WHY CAN'T SPANISH DOGS LEARN ENGLISH?

WHY CAN'T SPANISH DOGS LEARN ENGLISH?

HOME


This is a blog about our experiences living in rural Mallorca, Spain.

It will mainly consist of our adventures and learning on how to be more self-sufficient by growing our own vegetables, keeping chickens, turkeys and other animals.  Any sensible advice will always be welcomed and we hope this will help others trying to live the dream.

We moved over here in 2010.  We sent our son immediately to summer school to begin learning the language and we set about trying to find work and learn a little Spanish.  Living in the countryside you definitely need the local language or at least some Spanish to get you by!

The posts will cover from when we first arrived to the present day but not necessarily in order.

We hope you enjoy reading about our experiences, as much as we have living them.



8 comments:

  1. Hi Miranda, my parents have just moved to mallorca from uk, and are just getting settled in. Having been through this yourself, is there any suggestions you have for them to meet other expats? Well done on the great blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Anonymous, Glad you like the blog, it's fun writing it even though I don't always have as much time to do it as I'd like. Also thank you for your question. I am not sure if I can give you the answer you are looking for but here goes..

    Meeting other expats was something we didn't want to do much of, but once we were here it was quite important as people were able to give us some advice which we could actually understand. Where to meet them..... It all depends where your folks have moved to. Here in Sa Pobla there are about 68 people from the UK, however, I have probably only met about 3 of them. ESRA, the English Speaking Residents Association is good for meeting people and they are island-wide I believe (http://www.esramallorca.com/) and of course the more touristy areas where you find British pubs etc, there are always people there. Going to Spanish or Catalan language classes is always a good one, they are bound to meet a fellow Brit. If they are internet savvy they may be able to find out a lot more information on the area they are living in, and find out where the local expats eat/drink and be merry. That's about as much help as I can give you at this stage. If I think of anything else I will let you know. I wish them all the best living here, it is a fabulous island.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, and for all the info I will pass onto them. They have moved to campanet, and I know they go to Sa pobla often to have coffee there, so it is nice to know there are other english speaking people around. To be honest, I don't think they are too interested in mingling with the expats, would just be nice for my mom to connect with a few people that also speak english, till she picks up a bit more of the language. Luckily my dad is fluent in spanish which helps. I visited in September just after they moved there, and I must say it is lovely, so I am busy taking spanish lessons so maybe one day I can do a stint the :) I am sure they will settle in just fine, I am just being the concerned daughter, as I live in South Africa, so can't get to see them too often. Take care, and thanks again, Carla.

      Delete
  3. No problem Carla. Campanet is a lovely village, and great that your Dad is fluent in Spanish, they shouldn't have any problems really.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello lve just found your blog and it sounds lovely, living in the peaceful countryside of Mallorca! What made you decide to go to Mallorca? Apart from SUN of course! We live in Bridport West Dorset which is very beautiful, but l do like to dream of being somewhere hot!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Denise
    I haven't updated the blog recently, I really need to find some time to do it. It is wonderful here. But like everywhere there are pros and cons. It certainly isn't 'hot' (6 degrees C today) here at the moment, but the winter is still a great time to visit the island if you can.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Miranda. I don't know if you can help but have you ever grown Borlotti Beans here? I have grown some this year but the pods are all infested with eggs and larva. They have been grown directly alongside Runner and French beans which are unaffected.

    Thanks Jane.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jane, No, I'm sorry we never grew Borlotti's. We did grow French beans (and what they call locally Flat beans) which never had any problem. You'll have to check out on the web what the eggs/larva are, maybe a bit of a difficult task. I'm sorry they didn't work out for you. If I see any information about them I will let you know.
      All the best.

      Delete