Is Catalan under threat? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Is Catalan under threat?
Tags: Catalan \| Endangered Language
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51 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

Ogrim
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Message 25 of 51

12 April 2012 at 10:22pm | IP Logged

COF wrote:

Quote:

With the current economic climate, I think it's the Spanish who will be emigrating.

Indeed, but from the 1980s up until about the mid 2000s, Spain was pretty prosperous, and was encouraging immigrants to fill the rapidly expanding job market, the majority of whom settled in the most industrialised and wealthy region, Catalonia.

Essentially, what I am saying is the uncertain status of the Catalan language is a situation entirely of their own making and it's a well documented fact that immigration communities don't tend to learn community languages, only national languages.

While not to the same extent, a similar thing can be observed in Hong Kong with many workers from the Mainland speaking only Mandarin and not really bothing to learn Cantonese to any decent level of proficiency.

I've also heard a similar thing happens in Switzerland, with immigrants only learning to speak High German, and not bothering with local dialects of Swiss German.

Of whose making? Catalonia is not an independent country. It is the Government in Spain that decides on immigration laws. If people immigrate legally into Spain and decide to settle in Catalonia, it is not something the regional government can do anything about.

And for your comment on Switzerland, please provide facts, not hearsay. Finally, this is not the forum to discuss immigration politics - for that there are other places to go.
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blitzny
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Message 26 of 51

07 May 2012 at 12:25pm | IP Logged

I'm currently living in Barcelona and I teach English in elementary schools in Barcelona and in Cerdanyola del Vallès,
a smaller town. Catalán is not dying. All of the public schools are in Catalán, but they do have to take Spanish, etc.
I've noticed that some kids speak Catalán with each other but most prefer Spanish. The immigrants that come here
mostly understand it and since their kids mostly go to public school, they all grow up speaking it. It's definitely not
dying in Cataluña.
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Saim
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Message 27 of 51

25 May 2012 at 1:06am | IP Logged

COF wrote:

As politically incorrect as it may sound, Catalonia can't have it both ways.

If they wish to encourage mass immigration from South America and other parts of the
world then they must accept that this will erode Catalan's position in society because
many immigrants will have a hard enough time learning Spanish at it is, without learning
Catalan, and I suspect even few South Americans would want to learn Catalan.

That's nonsense. If there is a need to learn the language, they will. Just as people who
move to other parts of Spain learn Spanish, or how anyone who moves to say Australia
learns English.
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COF
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Message 28 of 51

25 May 2012 at 2:51pm | IP Logged

There's no need to learn Catalan in Catalonia, Spanish is all you need, so immigrants don't bother.
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tarvos
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Message 29 of 51

25 May 2012 at 3:25pm | IP Logged

As far as I know my cousins who live in the area speak both Catala and Spanish, but their parents speak only Castellano. They probably understand Catala though.
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Camundonguinho
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Message 30 of 51

25 May 2012 at 4:58pm | IP Logged

COF wrote:

There's no need to learn Catalan in Catalonia, Spanish is all you need, so immigrants don't bother.

If you are a medical doctor, and want to work in a public hospital in Catalonia, you have to speak Catalan. If you want to work in a private hospital, it depends on the hospital, some may be Catalan-only while others may be ''in Spanish please''.
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COF
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Message 31 of 51

26 May 2012 at 12:29am | IP Logged

That's only because the government forces them to, out of a sense of Catalan nationalism.

If they weren't forced to, I doubt they would even bother learning it.
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Saim
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Message 32 of 51

26 May 2012 at 6:37pm | IP Logged

COF wrote:

That's only because the government forces them to,

And who do you think elects the government?

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