Looking for Long Term Let

We were very lucky to sell our village house in Catalunya three years ago at the top of the market, wishing to buy another property in a region where only Castellano is spoken...unlike Catlunya where Catalan is the favoured language of the locals.  Not so long ago we were getting frustrated at not being able to spend enough time in Spain to locate another property to buy. Now that the market has 'crashed' we realise how fortunate we were not to have bought yet!  We are looking for a place with a garden, situated in a Spanish town/village still inhabited mostly by Spanish.  We are going to take a long term let this winter (3 or more months) and take our time (this time) to find the ideal place to spend all or out winters...possibly longer.  In the meantime, why is it that the free Spanish book mentions the letter 'v' as being said as an English 'v' when my Spanish teacher (who is Spanish) says it is always said as a 'b' in Spanish.....as does Michel Thomas!  Does anyone know the answer?  Also, does anyone know the (near) perfect location in which we should be looking to buy...somewhere where the winters are warm,  a town or village that can be classed as being 'Spanish' and where property is reasonably priced?

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Hi Meggie

When I had Spanish lessons a couple of years ago, my teacher who was Spanish, said that in some parts of Spain the V is pronounced as V, but in others it is pronounced as B.  All depends on where you are!

Rosemary


This message was last edited by llamacalmer on 6/24/2008.

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Hi Rosemary

Thank you so much for your reply.  You have answered a question that I've been
asking for years.  Why didn't anyone else know this? Even the few Spanish I've asked
didn't know.  However, Spain is an enormous country and, like some of us Brits...they
don't all take the time to explore their own country!

Now I can stop trying to correct people for saying 'v' instead of 'b'.
I'm afraid I'm a bit of stickler when it comes to correct pronunciation.  I always remember
being told by a Spanish estate agent that he often found it impossible to understand
what some of us Brits were trying to say because our accents were so bad.  In such cases
he had to say, 'Please speak to me in English...I understand you better this way!'.

Meggie

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