I thought Spain was out of the Fascist era, but I do wonder sometimes. My eyes fell upon a short news article over the shoulder of a fellow metro passenger the other day. I had to read it three times before I was sure I really had the meaning clear. The news was that a court had allowed a couple to name their daughter Julieta. That shouldn’t really be news, right? But it is, because last year a judge had deemed such a name inappropriate for a child.

Last year the couple went through the courts in an attempt to be allowed to officially name their child Julieta, and in the end, they weren’t allowed to do so. The name was deemed to be a diminutive of Julia, thus the child should be registered as such. That would be like my parents being told that they couldn’t register me officially as “Katie” but only as “Catherine”. How ridiculous.

It is just the most extreme example I have encountered of what I would describe as a rather unhealthy fanaticism for following the rules. The other recent example has been the ridiculous amount of bureaucracy I have had to fumble my way through in order to enrol in the Official Language School here.

I won’t detail the height and circumference of every hoop I’ve had to jump through to enrol in the Spanish course, suffice to say it was reminiscent of the hurdles I encountered in getting an NIE. (The icing on that particular cake was being told my passport photos weren’t actually passport photo size).

The most pointless exercise in bureaucracy at the Official Language School is the “Level Test”. I had it understood that one sat the level test in order to be placed in the correct class, according to one’s knowledge of Spanish.

But, rather, it seems the level test can place you into levels one, two or three. To enter the fourth or fifth level courses you first have to sit the final exam for the third-stage course. Eh? And they wonder why there is a disproportionate number of people wanting to get into the third stage course.

Other posts by Katie Llanos-Small