On Having Passed the C-level Exam of the Catalan Language

Last week I received an important letter from the Secretaria de Política Lingüística of the Generalitat. I knew that it would reveal the results of my 2009 C-level exam of the Catalan language (Certificat de nivell de suficiència de català - C), and it certainly felt like a victory to see the word apte (pass) next to my name. Now, some days later, I realize that the consequences go beyond that pass.

The registration process and test for the C-level exam is similar to that of level B, which I described last year. The big difference lies in what you can do with the diploma. The C-level does not seem overly attractive when you hear that it is equivalent of having completed the full primary school (ESO) course of Catalan in the modern version of the local school system. However, at the same time, the C-level is the established minimum requirement for most positions in the education and civil service of this autonomous community, and therefore coveted also by older Catalans and - even more - native speakers of Spanish who have moved here.

An example of this is a friend of mine who was born in the same year as I - but here and not in Sweden - and who has checked up which qualifications he needs to become a teacher in case he would lose his job as an engineer. The only thing he lacks is the C-level. This, in my eyes, feels odd since Catalan is his mother toungue, but it is a fact that local people as late as my generation suffer from the aftermath of the ban on using Catalan in schools, firmly in place during the Franco dictatorship. From the perspective of the language, that is nothing but a tragedy. However, for us foreigners, it is also an opportunity much too good to miss. How many other cultures offer newcomers the chance to, with a reasonable but not extreme effort, achieve a language certificate highly valued also by the local inhabitants? In that sense, my exam result confirms that I am not an outsider any longer.

It also stresses that I must not be ashamed of my broken Catalan. From now on, I must stop allowing people to switch to Spanish as soon as I make a mistake. True, my Spanish is still better, but I now have a formal proof that my Catalan is "sufficiently" good. It will not develop further unless I force myself to use it even when I talk about complicated matters. I am aware that more than once will this lead in funny situations where I persist in speaking Catalan to locals as determined to help by answering in Spanish. That fight is the price I will have to pay for proficiency and it is a duty I have to all students of Catalan on lower levels.

Passing the C-level exam will not be the beginning of the end of my Catalan studies. Rather the opposite - in a very refreshing way it marks the end of the beginning. And I feel more motivated than ever.

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Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia, Spain, Spanish, Vilanova, Wirdheim

ENG: On “La plaça del Diamant” by a Student of Catalan

Now 70 years ago, when Franco’s troops invaded Catalonia, many people decided to go into exile. Among them was Mercè Rodoreda who later wrote La plaça del Diamant (published in English as “The Time of the Doves”) – generally considered one of the best books about the changing fortunes of a human being before, during and after the Spanish Civil War.

La plaça del Diamant takes place in Barcelona, where young Natàlia lets other people steer her life. At a dance she meets Quimet and already before she has fallen in love with him, has he persuaded her to break up with her fiancé and to marry him instead. Natàlia accepts that Quimet decides to call her Colometa, instead of using her real name, and that he turns their apartment into a pigeon shed, although she is not at all found of the birds and although he never seems to be able to make any money from selling what they breed.

The story is told in the form a long monologue, with the advantage that we can always follow Natàlia’s reactions to what happens and is being said around her. However, at least for non-native speakers, Rodoreda’s long sentences - often broken up with several sub-clauses and inserted quotations – can be quite a challenge. In the passage below Natàlia’s mother-in-law comes to look at the doves, which her son and grand son have been talking so much about:

“La mare d’en Quimet, que la veia molt poc perquè s’anava fent vella de pressa i venir a veure’ns era un viatge massa llarg i jo no tenia temps d’anar-la a veure els diumenges, un dia es va presentar perquè va dir que volia veure els coloms, que en Quimet i els nens quan l’anaven a veure, no pas massa sovint va dir queixant-se, només li parlaven dels coloms i que aviat es farien rics i el nen li deia que els coloms el seguien i que ell i la Rita els parlaven com si fossin els seus germanets.”

I must admit that I did not feel comfortable with this style at the beginning of the book and only when the plot captured me did I finally start to appreciate it. At least for non-Spanish students of Catalan do I recommend that you wait with this book until you have passed the Generalitat’s B-level exam. This is far from easy reading.

Having said that, this is a touching story taking place in a war which still haunts Spanish society, so anyone interested in Catalonia or Spain should pick up one of the many translations available. Rarely have I come so close to understanding when a parent can in fact kill his or her own children as when I read the chapters where Natàlia - on the brink of starvation - contemplates doing so. And, so typical for her, it is not her own actions or decisions, but a mere coincidence which stops her from proceeding with her plans.

ENG: The Problem Behind the Catalan Normalisation Campaigns

My father is an advanced hobby carpenter, an interest which I cannot say that I share. Whenever he explains the benefits of a certain tool, I feel lost in his enthusiasm. Not because I do not understand the meaning of his words, but because I have never faced the problems which he can now solve.

I am confident that many foreigners feel the same about the policies related to the “normalització lingüística”. As immigrants in Catalonia we rapidly come across manifestations of the support for the Catalan language, but how often are we reminded about why a large majority of Catalan voters think that they still need to be in place or even reinforced?

An overview of the problem can be found in ‘Amb llengua o sense’ - a collection of articles by journalist and comedian Toni Soler. All texts were originally published in Spanish in LaVanguardia so there is no doubt that the author is completely bilingual, but he is above all proud of his mother tongue and therefore worried about its future.

