user juan love | over 6 years ago

An American telling someone to speak English properly???That's like a politician telling someone to be honest.

user Richard Pearson | over 6 years ago

I would imagine that is was the National Police who only deal with civil disobediance and security matters.

user Ron | over 6 years ago

What surprises me about this incident is that the police had more than 40 minutes to waste on this obviously very rude tourist. Surely there was more urgent business to attend to, such as pickpockets, robbing gypsy women, trileros, parking violations etc.

user Richard Pearson | over 6 years ago

And don´t lets mention what the Ibicencos (or should that be eivissencos ), Menorquines, or for that matter, the Valencianos, think about the whole thing !

user V. | over 6 years ago

Haha, no doubt. It has been under 'dispute' all the 50+ years that I have lived in this country. I have a degree in Catalan philology which also included studying the various 'dialects', however each to his/her own as we would say. I do agree though that people should at least make some attempt at one of the language(s) if only a few basic words in the case of a tourist and should certainly not be shaking someone (!!) for not speaking a English properly, whatever 'properly' might mean in this case!P.S. There's no need to use capital letters to make your case. That equates shouting in the spoken language!

user Richard Pearson | over 6 years ago

Then I would respectfully suggest that your friends are either from Cataluña, or left wing politicians or teachers (who teach in the Catalan "version"and not the Mallorquin "version"), all of whom who are very enthusiactic about creating a Catalan State. The "real" mallorquins want nothing to do with the political side of it and object to Mallorqui being referred to as Catalan. True Mallorquin is based on Catalan and anyone who speaks either of them can understand perfectly what the other one is saying. The accent is different as well as a few ( quite a few actually ) words. I suppose it could be compared to the difference inbetween British and American english (that´s going to be worth a few negative points).

user Geoff Dominy | over 6 years ago

I have many friends who would dispute that! The point is English is NOT an official language of Spain and while it is nice when you are trying to solve a problem if the other person offers to help out by speaking some English it is NOT a requirement. We are in their country and everyone needs to respect the language and the culture.

user V. | over 6 years ago

Mallorquí is a dialect of Català, not a separate language (although some Mallorcans may well dispute that point!).

user Geoff Dominy | over 6 years ago

Castellano, Catalan and Mallorquin

user Richard Pearson | over 6 years ago

Geoff, which 3 languages are you referring to ?