'People see the 'guiri' and respond in Spanish or English'

"Yeah, so, that's a can of worms," Gerhard Kirsten laughs. "A lot of my content is about this exact topic."

Gerhard, a South African, has gained significant attention on TikTok and Instagram with his videos documenting his journey of learning Catalan. Some of his posts have gone viral, amassing over a million views.

His focus? The experience of being an outsider – or "guiri" – in Barcelona, and his attempts to use the Catalan language in a city where the response to foreign accents can be mixed, with locals defaulting to Spanish or English.

"The problem is people see my face, my blonde hair, and they immediately see the "guiri" as they would say, and they either directly respond to me in Spanish, or even in English, without even giving me a chance to prove my level of Catalan."

Gerhard explains that he doesn't mind too much if someone spots an opportunity to practice their own language skills by responding in English, but nothing beats the sense of satisfaction when the conversation continues in Catalan.

"It's the best feeling when someone responds to me in Catalan, because that's a form of saying "I see you, I respect you," and even maybe if that person speaks perfect English, they still respect me enough to continue speaking to me in Catalan."

From Afrikaans to Catalan, via Italian

Gerhard grew up bilingual – "as most of us do in South Africa" – speaking, in his case,  Afrikaans and English. 

He also learned some German, which he found "quite easy," given its closeness to Afrikaans and its "mathematical" nature. 

The first Romance language Gerhard learned was Italian, which he picked up living in Bologna for three years. 

Upon moving to Barcelona in 2021, he focused his intentions on learning Spanish, rather than Catalan, for family reasons.

"I knew about Catalan but – like most people outside of Catalonia and Spain – I was not aware exactly of what the relationship is between Catalan and Spanish, the differences, the cultural differences especially."

"My wife, the reason I came to Catalonia, is Catalan, but her parents are actually from Uruguay," he explains. 

"My first instinct was that I need to be able to communicate with my parents-in-law, so I learned Spanish and I learned it quite quickly coming from Italian."

After living in Barcelona for two years, Gerhard decided it was time to learn his sixth language: Catalan.

"I decided, okay, now I really want to learn to speak Catalan. My wife is proud of the language, I'm proud of the language, a lot of my friends are Catalan, and it's simply a kind of respect to the culture of the place where you're living. That's my argument wherever I go."

But rather than take some language classes, Gerhard decided to share videos online of the Catalan he had picked up.

"I just said one day, I'm going to start speaking, and we did it with these TikTok videos."

What started as "kind of a joke of me saying one or two sentences," became for Gerhard "the best way to learn."

"I could speak without being ashamed of what I'm saying, without feeling I'm being judged." 

"People would correct me here and there and that's literally how I went about it – making these videos, chatting, having people correct me, having my wife correct me, and then bit by bit being in conversations in Catalan, understanding, and then starting to force myself to speak in Catalan as well."

"In the end, with the combination of Italian and Spanish, it came quite quickly. It was a case of telling myself, okay, now I'm going to speak, I'm going to make mistakes, I'm going to make errors but let's go, let's see how it goes. 

Crucial moment for Catalan

Catalan is spoken by an estimated 10 million people in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and some other neighboring parts of Spain, as well as Andorra, Northern Catalonia in France, and the Sardinian city of Alghero.

It is at a "crucial moment in its history," according to the Catalan government, who cite "worrying symptoms about the future of the Catalan language."

Whereas before, during the Franco dictatorship, the use of Catalan was suppressed in favor of Spanish for political reasons, today, the challenge to preserve the language lies in Catalonia's changing, more diverse, and multilingual society within an increasingly globalized world.

While classes in Catalonia's public and semi-public schools are taught in Catalan, ensuring that children grow up learning the language, adult immigrants, unlike Gerhard, do not always follow suit.

"I do know quite a bunch of expats. I play rugby with some of them and know others from other areas, and I must say I know very, very few expats that are learning Catalan," Gerhard says.

"I'm sure there are. I'm not calling myself unique, but from the ones I know, they are kind of proud of themselves for being able to speak a few words of Spanish."

"I think everyone has the view of, okay, Spanish, I'm going to learn it here and it's a language I can speak in however many countries. Why do I need to learn this language that 10 million people speak, especially if I'm going to be here just for two or three years – because that's also the thing, many expats I know come and go."

While Spanish and English are undeniably more useful globally, learning the local language opens doors to new experiences, conversations, and deeper cultural connections.

And beyond the practical benefits of any given language, there's also the simple joy of discovering new words, sounds, and meanings.

"I really like the word xiuxiuejar, which means whisper," Gerhard smiles. "Just the way you say it sounds like you're whispering."

"And I love the phrase t'estimo. I think it's such a beautiful way to say 'I love you'."