English only please, if only for a little while

    Many young people in Reus - and some who are not so young - are working hard to master English, which is, as any student whoever tried to diagram a sentence knows, a devilishly difficult language. The reason is not academic, it's economic: Spain's economy is in tatters these days and unemployment - depending upon whose figures you want to believe - is somewhere around 30 percent. As a result, many folks have come to the conclusion that being able to speak English in addition to Spanish and Catalan gives them greater access to jobs, both permanent and temporary.

    To help them practice their conversational English, there's a small bar not far from my apartment where on Thursday nights from 8 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. people can gather to talk to one another in this most-unfamiliar tongue, network and make a few new friends. My friend Elena and I have gone a few times and we've always found the group to be friendly so, following Thursday's chili luncheon, we stopped by last night.

    The conversation, as usual, was all over the place: Jobs (or the lack of them); what to do during the summer; plans for an upcoming marriage and honeymoon; family matters of every description and the like. It was, as always, very cool. Afterwards, nine of us went to get tapas but the restaurant owner refused to put a couple of tables together so we wound up having late-night crepes instead... actually, a better choice (in my opinion) because the crepes were great (and cheap.)

    If you're ever in Reus, stop in at this bar on a Thursday night and just join in. You'll like it, I promise...