Qualitative Analysis of the Social Differences between Catalan & Spanish in Barcelona
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How do languages commonly spoken in Barcelona differ in their emotional, social, and political use?
How does a small family of three perceive the differences between Catalan and Spanish emotionally, socially, and politically?
What is the relationship of language with people? With a community? With a culture? With a country?
METHOD
1) Crafted a series of interview questions to capture differences in social connotation, emotional impact, and political use between Catalan and Spanish (also called Castellano) in Barcelona
2) Recruited a small family of three (my host family while I was living and studying in Barcelona) to participate in this study: Ana, the matriarch of the family, Paula, her daughter, and Gonzalo, her son
3) Interviewed Ana, Paula, and Gonzalo in Spanish
4) Transcribed the interview into English
5) Conducted a thematic analysis to uncover the similarities and differences in the way each family member perceives each language
KEY CHALLENGE
The political backdrop of Barcelona and Catalonia in general at the time of these interviews (fall of 2015) was following three years of major debates about Catalonian independence from Spain. Catalonia was responsible for a larger proportion of economic growth in the country than it was receiving support from the federal government at the time. More importantly, Catalonian culture, while sharing some similarities with Spanish culture more broadly, has its own unique and distinct components, including language. A major challenge in this project was to extract the feelings about Catalan and Spanish as languages, and the relationship those languages have to the political landscape of the country, while being sensitive to these topics. Though I was fluent in Spanish at time, learning to carefully circumvent pain points and learning to appropriately and respectfully ask these questions about a culture that was not my own still required a significant amount of care. Luckily, I had already built up some standing rapport with the participants after having lived with them for a few months, which helped to ease the tension of the sensitive topic. Additionally, they were all well aware that I was a new Spanish speaker. Lastly, throughout the interview process, I made sure to reassure each member that this was purely a project to better understand the languages, and was not going to be used to claim any political opinions on their behalf.
RESULTS
Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed 7 main topics of interest:
The role of language in culture
Scenarios in which one chooses to speak Spanish versus Catalan
Reasons why they learned each language
Social connotations of each language
Emotional connection and response tied to each language
How they would feel or react if they were not allowed to speak either language anymore
How the use of Catalan has changed throughout their lives
In sum, Catalan appeared to be used more in formal or professional settings, such as at school or work. However, Spanish was used in more informal or social settings, such as between friends or at home. This particular family felt a closer tie to Spanish than Catalan, expressing stronger emotional concerns at the prospect of not being able to speak Spanish anymore, compared with not being able to speak Catalan anymore.
IMPACT
This study demonstrated the role that language can play in the social lives of a community. Given the political setting of Barcelona and Catalonia in general, it showed how politics and government have the ability to impact even the scenarios in which one may choose to use one language over another. From a broader lens, this qualitative study also showcased the importance of qualitative research and methods, and how the use of interviewing can result in deeper and more insightful dives into the psychology and sociology of human behavior and cognition.