Facebook in Catalan / Facebook en català

Those who follow blogs in Catalan cannot have missed the fact that Facebook is now available in this language. What started as an initiative by Internet activist Daniel García Peris, has resulted in an almost completed translation of Facebook’s main page and many of the related applications.

Rumour has it that one single person has translated over 25.000 words and as far as I can see, it has not yet been revealed who this person is. What is sure, however, is that this has been a collective effort: eight hundred people have contributed with translations, which then have been voted to select the most appropriate ones.

Facebook was considered the Internet phenomenon of the year in 2007, but Catalan Internet expert Saül Gordillo is right in pointing out that 2008 is the year when it is taking off in here. And that will increase the pressure for Facebook to accept Catalonia as a national, sorry, regional network. In order not to have to write Spain, Catalans tend to leave this space blank or select Andorra, since there Catalan is the official language.

Let us contrast this with Sweden: There are 860.274 members of the Sweden network (more than the double of the Spain network), but Facebook has not been translated into Swedish and I have, in fact, never heard anyone question that. There were some Swedes who fought to make the “is” in the answer to “what are you doing right now?” optional, so we did not have to have an English word in our answers, but that is about where the defence of our language ended.

As expats living in Catalonia we might differ in our views on the autonomous region’s political future – so do Catalans themselves – but here is one area where I think that we can all agree: civic activity to build the international recognition of the Catalan language is impressive.

Up-date: I have underestimated my fellow countrymen. There are not any longer 11 languages in Facebook, but 16. Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Czech (which I would need to practise more often) and Swedish (my mother toungue) have been added. Although I am tempted to change language I will stick with Catalan, at least for now.
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Vaig registrar-me al Facebook durant la tardor 2007 i em recordo haver pensat que jo era l’úlitm dels meus amics suecs a fer-ho. Al principi m’agradava això de retrobar coneguts amb qui havia perdut el contacte però després d’uns pocs mesos vaig començar a avorrir-me i el mateix li passava a altra gent. Evidentment amb excepcions – a la meva dona encara li fa gràcia d'omplir enquestes per finalmente rebre la resposta a la pregunta “Quin 'rapper' ets?”.

Confesso que mai vaig reflexionar dues vegades sobre el fet que la meva portada de Facebook era en anglès i que no es pot escollir la meva llengua, el suec. Al mon de la Xarxa sol ser així i no ho considero un gran problema. Tanmateix, ara he canviat al català, no perquè domino l'idioma tan bé com l’anglès sinó per veure tot que hi passarà amb, diguem, els vostres ulls i – possiblement - recuperar l’interès. El català és una de només 11 llengües per escollir i pot ser que aquest orgull faci que l’idea es mantingui viva durant més temps per aquí que a altres països.

Actualització: Ara, de sobte, existeix el Facebook en suec (més txec, danès, finès i portuguès) també i això significa que es manté l'interès entre molts suecs, si ja no entre tots. Però, els meus compatriotes han vingut amb retard - jo em quedo amb el català.