I would say that the historical reasons for his concerns are those we foreigners know the best. Especially Latin Americans ought to have insight into how the Spanish crown used to deal with minority languages (Toni Soler cannot help joking about the ‘laudable cosmopolitan spirit’ which the American Indians once showed when changing for Spanish - so different from those stubborn Catalans). However, while most of us are content to know that the official oppression of Catalan ended after the Franco dictatorship, Toni Soler reminds us that it is not yet the everyday language of the masses of Catalonia, a status which it used to have as late as 100 years ago.

On top of that, two modern phenomena work to Catalan’s disadvantage. The first threat is the market forces; Spanish dominates media since a much bigger number of consumers can be reached in that language. The second one is immigration or, to be more precise, how immigrants integrate into their adopted country. Spain is among the EU countries which attract the most immigrants many of them settle down in Catalonia. Since Spanish, de facto, is the first and often only language of integration - especially so in the metropolitan area of Barcelona – Catalan is losing ground.

It is worth highlighting that Toni Soler disagrees with politicians who criticise foreigners for not learning the llengua pròpia. Instead, he asks why immigrants would want to learn Catalan and he answers himself that to give them a reason to do so is a task for the native speakers of the language (“Donar-los un motiu és cosa nostra.”)

After having convinced us about the uncertain future of Catalan, it is easy for Toni Soler to defend the needs for a positive discrimination of the language and call on politicians not to shy away from admitting that that is what today’s linguistic policies are about. I totally agree – once we immigrants understand the problem we will be much faster to accept the solutions.

A parallell can be made with my native Sweden: all Swedish politicians agree that it is not good if immigrants live in communities where they do not have daily contact with the Swedish language. Not by any standards could such a situation be justified by the fact that many of them speak English, that is, not if the goal is to integrate these newcomers. The efforts by Catalan politicians to build a united community are the same, but to integrate new comers into a bilingual context these must accept to learn two languages. If one of them is already much stronger (Spanish), I consider it logic to spend all public funds on the weaker one (Catalan).

I suggest that the Generalitat urgently commission Toni Soler to sum up his positive defence of Catalan in a short pamphlet to be handed out to all immigrants. It must include historical references supporting his message, but ought to be free from comments on day-to-day politics, since that will only confuse newcomers. And it must be printed in Spanish, English and Arabic, but not in Catalan. Catalan is not yet a language of integration into Catalonia. To acknowledge that problem is a necessary starting point if we want to improve the future perspectives of this language.

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Book details: ‘Amb llengua o sense – per què dimonis continuem parlant català?’ by Toni Soler, Columna 2008.

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If presented in a more straight forward language, as advocated by Toni Soler, I trust that immigrants would have a much bigger understanding of why Catalan needs to be the first language in the school system. That debate is as active as ever: LaVanguardia 1, Avui 1.

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Technorati tags: Barcelona, Bilingualism, Catalan, Catalonia, Spain, Spanish, Vilanova, Wirdheim

ENG: European Praise for Catalan Language Policies

Far too many expats living in Catalonia have negative opinions about the language policies set up to revive the everyday use of the Catalan language, the so called normalització lingüística. I am therefore happy to see that what most of us can agree to be a neutral body - an expert committee set up by the Council of Europe - offers new perspectives.

The purpose of their analysis was to see how far the recommendations of the European Language Charter of 1992 – an agreement to support the development of minority and regional languages, ratified by Spain in 2001 - have been implemented and the outcome is highly encouraging for Catalonia. The experts judge that education systems need to be based on a ‘total immersion’ in the co-official language and therefore fully justify, for example, the use of Catalan as the first language in schools here.

Among all Spanish areas with co-official languages, Catalonia received the most positive comments since only the judiciary plus some state authorities like Renfe (the railway system) and Correos (the post service) lag behind in the use of the co-official language. In the autonomous regions of Valencia and the Balearic Islands, on the other hand, the experts conclude that education in the local language is not comprehensive and also that the authorities there were unwilling to provide all information requested.

What we foreigners have the opportunity to experience in Catalonia is probably one of the world’s most successful projects to protect linguistic diversity. I think that we have all reason to be curious rather than critical.

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Yes, I plan to link this entry to other media sources and, yes, I would have wanted to present more hard data but I am constrained by the fact that we still do not have broadband connection from home. Next year, I keep telling myself, next year things will be better.

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Up-date: Here are the sources: LaVanguardia 1, Avui 1,

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Technorati tags: Bilingualism, Catalan, Catalonia, Expat, Spain, Spanish, Wirdheim

ENG: World Premier: The First Catalan Condom

Press Release:

Condoms are good at adapting to your body, but so far they have not adapted to the linguistic realities of Spain. Now Catalans will have a condom which speaks their language. “This was long overdue”, says Erik Wirdheim, the Swedish entrepreneur behind the project.

The condom business is dominated by multinational companies with huge advertising budgets, but none of them communicates with Catalan speakers in their first language. “When infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases again increase among young people, condoms should be promoted in as many languages as possible, and certainly in Catalan”, says Erik Wirdheim. “Potentially there are 10 million Catalan speaking consumers and still – until now - product descriptions on condoms have only been available in Spanish.”

Erik Wirdheim’s company, Puck Import, S.L. (http://www.rfsu-spain.com/), is the official distributor in Spain and Andorra of RFSU - the leading condom brand in the Nordic countries. “So far we only sell small volumes but RFSU deserves better. Firstly, because our condoms go through more quality tests than those of the competitors. Secondly, because RFSU has an ethic profile – the profit is reinvested into an NGO which runs campaigns about sexual health.”

RFSU’s condoms in Catalan will be sold in pharmacies and specialty stores – “condonerias”. Until a Catalan web-page is launched, a list of where the products are for sale can be found on http://condonsisexe.blogspot.com/ . Already today are they available at La Condoneria on Plaça Sant Josep Oriol in Barcelona.

