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My uninformed answers.

Pretty sure if you are from there you speak it. I have relatives and friends who have immigrated there and they've all learned it.

Here's some lyrics that should show that Catálan and Spanish are different, I would guess it's enough to call them separate languages.

BTW: I think that Cátalan version has a couple errors in it, no?

 

Catalan is a Romance language alongside Italian, French, Romanian, Galician, Provençal, Castilian, and others. It actually has a longer history that Castilian. The first literary works in Catalan predate those written in Castilian. It is only during repression under Franco that Catalan became relegated to an outlaw language, creating the misconception among many that it is a "dialect" of other state-sanctioned official languages.

Because of Catalunya's autonomous status vis-a-vis the central state of Spain, Catalan is the only required language taught in schools. But all students must learn Catalan PLUS at least one other "foreign" language. "Spanish" (more properly, Castilian or castellano) is considered a foreign language by educational policy. Many young Catalans have elected to learn English as their second language instead of castellano.

However, not everyone in Barcelona speaks Catalan, as EvilSushi alleges. There are many immigrants from Latin America and other parts of Spain who survive in Barcelona without ever learning the language. However, if you live in Barcelona you will notice how Catalan is a subtle marker of class differences: native Catalans will often speak castellano to, say, the waiter or the housekeeper. By default, they will believe people in the service economy won't understand spoken Catalan because they assume these people are immigrants. Whether this form of interaction is condescending or accommodating is up to debate.

 

Absolutely majestic cross. Someone really should have got on the end of that.

 

Camp Nou saw an exceptional meeting of Quini, Amor and Messi who scored Barça’s 3000th, 4000th and 5000th League goals respectively.

 

They're both really close. Maybe if you combined both you'd have one Bojan.

 

"Ungrateful Bastard: The Samuel Eto'o Story"
Starring Denzel Washington​

But seriously, so the guy is doing some retirement planning aloud in the press. His contract ends in June 2010 and he knows he can leverage that either (1) to get a big fat contract extension, and in exchange Barça could command a big fat transfer fee, or (2) to not renew his contract and leave to the club of his choosing in summer 2010.

He's not too far off in believing that FCB's loyalty to him is limited, so he's just reciprocating that distrust. Credit to him for wanting to go play where he feels welcome, instead of for the highest bidder. Anyway, he only mentions Mallorca and Marseille as places he wants to retire.