Interview with Iñigo Rosa Rodero

by Reka Szabo

I was sitting with Iñigo at the Immigration Office of Miskolc. I found it a good opportunity to get to know him better, so I asked him a couple of questions.

 

It is nice to meet you for the first time. I was looking forward to it.

Nice to meet you, too.

Can I ask you some questions?

Yeah, of course.

Where are you from exactly?

I’m from North Spain.

I see. And how old are you?

I am 21.

Why did you come here to study? Did you have any choice or was it random?

Honestly, I chose Hungary. I like Budapest and I wanted to go there, but it didn’t turn out that way so I came to Miskolc. But I did not regret it. I like to travel and I wanted to get familiar with the eastern side of Europe.

That’s nice to hear. How do you feel about the Hungarian language?

Well, it is weird a bit. It has so many different vowels and I really cannot tell the difference yet. (laughs)

Yeah, I got your problem, but you’ll get used to them.

I hope so.

Do you speak any other languages besides Spanish and English?

Yes, as I’m from North Spain, I speak Basque.

That’s good. And what is your major?

I study economics.

So you really like numbers.

Yeah, I like them. (laughs)

Do you have any siblings?

Yes, I have an older brother and he also studied economics, so it is kind of a family thing.

I see. I know that you have two last names but on Facebook you only use one. Why?

Well, in Spain one last name comes from the mother and one from the father, but actually the first last name matters.

But which one will your child get? Do you get to choose or that is also the first one?

It is always the first last name, in my case it is Rosa. So basically I have many last names because of this tradition as both my parents have two names, but we only use the first last name.

Is this only your family or this tradition exists in the whole country?

The whole country.

I see, that’s really cool.

Is there anything you find weird about Hungarian youngsters?

Yeah, definitely. I see them drinking beer in the early hours and I’m, like, how can they do that? (laughs)

We are very well used to that. Well, thank you for answering my questions.

My pleasure.