Please speak English!!

I have just returned from my first community meeting in Spain and how frustrated am I? The meeting was actually the second one called - the first was a few days before Christmas, so hardly anyone turned up.  The meeting started with the usual reading of the minutes from the previous meeting.  This was pages and pages long, all spoken in Spanish and no one came up for breathe.  Eventually when there was a slight pause and the agenda had moved on, i plucked up the courage to ask (in a room full of Spanish residents and half a dozen English) if he could also speak in English.  Well the noise in  the room certainly went up a few decibels!  There were Spanish residents behind me bellowing 'not possible' and the head table said that it was not possible.  The president said that he would try and convene with another English lady who lives in his block and pass as much information on as possible.

There was much to talk about at the meeting.  From what i have heard, there are major monetary issues and the administrators are already unpopular.

Can anyone tell me if the English have a right to a translator at the meetings.  It seems pointless spending money on flights to go over for the meetings, and then not being able to understand a word of it and surely how can we vote if we haven't a clue what is being said.  My point was that they are quick enough to take our community charges (and not cheap at that) but we don't know exactly what we are paying for.

Hi Sarah

Have you thought about paying someone (who can speak both English and Spanish) to attend the meetings on your

behalf? There are plenty of companies that offer this service. I am not sure how much they charge but surely cheaper and safer than flying over here and not understanding anything?

Just a thought,let us know how it goes.

I would say try and learn some Spanish but unfortunately it would take a lot of lessons to get to the level where you can understand what is going on in a community meeting. I would say put an advert around looking for a bilingual even semi bilingual person to offer their interpreting services and you can pay them by the hour. If you can find a professional interpreter even better but it will cost more.  But as far as I am aware there is no legal requirement to have a translator at a community meeting.

Susan

Thanks for the replies.  Myself and a few other English are looking into getting an interpreter to assist us.  I have been to night class to try and learn the language but you can imagine how fast they were all speaking, and when the debate got heated - well that was even better!

I was wondering if there was any legal requirement for them to ensure that all residents understand what is going on, but it doesn't look like it!

I can't for a second imagine that a community meeting in the UK would bring in a greek translator to help me understand :-)

But if it was a Greek community why shouldn't they ?.......

On our own Urbanisation the Owners are mostly British and Irish, and the rest can speak English just as well, indeed sometimes better.

Personally it's then nonsense to sit for twice the time simply to listen to the Spanish version which serves no useful purpose.

Sure, but apparently this was "in a room full of Spanish residents and half a dozen English", so why would they go out of their way for the few that don't understand? Definitely no sense in having any hope of some legal requirement for it.

In my community (Estepona, CDS) there's a few non-Spanish residents who share an interpreter (a bilingual local resident), and it's very cheap. I recommend going down that route rather than getting frustrated!

Costas, no problem there then. That's my point.

If it's a Spanish community, let them speak Spanish, if it's German, German, and if it's British, then English.

I really don't understand why it's then insisted everything is in Spanish (in our case)

If the president can speak English, then why is it such a problem to give a brief indication as to what is being spoken.  I am not asking for a word by word account, but when the whole room is arguing over money, including our English contribution , then why can't he take a brief moment to put the English in the picture.

I don't think there is a legal requirement to provide a translator for meetings. Our Administrator ALWAYS brings a translator and this person not only speaks English but can speak german and Swedish too if necessary.

The meeting uses the Spanish language because we are in Spain and all the minutes have to be in Spanish too, that is the Law, but, as before, our Administrator translates these documents to the relevent people before they are posted out.

On the other hand, the monthly committee meeting minutes ( which are held on our Urb ) are translated from English to Spanish to comply with the Law and also out of courtesy for our owners.

I would have thought any decent Administrator would do this.

"On our own Urbanisation the Owners are mostly British and Irish, and the rest can speak English just as well"

In that case, you should have no problem getting a majority vote to have meetings & minutes etc. conducted in, and translated into English at the community's expense. But the fact remains, as others have pointed out, that this is Spain, and the official language is Spanish. I would have thought this is something that most people realise and take into consideration before buying property in a foreign country?

Roberto, I understand that perfectly but it just seems silly that despite everyone speaking English, we then have to undertake the meeting in Spanish as well as English.

Is it no wonder that AGM's are poorly attended, maybe that's the idea.

The fact is that we ARE in SPAIN.........................it does not matter which country you come from, you abide by the Laws of that country.

Sorry, totally disagree -  those Laws are mostly corrupt and are  loaded against any foreigner coming in. So much for being in Europe.

You only have to look at the many websites to see the problems - just down the road they're bulldozing houses down - it's safer to buy a property in Africa than in Spain.

How many people have had their property called into question ?

I love Spain but  only as far as the culture and the weather is concerned - the rest of it is a con and a scam, especially property buying and maintenance.

Then you have the option of not going to their country!  That is what gets to me in the UK we are having to make changes to our culture to accommodate others.

There are 8 different nationalities on our community - the largest proportion of owners are probably German. 

Our meetings are conducted in Spanish, English and German.  There are enough people on the community who can translate into these languages without the need for paid translators.  However, translating into three languages does make the meeting an extremely long one.  The minutes themselves are translated into 8 languages, so everyone has a copy in their native language, but, of course, this cost is added to the community fees

Not really an option now since we have made a purchase, but still waiting 14 months on getting a 30% deposit refund from our first developer.

The whole Spanish purchase and legal process is rigged against a foreign purchaser. Complaints are building up at a European level, from all nationalties, against many of the injustices.

Yes, we had an option not to buy in the first place but thinking Spain was in Europe, with at least a modicum of transparancy, we went ahead.

We bought primarily for the weather, with the culture aspect way down the shopping list. We certainly didn't buy because of the third world business practices which regretably seem to the norm here and accepted without too much complaint from many people.

"it just seems silly that despite everyone speaking English, we then have to undertake the meeting in Spanish as well as English."

You don't - like I said, if you can get a majority vote on conducting the meetings in English, go for it. Nobody is going to check to make sure you also do it in Spanish (although if you have any Spanish owners, they may object) BUT, the law still requires minutes to be registered, and that means in Spanish as well as any other language you choose.

The community should agree to allocate funds for a translator from Spanish to English - or an other required language. We do at our AGM and it works very well.

The administrator  conducts the AGM, the translator does the English bit and a good president will take a back seat except answering questions and the odd announcement.

The minutes must be in Spanish and the real problem comes when the English Minutes differ from the Legal Spanish versions. Figures are easy enough to compare but there may be a change of detail between the Spanish minutes and English. That is where you need a very clever  dual language operator - trained in both the language and culture of the two countries. Normally someone who can curse in both languages is perfect for AGMs.

Good luck

That is where you need a very clever  dual language operator - trained in both the language and culture of the two countries.

Yes, that's the crux of it - very often you can translate something perfectly correctly, but the gist, for want of a better word, of it, can be completely lost or misunderstood. This for me is the biggest problem with the language. And in the heat of a typical AGM, it's extremely difficult to get a point over effectively, whilst trying to ensure you don't offend or insult anyone unintentionally.

Normally someone who can curse in both languages is perfect for AGMs.