Erik Wirdheim entered as a partner of Puck Import, S.L. in November 2008 but since 2005 he lives with his Swedish family in Vilanova i la Geltrú. This year he passed the Generalitat’s exams for the intermediate (B) level of Catalan.

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Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia, Spain, Spanish, Vilanova, Wirdheim

ENG: Addressing Both Men and Women

Ciutadans i ciutadanes! When I was first interested in Catalan I thought a lot about why Catalans tend to address unknown groups of people in both masculine and feminine form. While you might come across this also in Spanish, in Catalan it is more or less standard. Then I got used to it and guess that I explained it to myself by Catalans partly being, and even more so thinking of themselves as, more progressive than the stereotype Spaniard.

Therefore, an article by Pere Marsé i Ferrer in a recent issue of our local Diari de Vilanova served as an eye opener. The author reminds us that Catalan like other Romance languages solved this issue long ago, by letting the masculine form serve for both sexes when a group of people is being addressed.

With an example from our own town – and let us remember that the official name is Vilanova i la Geltrú (Vilanova AND la Geltrú) – he underlines that although their intentions are often good, speakers who use both forms are not protected from discriminating anyone. If, for example, a cultural program only addresses the vilanovins and vilanovines, is that not a lack of respect for the geltrunencs and geltrunenques (the male and female residents of la Geltrú)? It is not easy to be politically correct.

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Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia, Spanish, Vilanova

ENG: Catalan in the News – 3

FC Barcelona is currently on a pre-season tour in the United States and, when going there, they decided not to travel by an LTU-plane, owned by Air Berlin. The club prefers not to comment on the matter, but the action is being interpreted as a protest against the German owned airline. Interestingly enough, FC Barcelona will only be able to recuperate 50% of what they had paid for the flight. This might be seen as a waste of money untypical for Catalans, but judging from blogger reactions it has been a great investment in public relations.
(Avui: 1; Examples of satisfied bloggers: 1, 2)

The Balearic islands have decided to come back as a partner of the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), which promotes the Catalan language and culture on the international level. In 2004, the PP government of the islands decided to leave the institute, but their current representative, Albert Moragues, has declared that that was only for political reasons. The financing of IRL is calculated based on the population of the geographical areas of which it is made up, currently Catalonia, the Balearic islands and Andorra. Other parts of the ‘Catalan Countries’ (Països Catalans) – the Franja del Ponent in Aragon, the autonomous community of Valencia, 'Northern Catalonia' (Pyrenées Orientales) in France and the city of Alghero on Sardinia (Italy) – are not yet partners of the institute. ( LaVanguardia: 1)

The Catalan supermarket group BonPreu (store brands: BonPreu, Orangutan and Esclat) has joined the campaign “Speak to me in Catalan, please” (Si us plau, parla’m en català) and sent out 2.500 pins for their employees to wear on a voluntary basis. It is a non-intrusive way for foreigners among the staff who want to learn the Catalan to remind customers not to switch to Spanish when they address them, and also an invitation to non-native Catalan speakers among the customers to try to use this language, although most of us are more fluent in Spanish. The group BonPreu is a bit of a pioneer in this area since text on their private label products are in Catalan. Maybe it is not surprising that our local BonPreu was the first store where felt comfortable to move over from Spanish to Catalan but, clar, that was long before this pin campaign. (Avui: 1)

On time for the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing, ‘TermCat’ – the Catalan centre of terminology – has made available of summary of terms to be used when reporting on different sport events. Here, among other things, we can learn that xaleco salvavides or jaqueta salvavides (two alternatives for life vest) are in fact castellanismes, while the correct expression in Catalan is armilla salvavides. Not only words influenced by Spanish are to be avoided – sport journalists should stop talking about mountain bikes, and instead write bicicleta tot terreny or, alternatively, BTT. Now that is joc net (fair play), is it not?

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Related earlier blog entries: Catalan in the News Part 1, Part 2

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Technorati tags: Catalan, Catalonia, Wirdheim

ENG: Passed the Test for Level B of Catalan

Since May 3, when I took the Generalitat’s level B (intermediate) test of Catalan have I waited for the results and yesterday, more or less exactly on the date when it had been promised, did I receive the letter from the Secretaria de Política Lingüística. 'Remarkable' (notable, in Catalan) was the grade I had obtained. Quite unexpected, indeed!

The letter from yesterday clearly states that it is not an official certificate, so now the next milestone is October 15, when I will be able to go and collect my diploma.

And after that it will soon be time to sign up for the level C (sufficiency) test for 2009. If the schedule is the same as this year, all applicants will have to register and make the payments in February although the actual tests take place only in May.

Winter, spring, summer and autumn – the cycle of the year. Can the pace of the Generalitat’s exam calendar have been set by a religious mystic?

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Technorati tags: Catalan, Wirdheim,

ENG: Catalan in the News – 2

Here is finally a new summary of news related to the Catalan language:

Aragon, to the crown of which Catalonia once used to belong, will carry out a language reform. Spanish will still be the only official language, but the autonomous community will be described as trilingual and the territory split into different parts based on which language was historically spoken there. The Catalan area will finally bear this name, a move which hopefully will end the tendency of some towns to give local names to the language – eg. “fragatí”, “tamarità” or “maellà” – in order to portray themelves as independent from the Catalan culture. (Avui 1)

Personally, I had hoped that the Manifiesto por la lengua común would have been forgotten by now, but recently Tele-5 signed it and offered the spokesmen of the ‘Manifiesto’ to use the TV-channel to promote their message. The Catalan Plataforma per la llengua considers this an attack on cultural diversity and requests Tele-5 to change this decision. If not, it will recommend people not to watch the channel and also to stop buying products from its sponsors. (Avui 1)

