Saramago & Rivas

José Saramago was in A Coruña on Wednesday evening to share his ideas on writing and memory. The Portuguese author said that when in Galicia he was never sure whether to talk in Portuguese or Spanish. So he gave the audience the choice. After a mixed reception he proceeded to speak in Portuguese before changing over into Spanish at some point in the talk.

In my view, this is true bilingualism at work - a willingness to use both languages without reservations or prejudices.

Saramago shared the stage with Manuel Rivas. While Saramago went into his theories about literature, the Galician author opted instead for a series of entertaining anecdotes and stories based on his upbringing in A Coruña.

A few days prior to this event, Rivas gave his views on the future possible segregation of Galician pupils on linguistic grounds. Rivas believes this is a "very serious problem based on ignorance" and "a waste of time" which will result in anti-Galicia". The author added that "it is dangerous and worrying that important politicians and instititions hold fanatical and fundamentalist ideas from a pre-constitutional past".

Demonstration in Santiago

Supporters of the Galician language gathered in the Plaza de Obradoiro on Sunday to protest against the PP's proposed education changes. The Police estimated 20,000 were on the march while A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística (Standardisation board) who organised the event, said the number was over 50,000.

Silvia Pontevedra, writing in El País, claims it is common knowledge that the square holds around 15,000 and that it was filled twice over. Whatever the case, the Galician president Feijóo claims language is not about numbers and reiterated that imposing a language carries risks.

PSdeG (the Galician branch of Spain's governing socialist party) claim that Feijóo and his new Xunta are the real threat to the Galician language.

Among the demonstators, according to El País, were defenders of the national "reunificão" of Galicia and Portugal, member of teaching and farming unions, student collectives, cultural groups and some political groups who counter-demonstrated against the march organised by Galicia Bilingüe in Santiago in February.

Gloria Lago, president of Galicia Bilingüe said that it is very sad that people want to demonstrate to curb the freedom of their fellow citizens and that this is a manifestation of linguistic intolerance.

What is Galicia Bilingüe?

According to the organisation it is a non-profit making organisation whose principal aim is to defend the rights of parents (or indeed students) to choose the language they are to be educated in, and generally to grant citizens the right to choose which of the two official languages (Spanish or Galician) the governmental bodies communicate with them in.

However, the organisation's detractors see Galicia Bilingüe as little more than a thinly veiled smokescreen created or backed by the new PP led Xunta in order to further marginalise the Galician language, and to re-establish or strengthen the role of Spanish as the main language in the education system and other walks of life.

Intolerance and Imposition

There is a lot of talk about linguistic intolerance and language imposition in Galicia at the moment. Some believe that it is Galician that is being imposed upon Spanish speakers, while others believe that Spanish is still the dominant language and that Galician needs to be defended and given more support. Whatever the case, it is clear that if the PP proposals to reduce compulsory Galician to only one third of teaching time materialise, then Spanish will be the predominant language in the classroom as the planning and knowhow is not in place to give English a significant role in a plurilingual education system.

Education Policy

The new PP administration has suggested reducing subjects taught in Galician to a third of the school syllabus with 66% being taught in Spanish and English and with parents having some input into the process. The 2007 decree legislated that (at least) 50% of subjects be taught in Galician.

The PP election manifesto stated that parents should be allowed to choose the language their children are taught in, but how that is to work in practice is anybody's guess. Since when were parents responsible for deciding education policy?Will provision be made for those parents who would prefer their children to have a Galician-based education? What part will English play in this and are students and teachers up to the task?

The whole issue provides more questions than answers at the moment.

Galician and the G-20

I read with interest a short piece in the Xornal de Galicia today, entitled G-20 lingüístico. The writer, Fernando Ojea points out that it was odd that the leader of the world’s most spoken first language, Hu Jintao of China, could not speak with any other world leader at the recent G-20 in his own language. That's assuming the others don’t know Mandarin, of course.

Meanwhile, Zapatero (Spain) could talk freely with Calderón (Mexico) and Fernández (Argentina). At least four leaders at the summit, Obama (US), Brown (UK), Harper (Canada) and Rudd (Australia) could have a cosy chat. I’d also assume that the leaders of India and South Africa, where English is official, would have no problem joining in. Neither would too many others I guess – Zapatero excepted.

Lula of Brazil could talk shop directly with Barroso (the Portuguese PM and president of the European Commission). Ojea points out that this means a Galician speaker could have direct communication with five of these leaders, while a monolingual Spanish speaker would be limited to three. Ojea emphasises that “Galician is not the same as Portuguese” (this can be debated till the cows come home), but it allows for easy communication in its sister language. It is worth noting here, that representatives in the European Parliament can use Galician as it is accepted there orally as a form of Portuguese.

