Bonnie Betanzos

Betanzos (pictured*) was among Spain's top 12 most beautiful villages according to an internet poll conducted by an unnamed national magazine earlier this year. It's well worth a visit if you fancy a quiet day out near Coruña.

The top 12 was as follows:

1. Albarracin (Teruel)
2. La Alberca (Salamanca)
3. Cudillero (Asturias)
4. Aínsa (Huesca)
5. Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz)
6. Ronda (Málaga)
7. Morella (Castellón)
8. Pedreza (Segovia)
9. Santillana del Mar (Cantabria)
10.Ansó (Huesca)
11.Besalú (Girona)
12.Betanzos (A Coruña)

*Pic by Galidonia©2009

A Tower of Strength

A few letters along the following lines appeared in the press in the week that the Tower of Hercules was awarded World Heritage status. This one is from the Xornal de Galicia:
Congratulations to the people of a Coruña and Galicia now that we have another World Heritage Site. It's about time our language had World Heritage status so that Feijóo does not appear on the scene to destroy it. Every attack he makes on our language is like removing a brick from our tower, our city walls or cathedral.
Pic.Galidonia©2009

Another View from Galicia

The problem is that a child who studies only Spanish won't know Galician, but one that studies in Galician will know Spanish in any case. As studies show, the omnipresence of Spanish ensures children learn that language, while the scarcity of Galician means the same cannot be said in reverse. The aim is for children to acquire equal skills in both languages and this will not happen if a child is stopped from studying Galician. If some people are genuinely concerned about imposition, then they also need to talk to businesses, the media, etc., as they demand a bilingual system which respects everyone. They also need to talk to Galician speakers who are forced to consume almost all their products in Spanish.* Is this not imposition? But this is not a concern of course. Some just want to be free of Galician. I know of people who are pulled up at work for talking Galician, but I don't know of anybody who is reprimanded for talking Spanish at work.

P.A. A Coruña (letter to the Xornal, 17th June)

* I imagine this is a reference to food labelling, etc. which is mostly in Spanish. Although the supermarket chain Eroski, for instance, labels its own products in all four of Spain's official languages.

Inarticulate in Galician and Illiterate in Spanish?

This week I will be translating a series of letters that have appeared in the press recently about Galician. Today, two very contrasting viewpoints about young people and the education system….

Excerpt from letter to the Xornal de Galicia, 24th June

…I speak of my experiences as a teacher in Corunna city. In my high school at the moment, about 40-50% of studying is done in Galician with the remainder in Spanish. While dealing with the students on a daily basis, it concerns me that they are unable to string a few sentences in Galician together. They begin the sentence, stop short, think about it and then begin speaking again. They lack fluency and spontaneity while having no problem in Spanish. Furthermore, every single sentence of the little Galician they speak is badly articulated. If it’s not throwing in Spanish words (“ayer”, “bueno”, dibujo”) then it’s bad collocation of pronouns or use of compound tenses, e.g. habíamos feito instead of fixemos (note: compound tenses like the former are not used in Galician). If this happens in a school where 40% of content is in Galician, I shudder to think what it’s like in schools where less Galician is used, nor do I wish to dwell on what the future will be like under the newly proposed decree…

L.S. A Coruña

Galidonia comment: The writer goes on to say that for this reason more Galician rather than less needs to be taught in schools.

A Very Different Point of View, Letter from El País, 30th June

I think identifying members of Galicia Bilingüe with the right wing is totally inaccurate. I am an activist with a (non-nationalist) left wing party and agree with GB’s stance. I agree that our youngsters arrive at university barely knowing how to write in Spanish. Also I agree that in secondary education they teach how the Golden Age, the era of Lope de Vega and Quevedo, constitutes a dark chapter in Galician history. Furthermore I agree that diglossia exists and that Spanish will have to disappear so that this phenomenon does not occur. Of course the Galician language must be protected, and it is because a school subject with this name already exists and is compulsory in the final evaluation. But the idea of teaching all subjects in Galician, except the subject of Spanish, is going to lead to an abyss of unpredictable consequences which concerns parents of children of school age in Galicia regardless of our political views.

L.H.R. Pontevedra

Galidonia comment: If you were to take both letters at face value, you would be left with the impression that Galicia is producing a generation who are unable to speak Galician and are virtually illiterate in Spanish! I know some intelligent and literate young Galicians who are also very articulate in English, so can things really be half as bad as they are depicted here?

Linguistic Success in Galicia?

Linguistic Success in Galicia?

According to a report in El País today (30th June), 90% of civil servants working for the Administración General del Estado (AGE) are bilingual in Galicia and Catalonia, compared to around 70% in Valencia, the Balearics and the Basque Country.

These are the conclusions of a report carried out by the AGE’s department for official languages itself. However, the Council of Europe is not entirely satisfied with those figures, and in a separate report last December, demanded that the AGE give more support to co-official languages, claiming there were weak areas in legal circles, postal and train services (RENFE).

The Age report admits that the security forces are the area most wanting, “well below 50%” due to their mobility. According to the AGE report “practically 100% of personnel in AGE services speak Galician (with only 40% of them defined as primarily Galician native speakers), compared to the second most successful area in this respect – Catalonia – where the figure is again said to be close to 100% in Girona and Lleida and around 85% in Barcelona and Tarragona.

I’m sure these statistics will be seriously questioned by Galician and Catalan language activists. From my point of view, this raises the question of what it actually means to speak Galician (or any other language for that matter) or to be bilingual. Are we talking about an ability and willingness to switch between both languages without any difficulty or is it something much more basic than that?

For instance, I could claim to speak French, Italian or Scottish Gaelic. I wouldn’t be lying as I have taken courses in these languages. However, this does not mean that I could comfortably hold a conversation with a native speaker in any of these languages. Far from it if the truth be told. In other words, it is very easy to say you speak a language or tick a box saying that you do but what this means is very subjective. I would seriously question the claim that close to 100% of civil servants in Galicia are bilingual in Galician as I think there are many who lack either/both the ability and willingness to do so.

Willingness to speak the language without reservations or feelings of superiority or inferiority issues is a major factor in my opinion – it is easy to say you can speak a language but if you have reservations about doing so, can you genuinely claim to be bilingual, proficient or even comfortable about speaking the said language in public or everyday situations?

In my experience, many people living in Galicia see Galician as inferior or at least secondary in terms of importance to Spanish; not to mention the view and general attitudes towards other languages of the State in monolingual parts of Spain.

With regard to printed material, the AGE claims “practically all” printed forms are bilingual (presumably meaning available in both languages?) in Galicia and the Basque Country, dropping to around 65% in Catalonia and Valencia. The Balearics figure is somewhere between the Catalan and Galician/Basque ones.

In terms of signposting, Galicia and the Basque Country again come out tops while ‘some deficiencies’ remain in Catalonia and the Balearics. Finally, Galician civil servants in the Tax Office and Social Security again come top of the table with “close to 100% being bilingual”.

As I’ve alluded to, from the point of view of living in A Coruña, I find many of these figures surprising and basically hard to believe. I also spent a few years living in northern areas of Catalonia. In my experience, I encountered more confident attitudes in terms of both the importance/prestige of Catalan and ability to speak it, particularly among younger natives. However, I am not blind to the fact that I may well have a totally different perspective had I lived in L'Hospitalet and Padrón rather than Vic, Girona and A Coruña.

What do readers of this blog think? Comments are welcome in English, Galician, Catalan or Spanish. (I would include Basque if I could read/translate it. Sorry!)

Language, Social Conflict & War

The Galician language departments at A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago Universities have written to the president of the Xunta expressing their concern at the linguistic measures taken by Feijóo's government. They accuse the Executive of legislating against the country's language without even bothering to consult powers that be outside Galicia.

A Coruña's language department (of Galician, Portuguese and French) claims Feijóo's Xunta is "giving citizens the impression that the Galician language is neither necessary nor useful", adding that "the Xunta has created a new social conflict with measures that are bound to lead to an increase in those lacking competence in Galician".

Source of the above - Galician Supplement in El País

Meanwhile, Anxo Lorenzo, the General Secretary of Linguistic Policy, has stated that, "there is not, and never has been, a 'linguistic war', no matter much radicals and extremists of one type or another want to claim this is the case".

What's in a Word?

Under the new PP administration there will be no "Galescolas" (Galician nursery schools) and no "national library" at Monte Gaiás. It is interesting that many (often on the political right) are quick to condemn name changes as "political correctness" (something I actually begin to doubt the existence of but that's another story). Yet, they seem just as willing to do the same when it suits their agenda. What next? Patacas do país to be renamed "regional potatoes" perhaps?