With a minimal margin (only 1 vote more than the required 3/5 majority), the French parliament has voted to modify the constitution and recognize a number of regional languages, among them Catalan, as parts of the cultural heritage. The reform does not give the languages official status, but aims to guarantee that they be preserved and allows for them to be used in education. In its support for regional languages, the state of France is far behind that of Spain but this change, proposed by president Nicolas Zarkozy, is a step in the right direction. (Avui 1, 2; VilaWeb 1)

From October 2008, the European Parliament will finally live up to its parole that languages are the assets of Europe, and add Catalan among the languages on its web-page. EU officials claim that this measure does not have anything to do with the fact that 27-year-old Miquel Català (web) on his own initiative had made available an 'as if' version already including translations of most texts. (Avui 1)

A few days ago in Barcelona, the Plataforma per la llengua arranged a high-profile meeting with the slogan “El català, llengua comuna” (Catalan, our common language) and Jordi Pujol and other well-known CiU and Esquerra politicians among the speakers. The purpose was to motivate newcomers to Catalonia to use Catalan as a language for everyday communication. We Swedes were not among the 22 groups of immigrants which co-organised the event, but let us all be happy for that. If I had had to perform a “Swedish” schottische, my face would have revealed that I consider our dance even less exciting than the Catalan sardana. Below you find a YouTube clip made to spread message from the meeting. I would not say that I like the presentation, but I do support the objectives of the initiative. And you can always focus on the nice background music. (Avui 1)



Technorati tags: Barcelona, Bilingualism, Catalan, Catalonia, Spanish, Wirdheim,
Related entries on this blog: Catalan in the News - 1

CAT: Un repte per a mi, com també per al president

De "fer-ho cada dia millor" va prometre el president Montilla a la cloenda del congrés de PSC, com una reacció a la crítica que va rebre d’en Felip Puig (CDC) sobre la seva manera de parlar el català.

Si el president segueix millorant el seu nivell, el mateix que estic fent jo, no es podria fer un repte d’això? Jo penso que sí. Llavors, des d’ara estudiaré amb l’objectiu de parlar millor que el president del país. Sortint d’aquí a dos anys (a juliol de 2010) hauré d’estar preparat per exposar-me a comparacions.

Malgrat els comentaris negatius que hi va va fer en Puig, el president té grans avantatges al tema de pronunciació i intonació. A més, per tenir el castellà com la seva llengua maternal, no ha de dedicar tant de temps a la gramàtica – sobre tot no al subjuntiu que ens complica tant la vida als estrangers germànics. Per a mi és un repte molt dur però això no importa. Si no guanyaré a l'hora de la prova, almenys hauré millorat radicalment la meva llengua.

I ja el procés em confirmarà una hipòtesi que vaig formular durant els últims dies: que en Puig - per ser bilingüe - està menyspreant la qualitat que ja té el català del president. Els meus amics reconeixen que en Montilla parla millor ara que abans i m’identifico am ell, ja que ambdos som monolingües. De seguir fent l’esforç, tot i que sabem que mai pujarem a la primera del català sinó que per a sempre jugarem a lligues inferiors – això és un repte en si. La majoría dels adults del món es rendeixen amb menys resistència.
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Related media: Avui 1; LaVanguardia 1, 2, 3
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Technorati tags: Bilingualism, Català, Catalan, Montilla, Multilingualism

ENG: Phonetic Writing

B A L E
A M K U B I
D A R A S

These were the letters my five year old had written on a piece of paper. To me they made about as much sense as those of a sight test at the optician’s, but my son explained that it was an important message. “You see, I want to go to my friend’s birthday party, so I have written that he must invite me: 'Em convidaràs, vale?'" (“You will invite me, will you not?”, in Catalan).

He had started writing “Em convidaràs” to far down on the paper and, therefore, put “vale” on top. Word order does not matter, does it? “Vale” is a castellanisme, but why should he not use it, when everybody else here does? And, of course, he writes “vale” with a /b/ and not a /v/, since that is how Catalans just like Spanish speakers tend to pronounce the word.

The sentence has many orthographic errors, but if we disregard an /n/ which has been left out, it is phonetically correct. I have had to learn to pronounce the pronoun “em” (‘me’) as “am”, but my son will one day have to learn the opposite, i.e. that you do not spell it as you pronounce it. While I have to remind myself to pronounce an unstressed /o/ as /u/, my son will never have that problem. Finally, we have the /k/ where with the time he will have to learn that this sound is written /k/ in Swedish and /c/ in Catalan. And, afterwards, that this is a general rule to which both languages have plenty of exceptions.

ENG: Catalan in the Constitutional Court

On August 9, 2006, the new statute of autonomy (l’Estatut) of Catalonia officially came into power, but still today many aspects of the Generalitat's new authority reamain to be developed. This is largely due to a need to agree on all details, where the Spanish state does not see the same urgency as Catalan politicians do to reach agreements. Other reforms can only be carried out after changes have been made to how public funds are shared among the autonomous communities, another process which has started but is expected to take time. Finally, seven articles of the text are currently being examined by the Spanish Constitutional Court (CC) to establish whether they are constitutional or not.

The role of the Catalan language is one of the areas where CC might want to make clarifications. Fortunately enough for those of us who support the existing integrated and bilingual school system of Catalonia, it is unlikely that CC demands this to be changed for one where students can choose between Spanish or Catalan. However, there seem to be reluctance to acknowledge Catalan the status as the preferential language (lengua de uso normal y preferente, in Spanish) of the administration and judiciary.

