“Language will be the sign, and school will be the tool,” Pierre Vilar
“Each language lost is a man’s and world’s vision that disappears,” Octavio Paz
In the world, there are about 6.800 languages distributed in 220 states. The Catalan language is in the 88th position, comparable to Swedish, Greek, Bulgarian, or Czech, to just mention other European languages. Also, use of the Catalan language on the Web is about 3%, higher than Greek (2.7%), Hungarian (1.7%), Finnish (2.8%), and way more than other languages like Serbo-Croatian (1%), Slovakian (1.2%), Slovenian (0.8%), and Ukrainian (0.9%). Among the thirty most used languages on the Internet, there isn’t any other language not represented by an independent nation other than Catalan.
Among the most used languages on the Internet, English goes first (35.8%). Chinese is the second language, but only reaching 14.1%. Spanish, the third one, is in the 9%. German is around 7%, and French is at 3.8%. So then, going back to the issue of how useful Catalan is–according to the numbers—Catalan on the Internet is, in relative terms, more significant than Spanish. Starting with the number of documents written in Catalan with the domain .cat, the official ranking puts Catalan in fifth position, only exceeded by the domains .org, .is (Iceland), .cz (Czech) and .ca (Canada), and very close to .fr (France) and .hr (Croatia). It’s not surprising that the domain .cat is used as a matter of fact by giants like Google, especially given that it’s considered the second safest domain in the world. This position is not by chance, but the result of relentless efforts by Catalan individuals to create for themselves a free and equal space in the world.
In order to get to this point, the Catalan Parliament, with the little power it had, enacted the 1983 Language Standardization Law with a very explicit requirement (Article 15.5) that “pupils cannot be separated in different schools by reason of language.” To make possible the integration with equality and respect, it was necessary to find ways to make this socially and educationally viable. The agreements reached after the long anti-Francoist resistance, together with those spontaneously adopted during the transition to democracy, and also with the implementation of programs copied from other countries with similar linguistic situations, allowed the building of a successful native methodological and educational model, backed by educators and linguists, as well as by the UNESCO.
Even so, during those 30 years, different attacks have been brought against this model and all actions driven to recover the space of the Catalan language in its social use, a space that Catalan shouldn’t have lost if it hadn’t suffered the consequences of a persecution that has lasted for centuries. School, in particular, and Catalan society in general, have a very acceptable social unity that can be called exceptional if we consider the strong impact of immigration coming from other Spanish provinces during the Franco regime. In addition to that, we have to count the growth, in the early 1990s, of new migratory flows from East Europe, Magrib, Latin America and Asia, in high proportions, even higher to those received in countries with similar characteristics to Catalonia. This Catalonia, shaped with different ethnic groups and languages, has in its language, Catalan, the foundation for this social cohesion.
In Catalonia about 300 languages are spoken: Catalan, of course, Chinese, Spanish, Arab, Romanian, Russian, English, etc. Children from these linguistic communities have pedagogical guaranties that will allow them to acquire a perfect command of Catalan, which is the native language according to the Statute of Autonomy, of Spanish, co-official with Catalan, and of a third language (mostly English). The immersion process is the key element that ensures the linguistic interdependence, especially among those children with a mother tongue different from Catalan. As mentioned above, this model, impeccable in methodological and educational terms, and fully backed by the scientific community (European Framework of Languages), and consolidated in the educational community (families, teachers and pupils), is once more threatened. A complaint brought forth by three families was sent to the Spanish Supreme Court, who ruled three sentences putting the Catalan linguistic school model in question, and threatening to undo all the advances gained. Obviously, the complaint is not backed by any methodological or educational consideration, but clearly follows the political agenda by the far right and those groups yearning for an Imperial Spain and the annihilation of the Catalan language and culture.
As mentioned in previous paragraphs, this pedagogical model is endorsed by UNESCO, has the support of the European Framework of Languages and the 2009 PISA report from the OCDE, as it doesn’t violate equal opportunity and access to schooling. Against that, the platforms supporting these three families have proven connections with extreme right organizations. For example: the same attorney defending the case in favor of the withdrawal of the sentence against neonazi Pedro Varela (owner of a bookstore in Barcelona that sells fascist and totalitarian propaganda) is the same who represents the interests of the three families against Catalan schools. The issue is easy: although they try to pretend to defend it, they are not interested in a bilingual Catalonia. They want a monolingual Catalonia—one tat speaks Spanish only. This goal is what concentrates all the destructive dynamics of those groups.
This explanation doesn’t come from a subjective position adopted by Help Catalonia to exacerbate confrontation, on the contrary. Evidence is significant enough. To cite another example, we can make reference to the Valencian Country (a community where Catalan has been spoken for a long time, but administratively autonomous from Catalonia within Spain), where its law envisages a bilingual school according to family choice. This is only theoretically, because in the present reality, more than 125,953 students won’t be able to be educated in Catalan and will be forced to study in Spanish.
In other words: three families can question a full educational system but, in other areas, more convenient to Popular Party’s interests (with absolute majority in the Valencian Country), the current legislation is violated with impunity. So then, why is the Supreme Court’s response not the same in both cases?
On the other hand hand, Catalan society has tolerant and conciliatory tendencies, based on the Catalan language as a vehicle of social relation, and respectful with the other languages coexisting in the territory.
A Language, a School, a Country: this is the slogan used at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year, where every school and high school will wear this proclamation on banners situated on their façades. At the same time, all the local Councils will approve a vote of rejection against the interlocutory of the Spanish Supreme Justice Court that wants to assimilate the sentences by the Spanish Superior Justice Court with the sole intention of finishing with thirty years of a successful pedagogical model and, at the same time, with a native educational model. All this will be used to have case laws to extend it to the other spheres where normality milestones have been achieved.
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