The Native Catalan Speaker
In this article, Frekko examines her findings in a Catalan as a second language course being taught to adult students in Barcelona. The class consisted of native Catalan speakers who wanted to improve their grammar in order to speak "proper Catalan" as well as native Castilian speakers who were indeed learning Catalan as a second language. Throughout the course of the semester, Frekko notes a strange hierarchy among the students that contradicts the commonly held belief that native speakers of a language are automatically considered the authority in a language as well as dominant in the social society. In the class, the native Catalan speakers should have been the leaders, answering first and confidently conversing in their native tongue. Instead, the Castilian native speakers were the ones running the study groups, asking questions and speaking confidently. Interestingly, the Castilian native speakers had a poorer grasp of the language but perceived their success as being better than the native Catalan speakers. This perceived difference led to a Catalan native speaker referring to a native Castilian speaker as "the expert" in a study group.
This seemingly contradicts the overarching question of how language skill effects social status. It is logical to conclude from Sedaris and my own narratives that the native speaker of a language is always the highest placed member of society. Yet, this article seems to argue that language success is independent from one's native language and instead depends on perception. We must take a moment to examine the social structure of Barcelona. In Spain, the highest social class is made up of native Castilian speakers, while most native Catalan speakers are farmers or working class. In fact, in the class Frekko examined, the five native Catalan speakers were all working class, while eight of the Castilian native speakers were working class, nine of them were in the middle-class (166). Frekko also recounts a story where an older man tried to confront her in a store after overhearing her speaking in Castilian about learning Catalan. Assuming she was speaking badly about Catalan he confronted her in Castilian. After explaining the misunderstanding and the fact that she was not only a competent Catalan speaker but also an American, the man apologized profusely putting down his knowledge of Castilian and then Catalan. Frekko notes that he seemed more mortified to know that they were American students, people not responsible for knowing Catalan, who have learned normative Catalan. His dismissal of his skill in Catalan indicates that he places their knowledge of schooled Catalan above his own dialect (172). This demonstrates a huge power differential between these two groups that leads to the Catalan perception of lack of power while also demonstrating the perceived value gap between spoken dialects of Catalan as opposed to the regulated Catalan taught in the classroom.
This situation is the essential cornerstone to further examination of how one's native language effects their place in society. The Castilian speakers are generally considered higher-class, which leads them to act with far more confidence in all kinds of social situations, even one where they are, in fact, not the linguistic authority. This confidence is mirrored in the lower-class minority Catalan speakers, who have such little confidence that they don't even command their own language. In one example, a native Catalan speaker referred to the Castilian native speaker running the study group as "the expert". Even going so far as to claim to be terrible at Catalan in general, switching back to Castilian (167). While the native Catalan speakers should be the best students in the class, many of them struggled with the content, primarily because they did not perceive themselves as successful people.
Therefore we must hinge our argument on the social status of non-native speakers on perception. In my literacy narrative I explore how my fear of the ridicule I assumed I would receive from the shopkeeper prevented me from speaking at all. Linguistic success is strongly tied to confidence in speaking a language. When we perceive ourselves as separate or lower-class, we question our language skills to the point that even fluent speakers stumble and feel inadequate. The Catalan speakers saw themselves as less successful than the Castilian speakers, so they became so. In this way, self-efficacy in a language is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe that you possess the ability to excel in a language, you will, regardless of your native language. This builds on Davies' earlier commentary on the value of various languages across ethnic groups. Despite Catalan being the dominant language in this small society, the Castilian speakers were used to being the dominant class in the outside culture and the Catalan speakers willingly stepped into their place as second-class citizens. Truly, this raises questions about where the high-society is determined. How can the non-dominant language in an environment still take dominance in social situations? Clearly, by being the dominant language in the greater culture of a place.