Personally, one the one hand, I consider it natural that civil servants be operational in Catalan, but at the same time would not want for the courts to run bigger back-logs of pending cases than they already do, by demanding that judges give priority to documenting their language level. Since here CC’s revision is rather about how to interpret the text than its actual wording, I trust that common sense will prevail.

And, in the end, the article in LaVanguardia which inspired this entry suggests that this is all politics. Or was it pure coincidence that the Manifiesto por la lengua común happened to be issued when CC started to discuss the role of the Catalan language?
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Up-Date: Maybe I should stop being irritated with myself for not having understood the implementation process of the Estatut. In Avui today (July 21, 2008), Iu Forn makes an ironic comment about how difficult it would be to explain it to someone from Mars.
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Acknowledgement: Thanks to a comment from a reader, I have been able to improve on the quality of this text. Personally I do not yet understand how big modifications CC can possibly make, so further support on that matter, as well as all other corrections, are highly appreciated.
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Related media: LaVanguardia 1 2
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Technorati tags: Bilingualism, Catalonia, Spain,

ENG: Documenting my Language Level

Today I have a reason to come back to the Penedesfera meeting which was held in Gelida, June 13-14, since the recordings of the round table discussions have been up-loaded. The one I took part in had the name “the Penedes blogging culture” and, by chance, was I first out of all presenters.

The old management phrase ‘Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance’ comes to my mind when I see how I struggle with the computer and my only defence is that we all did. And, at the end of the day, this was my first presentation ever in Catalan, so I guess that I did not do too badly.

For all my pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar mistakes, the file serves as a document of the language level which I have reached after 2,5 years’ daily exposure to Catalan followed by 1 year of active studies. It would have been interesting to compare it with my other languages. What a pity I do not have videos of those.

(Elteuvideo.cat does not allow for direct hyperlinks, so in case you would want to watch the video, look for it under ‘Videos de la Penedesfera’ and download the file related to ‘Cultura blocaire al Penedès’. Alternatively, click the vimeo link of the entry in Catalan.)

Technorati tags: Catalan, Vilanova, Penedesfera, Wirdheim

Catalan in the News / El català a les noticies

In Sweden, news related to the Swedish language rarely makes big headlines in media. Here in Catalonia it is the other way around. Language issues are regularly being used as a starting point for political debate, and since I take interest in following this, every now and then I will make a summary for those who do not follow Spanish and Catalan media on a regular basis. Here is what has happened during the last few days:

The 'manifiesto por la lengua común' was started off by a group of intellectuals close to Rosa Díez’s party UPyD, who originally seemed to want to maintain a politically independent profile. However, conservative PP was fast to join the manifesto while Zapatero’s PSOE has taken the opposite position (defending the co-official languages and citing Catalonia as Spain’s best example of language policies for bilingualism). By allowing itself to be identified with one of the two main forces of Spanish politics, I am convinced that the manifesto will lose any opportunity to gain a broad appeal in the Spanish society.

This weekend, branches of PP held congresses in the autonomous regions the Balearic Islands and Catalunya. In Catalunya, Alicia Sánchez-Camacho was elected the new regional leader. Her main opponent, Montserrat Nebrera, managed to win a surprisingly strong support (43% of the delegates) and since her candidacy was largely a protest against the local PP organization taking orders from Madrid, some interpret the nomination of Camacho-Sánchez as signal that PPC will not change to be more Catalan (I have not yet found sources worth quoting which support that idea). On the other hand, in the Balearic Islands, the re-election of Rosa Estaràs was a small victory for the Catalan language, since her opponent, Carlos Delgado had built his campaign on ridiculizing the co-official language.

The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Catalunya (TSJC) has ruled that the Generalitat has to implement a law by the Spanish parliament to introduce a third hour of Spanish into the curriculum of primària 3 (pupils at the age of 8). However, most likely the change can be postponed to the school year 2009-2010 – a necessity for Montilla’s three-party government, which coalition member Esquerra threatens to leave if the measures are carried out. Both Catalan nationalist parties, Esquerra, on the left, and CiU, on the right, see the law to strengthen the role of Spanish in Catalan schools as symbolic, since they do not want the central government to overrule the one of Catalonia on issues of this kind.

Up-date: Convivencia Cívica Catalana, the organization which originally brought the issue of 'the third hour of Spanish' to TSJC, has decided to warn Ernest Maragall, Catalan councillor of Education, that he risks being disqualified from his functions unless he complies with the TSJC-ruling.
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Intentaré fer un breu resumen de noticies dels últims dies que d’una o altra manera influeixien o poden influir a la llengua catalana. Ja que seguint els enllaços podeu trobar els articles originals, en català em limito a fer un curt comentari.

Penso que el 'manifiesto por la lengua común' perdrà tota possibilitat d’atreure simpatitzants fora dels partits polítics, després de que van acceptar el soport de PP amb la conseqüencia que PSOE s’ha declarat en contra. (LaVanguardia 1; Avui 1, 2)

Les candidates a liderar el PPC van competir en catalanitat i he sentit comentaris que la victoria de la Camacho-Sánchez significa la continuïtat d’una política negativa a la llengua catalana, però fins ara no he pogut trobar fiables fonts d’informació que confirmen que la candidata alternativa, la Montserrat Nebrera, estigués millor d’aquest punt de vista. Alhora, que la Rosa Estaràs va guanyar sobre el Carlos Delgado sí és una petita victoria per al català a les Illes Balears. (LaVanguardia 1, 2; Avui 1)

Sembla que amb el verdicte del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Catalunya (TSJC), el Govern haurà d’implentar la tercera hora del castellà. No obstant això, segons interpreta la decisió en Joan Ridao d’Esqurra, les mesures poden esperar fins a l’any 2009-10 amb la conseqüencia que en Montilla pugui evitar un crisi de Govern. (LaVanguardia 1,; Avui 1)

Actualització: Convivencia Cívica Catalana demana al conseller d'Ecucació, l'Ernest Maragall, que compleixi amb la resolució del TSJC perquè sino corre el risc d'estar inhabilitat de les seves funcions. (LaVanguardia 1)

Per al meu proper resumen, rebo amb molt interès cada mena de noticies relacionades amb la llengua catalana que mereix estar traduïda per a un públic internacional.

Technorati tags: Catalonia, Catalunya, Catalan, Català

The Odd Intellectualism of the 'Manifesto' / Intel•lectualisme estrany

In the expat community there are many people who consider that the Catalan language has a too strong role here and therefore can be assumed to agree with the Spanish intellectuals (Mario Vargas Llosa, Fernando Savater and others) who recently took the initiative to the Manifesto for the Common Language (manifiesto por la lengua común). Since I do not, I have decided to explain why.

The manifesto is a reaction against what it sees as discrimination of those who are monolingual in Spanish, but live in autonomous regions with a second language. Its message is that the regional governments should have the right to motivate people to learn the local language, but must not take for granted that they want to do so, let alone already know it. This in turn results in a demand for the public school system to guarantee that parents can place their children in Spanish speaking schools.

Still remembering how I felt when we came to Catalonia, I understand that people who only speak Spanish feel like outsiders here. However, in my eyes, the manifesto mixes up a cause with its consequences. I have never been answered in Catalan by staff of the public administration when I address them in Spanish (the opposite happens almost every day, i.e. that Catalans “help me” by answering in Spanish when they hear my broken Catalan). It has happened that a form which we have needed to fill out has only been available in Catalan but, with all respect, I cannot say that we have ever had any major difficulties in doing so. On the other hand, what admittedly can feel excluding in Catalonia is that you miss out on a lot of everyday communication – between neighbours, in the shops or on the radio – as long as you are not bilingual.

To actively build that bilingual common platform is the reason for the public school system being designed as it is. I have nothing against commercial forces but they do that children as young as our five-year-old see Spanish as the “cooler” and more attractive of the two languages. By starting in Catalan only and then step-by-step adding classes of Spanish, the education system balances out the languages so that pupils master them equally well by the age when they leave compulsory school. Tests on the state level confirm that students from Catalan schools are equally good at Spanish as those who have studied in monolingual autonomous regions.

When 86% of the Catalan voters choose parties who are in favour of the existing language policy, should we – who voluntarily have moved to what we know to be a bilingual area – say that they are wrong? I do not think so. To me this manifesto is an odd attempt to ‘normalise’ a monolingual way of living in a de facto bilingual society.
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“No reconoceremos a nadie el derecho a expidir certificados de españolidad”, ha declarat avui en José Blanco (PSOE). No sóc socialista, però diria que fins ara els seus comentaris és la millor defensa contra el ‘manifiesto por la llengua común’ que he vist.

Que nacionalistes com l’Àngel Colom agrupa el manifest amb les celebracions de la selecció espanyola de l’EuroCopa i hi veu un atac al país, és una reacció que puc entendre però lamento. En la Catalunya on visc jo hi ha un immens soport per la llengua pròpia i no vull que això es dilueixi per embolicar-se amb el desitj d’un estat própi que no comparteix tanta gent.

La lluita contra el manifest no guanyem per dirigir-nos a Madrid i protestar a veu alta, sinó per fomentar la societat bilingüe que ja existeix als carrers de les ciutats catalanes. Aquest intel·lectuals han invertit temps per crear un manifest per a comunitats autonomes com la nostra. Ara cal demonstrar-les que han malgastat la seva energia i que no el volem.

Pel poc temps que fa que pertanyo als catalanoparlants, penso que tinc un missatge a passar a aquests residents de Catalunya que encara no ho fan. La meva propera entrada sobre el tema escriuré en castellà.

Technorati tags: Catalonia, Catalunya, Catalan, Català

Ironia perduda / Air Berlin's Irony Lost on Me

Es diu que la gent dels Països Catalans vol productes i serveis amb descripcions en Català. En part és veritat això, però encara més volem tots gastar el menys possible. Per poder reduir els preus com ho han hagut de fer les línies aèries cal evitar tot que no incrementi la rendabilitat d’una empresa.

Parlar-los en Català als passatgers d’Air Berlin, que majoritariament són alemans, afegeix poc valor comercial ja que tampoc entenen els missatges en castellà que l’empresa ha de presentar per complir les exigències mínimes de l’Estat Espanyol. Així hauria pogut respondre en senyor Hunold al govern balear, quan no li va agradar la carta que li havia enviat.

En comptes d’això va publicar un article en aleman a la revista per als passatgers de la seva línia aèria – una mida que es pot qüestionar pel fet que la revista es llegeix per gent que no coneixen la situació d’aquí i per tant, pot ser, creuran que tot el que escriu un director general és correcte. Clar, ell pot defendre el seu texte per assenyalar que hi ha un dosi d’ironia, però què esperem més d’empresaris del seu nivell – que mostrin sensibilitat amb la societat on actuen o que siguin humoristics com columnistes?

Actualització: Esperem que les mesures que prendra la Plataforma per la Llengua es presentin d'una manera tan constructiva com l'iniciativa del Govern Balear.
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One of today’s main news in Catalonia is about Air Berlin’s managing director Joachim Hunold. Recently, he was upset when receiving a letter from the regional government of the Balearic Islands asking his company to address its passengers in Catalan as well as in Spanish. Instead of writing back, saying that Air Berlin already follows Spanish law and currently does not see the commercial benefit of training its staff in Catalan, Mr Hunold decided to comment on the letter in the airline’s inflight magazine.

