who are not convinced by the need for independence. Just the simple act of speaking Catalan doesn't automatically mean that you want to see Catalonia separate from Spain, but, rather, that you appreciate this beautiful language and want to ensure its survival.

Is it necessary to speak Catalan to study/live in Barcelona? 

Well, considering that this year I'm studying a Masters here in Barcelona on a course that is 4/5 foreigners and I'm the only foreigner who speaks Catalan, I'd say that, rather regrettably, it's becoming less and less necessary in the higher education system here (at least at the Pompeu Fabra - the UB was very much focussed on teaching in Catalan). 

Globalisation means that, in many industries and walks of life, you can get by in Barcelona with English and a very basic level of Castilian these days. An ever-increasing number of industries are looking for English-speaking workers these and some are stipulating that workers have at least a basic knowledge of English. 

Conversely, if you're intending on living here for a period of time longer than just a few months, I would advise you to learn at least one of the local languages - if not both - as it will help you feel much more integrated into city life. My advice would be that if you have a basic knowledge of French, Italian, or Latin, I'd learn Catalan before Castilian as it'll be easier to pick up.

To round this off, learn Catalan: it really is a beautiful language. 

There are amazing books, plays, music, and poetry out there just waiting to be discovered in this ancient romance language. Of English, Spanish, and Catalan, the latter is my favourite tongue by far.

Adéu-siau