Andorra: Wait, Where Is That?

Be honest for a second, no one’s going to judge you. Do you know where Andorra is? What language do they speak there? There’s a good chance that you did not know the answer to those questions, and that’s okay. I didn’t until I studied abroad in Spain three years ago. Ever since hearing about it, I have wanted to visit, and I finally made those plans materialize a few weekends ago.

Like San Marino, the Vatican City, Liechtenstein, and Malta, Andorra is one of Europe’s postage stamp-sized countries that people often forget about or never learn about in the first place.

Andorra is nestled along the borders of France and Spain, up in the Pyrenees. For reference, Rhode Island is 3,140 square kilometers. Andorra is only 467 square kilometers, and yet it is its own country. I don’t know about you, but this fact to me was mind-blowing. The population is 77,000 people, which only about 3x the size of my hometown. In 2016, Arizona State University’s enrollment was 71,946!

While the size of Andorra is quite fascinating to me, what I find even more interesting is the linguistic structure of the country. If you guessed that people in Andorra speak Spanish, you’d be right. If you guessed that they speak French, you’d be right too. And if you guessed that they speak Catalan, you’d also be right. Andorra’s official language is Catalan, the language of Barcelona and the Catalunya region, but most people also speak Spanish fluently and varying amounts of French, English, and sometimes even Portuguese. All their schools are trilingual!

To say that I am jealous of Andorran students is a massive understatement. By the time they reach their equivalent of high school, most Andorran students speak at least a functional level of Catalan, Spanish, French, and English. They also can choose which school system to go through: the Andorra system, the French system, or the Spanish system. This helps ensure that students are prepared to go to university in other countries, since Andorra only has one university, founded in 1997. If you have any interest in Andorra, I can’t recommend it enough as a side trip from Barcelona or the south of France. The school system is truly unique, and if you’re interested in learning more about it, I recently read a great article that goes into the details and statistics of the school system. One impressive statistic I learned from this website is that Andorra has a 100% literacy rate!

Since I speak Spanish, English, and conversational French I thought that my experience in Andorra would be multi-lingual, and I have never been more right. On our first day there I ordered a coffee, and the conversation started in Catalan, which I explained in Spanish that I do not speak, then it proceeded in Spanish, with some English words mixed in, and finally ended with a French “Merci.” I was told that this is the common way to say “thank you” in Andorra even if the rest of the conversation has been in Catalan, English, or Spanish. It made my bilingualism feel insufficient and embarrassing.

Andorra as a community and culture has existed for hundreds of years, but its constitution was only adopted in 1993, making Andorra an official country. People always talk about how the United States is a young country, but here is a country that is essentially as old as I am.

Furthermore, Andorra is a strange mix of modern architecture and hundred year old stone houses and churches all sitting an valley surrounded by the snow-capped Pyrenees. The country has no sale tax, so it is very popular as a shopping destination, something that I definitely took advantage of. I had to tell myself multiple times not to buy another leather coat at Zara even though it was genuine leather at only €29. It is also a popular ski and spa destination, which being a broke English teacher, I was unfortunately not able to partake in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, we did do a bit of hiking in the mountains, which was refreshing since my days in Logroño consist of apartment –> bus –> school –> grocery store –> apartment. Andorra is definitely in the back of my mind as a place that I could see myself coming back to live in, or possibly retire in.

 

The houses outside the main city of Andorra-la-Vella, were gorgeous, and I was told they usually are blocked off by snow for months every year, which sounds great to my anti-social brain. There were scruffy horses, wild and domestic, munching on grass in mountainous valleys and next to crystal clear rivers. It truly is one of the most beautiful and unique places I’ve ever been. Getting there unfortunately required an overnight bus from Logroño, a bus which was filled with people practically shouting all night in Portuguese and Catalan.

But it was still a small price to pay for a weekend of being an Andorran. Seriously, though, go tell everyone you know about Andorra, because the amount to which it is overlooked is criminal.