In his article, Mr Hunold arguments against the creation of small, medieval style, nation states. I can only agree and that is why I consider it so important for existing states to recognize the role of regional languages and why I am disturbed by the fact that Mr Hunold ignores the linguistic reality of North Eastern Spain. "There are towns in Mallorca where the children do not speak Spanish any longer. In the schools, Spanish is just another foreign language”, he points out and some tourists might believe that he is right.

I do not have the details about the Balearic Islands, but to the parliament of Catalonia, almost 90% of the voters choose parties which are in favour of the current school system, where Catalan is the first language and Spanish the second one. The objective is for all students to speak both languages equally well not when they enter but when they leave compulsory school. Tests on the state level regularly confirm that students from Catalan schools master Spanish just as well as those who have studied in other parts of Spain. Compare that with their level of English and it becomes sadly easy to see that Spanish is not “just another foreign language”.

Mr Hunold must have had the intention to entertain when he wrote his article, if not I do not know how to interpret his comments that Platja de Palma does not sound as nice as Playa de Palma when pronounced by a German. The problem is that the irony was lost on the government of the Balearic Islands and that many Catalan speakers now feel offended. Can that really be in Air Berlin’s interest?

Up-date: And today, Friday, the Plataforma per la Llengua announce that they will take action to prove the commercial value of Catalan to Air Berlin.

Adaptabilitat portuguesa / Portuguese adaptability

Recentment, el parlament de Portugal va prendre la decisió de canviar l’ortografia del portugues amb l’objectiu que convingui amb la versió de Brazil. Això significa que s'adoptaran les lletres k, w i y i també que ja no s'escriuran consonants que no es pronuncien (desde ara cal escriure otimo en comptes de optimo).

Com es pot predir hi ha hagut protestes contra la reforma, però els politics van posar-se d’acord que les mesures simplificaran la comunicació entre els països que tenen el portuguès com llengua oficial i que la estandardització reforçarà el seu paper.

Tant de bo prenguin nota els defensors del valencià com llengua separada del català, la gent que no aceptan que la Unió Europea va anomenar-la català/valencià. Des d'el punt de vista purista entenc la seva crítica però que és més important - que una llengua s’utilitza per facilitar la comunicació o que s’escriu de la manera fonèticament i historicament més correcta? A mi em sembla que els portugueses van trobar el camí cap al futur.
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Portugal has recently decided to modify its orthography of the Portuguese language, by adopting the Brazilian way of spelling many words. Neither the introduction of the letters k, w and y, nor the removal of silent consonants (optimo will now be spelled otimo, since that is how it is pronounced) comes without protests, but a parliamentary majority has voted through the reform. The benefits are obvious – standardisation will increase the understanding between the states which has Portuguese as their official language and thereby strengthen its role in the world.

I cannot help making a comparison with Catalan, Valencian and the Balearic Catalan. Above all in Valencia, there are people who oppose that the European Union group Catalan and Valencian into one language. Although I admit that they have a point from a purist point of view, I am convinced that the more isolated a language becomes, the less people will take the trouble to learn it. With 230 million speakers, Portuguese is hardly a threatened language. If only the same could be said for Valencian.

Learning Catalan - What Is In It For Me ? / Com n'aprofito jo?

In Catalonia of today, there is a fine balance in the number of people who prefer Catalan to Spanish. The current weak position of the country’s own language (llengua pròpia), has one of its reasons in dictator Franco’s support to Andalusian families to move here. While back then there were active policies to make Catalonia more Spanish, today it is what we can call market forces that threaten the status of Catalan. Catalonia is the by far most popular destination for foreigners who move to Spain and, once here, these new inhabitants prefer Spanish to Catalan.

While small children will imitate any language being spoken in their daily environment, without questioning its usefulness, adult learners are much more rational in their language studies. It is therefore not surprising that only 12,7% of the immigrants to Catalonia learn to speak and write Catalan, while 75,7% answer that they are capable of speaking and writing Spanish.

Although I strongly recommend all foreign residents of Catalonia to learn Catalan, I understand that most people simply do not see this as a priority. Let us be honest: only if you want to integrate fully and understand local traditions as well as the political debate, does Catalan become a necessity. For all activities of daily life, Spanish is enough.

Since we arrived here, I do not know how many times I have heard politicians claim that the llengua pròpia is a tool for integration. Hopefully, the report on foreigners' language preferences, as presented in LaVanguardia today, can reveal the emptiness of such statements. Since there is a massive political majority in favour of supporting Catalan, it is time to re-think the current system and find new ways to motivate immigrants to learn the language.
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A mi no em sorpen que la majoria dels nouvinguts a Catalunya prefereixen el castellà al català. No defenso gens aquesta opnió, però l’entenc, ja que no fa falta saber parlar o escriure el català per organitzar-se la vida per aquí.

Personalment penso que cada persona que vé per aquí per quedar-se, té l’obligació d’aprendre el català. No obstant això, mentres que no es pot exigir per llei – el castellà també és llengua oficial de la comunitat autònoma – és necessari motivar-los als estrangers per que aprenguin les dues llengües.

No es podrian crear maneres de donar prioritat als estrangers que han arribat a un cert nivell de coneixement de la llengua? Per exemple, durant el proces d’incripció dels nens a les escoles es podria assignar uns punts adicionals a les families on els pares parlen la llengua pròpia.