This brings me to a recent blog manifesto called O galego é útil (Galician is useful). It claims to be a-political and aims to promote the idea that knowledge of Galician makes it easier to learn other languages, as well as allowing for relatively easy communication with approximately 200 million native Portuguese speakers around the world.

Finally Ojea goes on to suggest that Portuguese should be the second foreign language taught in Galician schools and that if Galicians can master English, then they have the world at their feet. Indeed, it is very satisfying (if a little hypothetical) to think with my own knowledge of English, Spanish, Galician and Portuguese, that I could communicate with around half of the leaders at the G-20 in their native language.

Galician in Serious Decline?

A study carried out by the Real Academia Galega (an instititution dedicated to the study of Galician language and culture) and funded by the Xunta (Galician govt.), claims that Galician has gone from being the main language used by around 60% of the Galician population to only 20% in just twelve years.

Although the results of the study have just been released, it covers the period between 1992 and 2004. It is claimed that the study is the most extensive sociolinguistic analysis carried out in a Romance language in terms of the number of people interviewed.

According to Carlos Callón, the president of the Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística(Linguistic Standardisation Board): "Galician has never been in a worse situation than it is today."

The study also finds that in this twelve year period, the number of people who never speak Galician has risen from 13% to just over a quarter of the population. Meanwhile those who use Galician as their first language has dropped from 30.5% to 16%.

The study found that those who define themselves as bilingual tend to use more Spanish. According to Callón, this shows that “there isn’t bilingualism” but “an unequal diglossic situation”. It was also found that 85% of subjects were taught in Spanish and that 11% of under-18’s who had always lived in Galicia claimed they were only given classes in Spanish.

The study confirmed what is already known - that Galician continues to be more associated with rural areas. Ferrol was the most Spanish-speaking city (85% of the population) with Vigo and A Coruña not far behind (both 81.9%). Santiago and Lugo were the most Galician-speaking cities with (41.9%) and (40.5%) respectively, opting for Galician.

The findings of the study have been questioned for reasons, such as a disproportionate number of city dwellers being interviewed and the fact that people over 54 years of age were not included in the survey this time.

Compiled from articles in the Xornal de Galicia and El País in March 2009

Use of Galician Today

The figures below show that Galician is the main language in the education system today – until university level when there is a dramatic shift towards Spanish. Although Galician is the language most frequently used for communications and public information notices in universities, only 28% of lecturers use Galician orally or distribute class handouts in the language of the region.

One reason for this is that the linguistic policies of the Xunta (Galician government) focus on compulsory education. But the predominance of Spanish in urban areas where universities are situated is another factor. Although most primary school children in the region use Galician as a first language the opposite is the case in the seven largest cities (Vigo, A Coruña, Ourense, Santiago, Lugo, Pontevedra and Ferrol) where 72% of primary school children principally speak Spanish. Just over 40% of secondary school teachers in these urban areas prefer to use Spanish at work, while in the region as a whole over 72% opt for Galician.

Only 6.5% of parents are opposed to the use of Galician in the classroom, while around 19% are indifferent and 74% in favour. The majority of parents believe the use of Galician in schools will not increase in the coming years and that the amount of Galician already used is enough.

Language Used

Nursery: Students Teachers
Sp 43.3% 29.4%
Ga 56.7% 70.6%

Primary: Students Teachers
Sp 36.8% 23.2%
Ga 63.2% 76.8%

Secondary: Students Teachers
Sp 42.2 32.1
Ga 57.8 67.9

University: Students Teachers
Sp 71.4 75.8
Ga 28.6 24.2

Galician in the Workplace

In health centres, the public is attended to mainly in Galician (63%); while in contrast, Spanish predominates in 54% of dialogues with the system’s users. The majority of GP’s opt for Spanish in their work with only 31% opting for the use of Galician with their patients. In hospitals this figure drops to 26%.

78% of Xunta staff use Galician in the workplace where 95% of documentation is written in the regional language. However, 4 out of 10 civil servants attend to the public in Spanish.

57% of calls to the Policía Nacional were answered in Spanish and 49% of conversations with the public were conducted in Spanish. 64% of the Guardia Civil speak Galician although 97% write in Spanish.

In other areas, Galician continues to lag behind. In the court system, 66% of judges and other courtroom staff use Spanish with the public and 86% of courtroom documentation is in Spanish. At the tax office, Galician documentation is an even rarer sight with only 9% of texts written in the language of the region.

Info taken from La Voz, 7th Jan, 2009. Statistics from the Galician Language Observatory created by the Secretaria Xeral de Política Lingüística.