“What a great village! When I greet someone on the street with ‘Bon dia’, they tell me to just speak Dutch!” The message from one of our former guests makes me laugh. After leaving the Netherlands in a hurry and staying with us in Vall de Gallinera for a while, he is now staying in Xaló for a few days. In Casa Mistela, the beautiful Bed & Breakfast of John and Sonja from Maastricht, there is undoubtedly a bit more to do than in our valley. And if not, there are clearly more Dutch people to be found there than here with us. Whether that is something that anyone might be looking for, I won’t comment on. Because although I think the Dutch people who have lived (or have come to live) in this area are all very nice people – forming a Dutch enclave in Spain might very well be the last thing I want.
Whether this can completely be prevented remains the question. Because even our (yes!) Dutch accountant notices it. “It seems as if the whole of the Netherlands is leaving to go abroad,” she says after our appointment. “I notice that suddenly a lot of new Dutch people want to become customers and because of that I have to say ‘no’ more and more often.” My mother and I nod in agreement. We noticed it too. Another Bed & Breakfast has been sold in the area. From Dutch people to (again) other Dutch people. “Now is an excellent time to sell,” we hear an estate agent say. “More and more people are looking to buy.” And although I might now be allowed to have an opinion about it myself – after all, we also came to Spain for a different life – I hope that the (Dutch) buying frenzy will skip Vall de Gallinera.
Because what really attracted us was the authenticity of the village. In addition to Spaniards, there are people of various nationalities living here, but they all speak Spanish or do their best to learn it as quickly as possible. The fact that this does not happen overnight is not a problem. Not everyone has a feel for language and even I, after having done a language course in both Barcelona and Las Palmas, having a streak of almost thirteen hundred days on DuoLingo and a year of mainly Spanish guests booking our B&B, still have not fully mastered it. So when guests try to accommodate us by saying that they also speak a little English, I firmly reject their offer to change languages. “No. I am determined to learn it!” I tell them resolutely as I show them around the house. My youngest sister, Noëlle, who is leaving for Switzerland tomorrow for a new season in the snow and the mountains, promises the guests to improve her language skills time and time again. “The next time you come, my Spanish will be better!” she promises them every time. Fortunately, most Spaniards are not that strict. With a joke here and there, she (almost) always gets away with it.
Because a little creativity certainly can’t do any harm. So she happily orders a Baileys with ‘agua muy frío’ when she can’t remember the Spanish word for ‘ice’ (hielo) and when she can’t find the tablecloths in the shop, she simply asks the salesperson where she can find the ‘ropa para la mesa’. But although she gets away with it in ninety-nine out of a hundred cases, she still gets reprimanded every now and then. “This lady thought I needed to work on my Spanish a bit,” she tells me as we wave goodbye to our most recent guests on Saturday morning. I nod understandably. “She’s a Valencian teacher. Of course she’s critical of the way people speak a language.” So there’s no other option than to keep practicing. And that works better if we’re not constantly in a Dutch bubble. Fortunately, that’s not the case here. Here they just say ‘Bon dia’. And although that helps us to master the language faster, we are at the same time in the position of having to learn not one but two languages. Because as soon as we have perfected our Castilian, Valencian still awaits us. Fortunately, the start has already been made with ‘Bon dia’. One word down. Many thousands more to go.