I guess some people dont "really want to learn" and quite frankly if they can get by and enjoy their lives then so be it. Its not compulsory. I'm sure there are many people who simply want to enjoy life in Spain, enjoy the scenery, the lifestyle and the sunshine and stay happily in the confines of a british expat area, but dont feel the desire to learn a foreign language - good for them I say!

Jo xxx

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Well said after all we are all here on a UK forum speaking English

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http://holidayvillacostablanca.weebly.com/

Did you knw that after the age of 5 learning a second language is more difficult. Some of us have a kack for it other not.
Some can speak a language grammatically perfectly but have such an dreadful accent they cannot be understood.
In Canberra they did a trial some years ago with regards to small children and learning a language. They used the 4 areas of the countries capital and taught a different language in each quadrant. I can't remember the actual languages but I do know that two of them were Japanese and Turkish.
They found that up until the age of 5 there is a receptor in the braich whin remains fully open until that age and then slowly starts to shut down.

The young brain is inherently flexible, uniquely hard-wired to acquire language naturally.
Early childhood is the best time for language acquisition. Ease of learning a second language diminishes with age. Between birth and adolescence the brain is hard-wired to acquire language naturally

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Siobhán

"REMEMBER, GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL. ."

Yes Siobhán, it would be nice if we could have all become bilingual when we were children! But there is no neurological evidence that it is harder for a 60 year old than for a 30 year old. Motivational and psychological factors are much more significant.

Older adults are more accustomed to failure than young people and it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you read or hear often enough that something is going to be difficult, you believe it and it affects your motivation which in turn affects your ability to succeed. it's the same with losing weight or giving up smoking.

This is an interesting project about motivation in adult second-language learning: Don't give up!

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Read about life in the pueblo: La Vida Alcalaina

As far as I'm aware there are no rules about how to live in Spain, apart from the normal ones of common courtesy. You don't have to know many words of Spanish to be polite.
Those people who want the UK transported to Spain with sun are having a great time and good luck to them. Not my taste but so what....
If people want to lie in the sun all day, watch British tv, eat pizza....it's not against the law.
I wouldn't like to live in an area which had a preponderance of immigrants over Spanish, true. But there's more than a faint tinge of snobbery, one-man-up-manship in this division between 'coast' and 'inland' people, or that's how it comes over to me.
I dislike phrases like 'tourist trap', 'Little Britain' and similar too. It's like the 'I am a traveller, you are a tourist' mentality.
The fact is that many of these 'unfit for Spain' people are the less affluent, non-cosmopolitan kind who may not be as experienced and 'cosmopolitan' as we more sophisticated folk. Should we have tests at the borders for suitability?
As for this distinction between 'inland' people (those who are oh-so integrated or hope they are) and 'beach' people (the tattooed sun-oiled pizza munchers) doesn't hold water.
As someone pointed out, many 'inland' people would like to live on the coast but can't afford it. And not meaning to be offensive but I've come across more uncouth, 100% Brits-abroad Brits in inland towns than in places like Mijas or Marbella.
Now...what are those Spanish sayings:
Sobre los gustos no hay disputos
and
Viva y deja viver.....

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.

Yes I totally agree, but I was talking about the people who DO want to learn but give up too easily!

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Read about life in the pueblo: La Vida Alcalaina

If they really really wanted to learn then they wouldn't give up too easily.


but at the end of the day so what?

Not being able to speak Spanish will not kill you.. being a rubbish driver might

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http://holidayvillacostablanca.weebly.com/

What's 'too easily' though?
I tried to learn Czech, a difficult Slavonic language. I managed to get by in ungrammatical Czech sufficient for most transactions but in the end thought 'Sod it, there's better things to do in life than try to remember the different endings for nouns like 'table' depending on whether it was in the Accusative, Genitive or Ablative cases.
So I guess I gave up too easily.

On this question of learning in your later years...it's not age, it's experience that is the important factor. If you are a reasonably experienced, well-educated, independent traveller type then of course you will find it easier to learn a foreign language than if you went to a grotty secondary school where sixty years ago you might not even have been taught French and if you were, odds-on you were taught badly, your experience of 'abroad' is limited to package tours, you have worked in a factory or some other manual trade and may not be that articulate in your own language.
People like that -and my mum would have fitted into that category apart from the fact that her only experience of 'abroad' was visiting her sister in Canada- have as much right to live in Spain as the fluent Spanish-speaker who is the only guiri in some remote mountain village.

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.

I suppose my views are coloured by an English couple in their 60s who "really really" wanted to learn so we gave them some free lessons. We were spending more time preparing material for them than they were putting into learning it! The excuses for not doing their homework were almost on the "dog threw up on my exercise book" level (like the ones I used to come up with aged 14!) They managed to spend about six hours a day watching telly though.

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Read about life in the pueblo: La Vida Alcalaina

They obviously preferred watching tv to learning Spanish. Their choice.
I think their real offence is discourtesy as you were kind enough to spend time and effort helping them.

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'The Owl of Minerva spreads her wings only at the onset of dusk'.