ENG: A 'One Stop Shop' for Students of Catalan

Almost since I started this blog have I had the idea to compile a list of resources related to the Catalan and Spanish languages, respectively. However, at least for Catalan such a summary already exists and thanks to one of my readers I have found my way it: La calaixera de llengua i país.

La Calaixera means ‘the set of drawers’ and that is how this web page, created by the ajuntament de Girona, has been structured. On the main page you find boxes with labels like institutions and language, literature and language, learning the language and Catalan in the world and when you click on them you reach lists of links for each subject.

I will be a frequent user of La Calaixera for my own studies but in spite of a clean interface, I have some remarks. The first is that everything is set up in Catalan only. A mini-version in English with a focus on information which can be of use to beginners would certainly make it more user-friendly.

A more serious issue is that that many of the link lists are so extensive that you do not know where to start. Although I agree with the intention to present as many sources as possible, most users would be helped if there were some kind of rating or recommendation system. Why not ask those who click on a certain link to make an evaluation of how well it meets their expectations?

While looking forward to further development, step by step will I explore the current version of la Calaixera. Above all the link dictionaries and translators offers a lot of interesting tools.

- - -
Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia