Stereotypes often have a negative connotation and are something to avoid. However, sometimes they can be nice if they are used with respect and, of course, always for humorous purposes.
This is precisely one of the most successful formats on networks, and the one that the TikTok user @tecuentomividasoyvirgo often used in his most viral videos. Recently, the Catalan woman has published a video in which she stereotypes the image that the inhabitants of her autonomous community project in the rest of Spain.
«You are Catalan when…». That is the premise of the publication, a sequence of different prototypical situations which a Catalan faces every day. The first example is not to stop saying ‘merci’ all the time. This word, although it is not even Catalan and means ‘thank you’ in French, is widely used in the autonomous community, despite not being official.
Another situation that is parodied is the lexical confusion with ‘turning on the light’. In this case, it is typical for those who usually speak Catalan to say ‘open the light’, since in this language both verbs are correct to express this action. The same thing happens with ‘I’m coming’, which many Catalans use instead of ‘I’m coming’.
Other topics that can be seen in the video are the topic of dividing the bill at a restaurant, to which the user responds by overreacting that no, that “to each his own”or also the preference for using ‘I love you’ before ‘I love you’ in a romantic relationship.
«The bilingualism of…»
Moving on to the gastronomic side, @tecuentomividasoyvirgo also laughs at the conception that many Spaniards outside of Catalonia have about bread with tomato. In this regard, he shows the camera a piece of bread with a thin layer of this fruit spread on it, and looks at it with a disgusted face. For Catalans, pan con tomato should be made with good bread with a crusty and toasted crust, lots of tomato and the best extra virgin olive oil available.
Another common confusion for bilinguals, as reflected in the video, is the very specific words that are rarely used in everyday life and that are radically different in both languages. This usually happens especially with types of plants, mushrooms, birds, etc. And it is very common for Catalans to know the word in only one of the two languages, but have a hard time translating it (it happens in both directions).
Precisely, @tecuentomividasoyvirgo, refers to this type of confusion at one point in the video, when he assures that “he loves stew, but without ‘cigrons’.” Then, he stays for a while thinking what ‘cigrons’ is in Spanish, until they have to tell him that it is ‘garbanzos’. “The bilingualism of the…” he jokes.
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