Es parla molt del català com una "eina per l’integració", però això son paraules buides com demostra el meu cas. Abans de que no comprengués el català, el veia com molt difícil d’informar-me sobre la societat de Vilanova i la Geltrú. Ara quan ja el parlo més o menys bé, és veritat que puc aprendre moltes coses gràcies al català, però per arribar a aquest punt de coneixement vaig passar per tantes aferas que ja em sento integrat.

El que va motivar-me a mi d'aprendre l'idioma va ser el fet que el Diari de Vilanova s’escriu en català. Si haguessim viscut a Barcelona en comptes d’aquí, hauria pogut rebre tota l’informació sobre la vida local en castellà de LaVanguardia. Siguem honestos: això hauria retardat amb molt el meu aprentatge del català.

A Good Excuse / Moltes excuses

The last few weeks I have spent a big share of my time preparing for the Generalitat’s certificate of knowledge of Catalan and Saturday, May 3, was the day when I and all other people in Catalonia who are on the intermediate level (B) took our tests.

Here in Vilanova, out of 40 people who had signed up, there were only two of us who identified ourselves by NIE, the rest had DNIs, revealing that they were Spanish citizens. Most locals sign up for these exams by necessity – a great number of official positions stipulate that you have to possess a certain level of skills in Catalan, and many of those who went to school during the Franco years still do not do so. I have to admit that for me, the formal recognition of the language level were I consider that I belong, was not of such importance – I saw the test rather as a motivator not to relax in my studies.

With many of the other examinees being native speakers, it was the oral part which I feared the most. It represented only 20% of the total score, but you need to be accepted here in order to obtain an overall pass. Fortunately enough, the examiners made great efforts to reduce our nervousness and create a relaxed atmosphere. My feeling is that I got a pass, but even if I did not, this was the most enjoyable time of the whole exam process.

Before we came to the oral exam, we had already gone through the other four parts. At least as I understand it, the advantage with those is that you have the right to score below target on an individual part, as long as you have other ones which compensate in order for your total result to be over 60%.

In the listening comprehension part, I certainly felt much more confident with the multiple choice questions than with those where we had to write answer sentences by ourselves. The reading comprehension was not simple, but I still believe that it will be the part where I have my highest rate of correct answers. In my two texts of free composition – a letter to a friend and an argumentative article – I am convinced to have comparative advantages of not being an inexperienced writer, although my language as such is far from perfect. So it is in the final part, grammar and vocabulary, where I have the strongest doubts about my result. As if to make matters worse, we had to write all answers by pen, not pencil, so I had to return a totally messy answer booklet after having realized that I had put almost ten items in a row on the wrong line.

Not only did the exam take a good five hours to go through, the tests are only organised once a year. For those who plan to sign up for next year, I strongly advise you to go through the sample exam, to avoid surprises. And now I will have to keep my fingers crossed for quite some time – only by July 28 will the Generalitat publish our results.
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M’imagino que sóc a punt de perdre la vostra confiança. Més o menys directament després de comunicar la meva intenció d’escriure també en català, vaig haver de fer un gran descans. La primera raó n'era familiar. La meva avia que viu a Praga, la capital de la República Txeca, va celebrar el seu noranté aniversari i vaig anar-hi amb els dos nens. Al petit pis que la meva mare té allà no disposem de xarxa i la meva solució - que jo sortés sol per cercar un locutori d'internet mentres que els nens dormien amb els seus avis (doncs amb els meus pares) - no va tener gaire èxit. La segona raó era purament física – encara ara tinc amdos tendons d’Aquil·les greument inflamats. La tercera, finalment, era més bé profesional: el dissabte passat vaig presentar-me per la prova del certicat de nivell intermedi (B) de català.

Com va anar l’examen? A veure, més que res sofreixo per les respostes dolentes de què m'estic adonant tot el temps des de que vaig sortir de la sala del examen.

Si vaig intentar fer el millor possible? En tot cas, d'això no cap ningun dubte. Espero que hagi aprovat, però serà amb un marge molt just.

Two Languages/Dues Llengües

I have had this blog for more than a year and I feel that it is time for a change. Not long ago, I started a blog about Catalonia and Spain in Swedish, which makes it possible for me to write fast comments without having to worry too much about the quality of my language.

Now the time has come to revise Wirdheim in Vilanova as well. When I started this blog, I had two objectives, both related to integration. While I judge that I have been very successful with the first one - to learn more about Catalonia, our adopted country – I cannot say the same for the second objective - to create a meeting point for expats living in this town. Looking at statistics, this blog has more visitors from the USA than from the town of Vilanova. Visitors from Catalonia are in minority while those from the world beyond always dominate. That was not what I wanted and to change that, I have decided to add comments in Catalan as well. It will be more time consuming, but it can be done.

Since I would not have the patience to write the same text twice, I will give the languages different roles. In English, my intention will be to discuss about Catalonia in general and Vilanova i la Geltrú in particular for foreigners who plan to move here or who already live here. Naturally, also short term tourists might benefit from the content. My comments in Catalan will be reserved for questions and doubts and will, hopefully, provoke a bit of debate as I develop my skills in the language.

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Comentari en català: En les meves últimes entrades vaig afegir unes poques frases en català. Tot i que encara no m’arriba el vostre aplaudiment, he decidit formalitzar això com el nou format del bloc. La meva esperança és que serveixi com una invitació a la nostra ciutat adoptada (Vilanova i la Geltrú) i també a la resta dels Països Catalans per debatre les meves opinions.

Reconec, que encara em queda molt per aprendre del català, però el bloc pot donar-me una oportunitat adicional per practicar i utilitzar la vostra llengua. Sense intentar, sense equivocar-nos no tindrem èxit.