Long term rental Northern Costa Blanca?

I was asked by a few contributors (by email) if there was a bank in Jumilla where they have an English speaking employee.  I went this morning and checked it out. CajaMurcia (which is situated opposite the Theatre) has an a Manager that speaks passable English and also the girl on the desk for new accounts speaks reasonable English if you dont speak to her too quickly.

Would you say that Jumilla is a mainly Spanish spoken town or are there British people living there (apart from you!)

Don't get me wrong, I am not looking for somewhere full of English speaking people - I am just wondering how good my Spanish will need to be in able for me to get by

I have only been to Jumilla once, on a Sunday afternoon, and we had tapas in a bar, where no English was spoken, but luckily as food and drink were involved we got by!

 

Swimmer

In our experience, Jumilla is 'true Spain' so far untouched by us 'Brits' and apart from the hotels who poke in limited English, in a whole week we never came across another English person or anyone fluent in the English language (apart from Linda & Dave). Some of the younger Spaniards can get by with some broken English but the elder generation do not speak any at all and don't seem in any rush to do so.

Basic Spanish will get you by but the best way will be to integrate and pick it up. As mentioned in a previous post, if you are seen to be willing to try speaking Spanish, they will try and be accommodating in return

But don't let it worry you.

Darren

John and I spent a week in Jumilla and, apart from the receptionist at the Hotel Monreal who spoke a little English (but preferred it when we tried a little Spanish!), a woman in one of the museums, a woman from one of the bodegas who spoke to us at a wine tasting, and the pharmacist, who asked me "Do you speak English?" and then rattled away in perfect English, everybody just spoke Spanish! We managed to get by and found people very helpful and willing to work out what we wanted. 

Neither of us has studied Spanish formally, though I have some Spanish CDs from the Daily Mail and the Independent, which I listen to from time to time.  We heard an English woman in one of the bars order coffee one day, but there didn't appear to be any other Brits around in Jumilla apart from her and her friend.  Darren is quite right - just relax and enjoy yourself and you will get by.  I feel far more confident trying to speak Spanish and communicate in Spain than I do speaking French in France, even though I did A level French (admittedly many years ago!!!)

Sue

PS It is also worth looking at the BBC website as they have a Spanish course you can follow.

The course Sue is talking about is Suenos and is taught at most colleges it gives you a basic grasp and you get a certificate in basic spanish

You have to take exams after every module and some of it is speaking to the tutor who taped mine I was quite surprised I knew what I did give it a go

G.A.L

Multi lingwall eh Linda

 

Kevin

Jumilla town is by and large untouched by expats and therefore Spanish speaking or Murciana to be exact,  which has a tendancy to drop the end of the words, making it really difficult to understand what they are saying even in Spanish.  Darren is correct the older ones have no English at all but the younger ones learn at school as English is on the curriculum.  The younger ones will understand a lot of what you say. They have learnt grammar and have had no practice in speaking. They like us feel a little uncomfortable with pronunciation so will hold back for quite a while before uttering even hello but once they start there is no stopping them.  David and I wanted to practice Spanish when we got here, they wanted to practice English.  There are approx. 24,000 people in Jumilla.  Around 6,000 (registered) comprise of  South Americans and more recently Bulgarians and a small number of other Eastern Europeans.  The Eastern Europeans are working for less (mainly in the fields) money than the South Americans at the moment and a lot of this work is seasonal.
In the hamlets, villages and towns around Jumilla you will many expats.  Pinoso and the villages around it has the largest population of expats. Mainly brought here by very low property prices (up until 2 years ago)  With around 6,000 Pinoserians they are finding it very difficult as many, like the Jumillianas, are untravelled and not used to different cultures and the price hikes that have arrived with these foreigners. I have not met one Spaniard yet who does not think all British people are rich. Yecla does not have many expats but it is catching up and Villena has quite a few. Most expats live in the surrounding villages rather than the towns.
The boundaries defining Valencia/Alicante/Murcia are in this area a bit confusing regarding language as they speak Valenciana or is Valenciano, still get my o's and a's mixed up, in some areas, in Elda the town is split half and hald depending on which side of the fence you are. All areas like in Britain have different accents.

That was a lot of typing but beats doing the ironing.