As a Basque native, linguist, fluent in Spanish, English, French and a good knowledge of Basque: Catalan has many similarities with Spanish, but of course with many differences. I could understand most of a written Catalan (which also has several dialects) but not much of spoken Catalan. The one spoken in towns is much more complicated to understand, as the influence of Spanish is weaker. Everybody that speaks Catalan also speaks Spanish, and in cosmopolitan Barcelona you will find no issues with English in most places.

A side note: Spain has one official language, Castellano (as it´s called in the Constitution) or Spanish, and then there are 3 autonomous communities where they (we) also have other co-official language: Catalan in Catalonia (in Valencia and Majorca it´s also called "Valenciano" and "Mallorquín", with much controversy on if it´s the same language), Galician in northwestern Galicia (close to Spanish and Portuguese) and Basque in the Basque Country. As an anecdote, I got a question a few years ago on a travel forum about schedules for bilingual masses in Bilbao cathedral, the OP thought it was English and Spanish, and was really surprised when he attended a Basque and Spanish mass :)

Many Catalan don't want to speak Spanish anyway. It is not a big problem to get around with English only.

[QUOTE=bangkokexpat3048;17586350]Many Catalan don't want to speak Spanish anyway “

I never found that to be true. I speak Spanish ( Castellano) so do Catalans and many citizens of Barcelona who settled in the city from other areas of Spain.

Danon is right. You can get around just fine speaking Castellano (Spanish) in Barcelona. No one is going to expect a foreign tourist to speak Catalan. If You DO speak Catalan, you might get smiles and appreciation but few foreign visitors speak that language and since you will likely be encountering people in the hospitality industry, no one is going to expect you to speak Catalan..I would try to master it only if I were to stay a few months....
Except for elders in rural villages, I THINK that most people in Catalunya have good knowledge of Spanish.

Though I have no answers to the specific questions posed, I've been following these comments with some interest; for after several trips to Spain I still haven’t visited Barcelona, and I realize I should one of these days — and I would appreciate a good pragmatic excuse to study Catalan, which has a rich litereary heritage, and also a close affinity to Provençal and Occitan, which are also of great historic significance.

But while Catalan may be the major common language in Catalonia generally (and I don’t know that for a fact), I do wonder just how extensively Catalan is used in Barcelona itself. For Barcelona is a huge and economically significant city, and I’m sure that people from all over Spain, and perhaps from all over the EU, flock into Barcelona for those almighty Jobs — and only a tiny proportion of those persons, if any, will know Catalan. From which it follows that tourists attempting to speak Catalan in Barcelona may frequently find themselves speaking to people who don’t know Catalan themselves!

So I’m wondering whether I’m right about this, or whether I’m missing something. Will tourists who attempt Catalan in Barcelona usually find themselves communicating with native Catalan speakers? Ot might this be just too hard to judge?

In my experience most of the people that deal with tourists speak English. Some speak French. Some speak German. Some speak Italian. Most will use whatever they think you need.

If you stop a random person on a random residential street? They might speak Catalan to you. It's not a rare event. But unless you're lost in the suburbs language is a non issue.

I agree with Nick.

My guess is that very, very few foreign residents, and their number is huge, speak Catalan.

Master a few basic phrases..good morning, how are you, thank you....that's what I will do next time I go. I speak pretty fluent
Spanish and never had a problem in any area of Catalunya.

Thanks to Nick and eskcrunchy for answering my query, above, on Catalan in Barcelona. My course seems clear; whenever I'm able to make it to that city I’ll plan on using my Spanish (for I always try hard to avoid English), though I suspect that out of sheer interest I’ll seek to acquire as much basic Catalan as I can mange.