The guidebooks advise the future pilgrim to learn as much Spanish as possible before beginning your Camino to Santiago de Compostella. Always enthusiastic to work on my Spanish, I went from speaking horrible Spanish to just bad Spanish. The Camino de Santiago entices people from all over the world to make the pilgrimage to Santiago and it isn’t uncommon to be one of ten nationalities at a single table for dinner. Everyday I met new people from new countries from Brazil to Germany, from Australia to South Africa and from New Zealand to South Korea just to name but a few.
Once you have begun your camino you quickly learn that English is the mutual language between pilgrims. I spent the first few days of my pilgrimage walking with a new German friend. We met exhausted at the very top of the Napoleon’s Way out of St Jean Pied du Port over the Pyrenees. As his English improved, mine rapidly deteriorated and I found my word selection returning to basic small words and even skipping words to reduce confusion (I blame this if you find this post poorly written). A common example would be “We go here?” while pointing at a map or sign instead of “Do you want to go to (insert village name) today?” My new German friend and 99.8% of friends made later did not speak a word of Spanish more than Hola! and Buen Camino!
On entering a new town or village my excitement would peak in anticipation of practising my Spanish. I’d rehearse what I wanted to say while I was walking, and in my head as I entered an albergue or shop. Within seconds the person would respond to my question in English. Many of the albergues in particular are run by non Spanish volunteers. Many from Germany or the Netherlands. So as my Spanish remained at its current state of bad, my English rapidly deteriorated with my language learning expectations for the Camino. Instead I increased my German vocabularly with a friend made later in my journey across Spain. Only on the camino …
When you turn a bend on the camino you often come across other pilgrims, if you weren’t already within eyeshot of them. Often I would stumble across conversations between two or more pilgrims who had found English, no matter how poor, to be the mutual communicating language. This was enhanced by the international language of hand gestures, of course.
The further west I walked the less English was spoken by locals in the small villages. Finally a chance to practise my Spanish and immerse myself in the language. This however led to pilgrims seeking me out to resolve their issues, as my bad Spanish, which couldn’t actually help them, was considered fluent by many other pilgrims. At times I found myself going out for walks or taking another cold shower just to avoid pilgrims demanding me to be their translator, even after I explained I had no idea what they were saying or how to respond or help their situation. To this day I am still clueless about what many of those urgent situations were. As life on the camino is quite simple.
My Spanish improved enough to communicate with locals for directions, organise myself a bed for the night and order my meals without breaking into English. But ultimately I did not receive a chance, even after trying again and again, to improve my Spanish significantly. Because the Camino de Santiago is a world on its own and not only does the scallop shell bind pilgrims together in solidarity but the English language tightens this connection and familiar atmosphere.