Barcelona reaches the historical record of 35,500 Catalan places "to end waiting lists"

BarcelonaBarcelona will reach a record number of places for adult Catalan learning from the next academic year: 35,500 places, five thousand more than are currently offered. The City Council announced this Monday an increase in the contribution to the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística of 1.2 million euros in structural funding, so that the council will contribute a total of 3.1 million euros per year to the entity that organizes official Catalan courses for adults.

Following the emergency plan for language learning promoted by the Generalitat, in two academic years the number of Catalan places in Barcelona will have increased by 50%, going from 23,500 to 35,500. The Generalitat had increased 7,000 places in a first phase, with an investment of 1.88 million, and now the City Council will cover the cost of 23 teachers, equivalent to 5,000 places, which will be structural. 200 people work at the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística in Barcelona.

Collboni referred to a viral video by a Mexican content creator, The Minister of Linguistic Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, stated that "structural growth is important because the demand for learning is strong and requires significant deployment; this allows us to plan for the future." 50,000 places for Catalan learning must be created in the country as a whole, Vila recalled, following the extraordinary regularization of immigrants.

"No excuses are valid"

Collboni has referred to a viral video by a Mexican content creator, Mario Laram, who explained on social media that he has learned Catalan thanks to the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística. "The goal is that all the Marios who come to Barcelona and want to learn our language can do so, especially people coming from Latin American communities, who might have fewer incentives to learn Catalan," he stated. "There are no excuses that you already speak Spanish or that Catalans are more or less friendly," the mayor paraphrases.

Collboni has pointed out that the City Council has joined the National Pact for Language, has created the commissioner for the social use of Catalan, has promoted the House of Digital Creation in Catalan, has diversified the promotion of Catalan, and has launched pilot programs to strengthen Catalan among young people and adolescents with the IEC. "Never before has the Barcelona City Council dedicated this amount of resources to learning Catalan," stated Collboni, who defended the council's "unequivocal" commitment to the language. "We are optimistic. It must be done positively, usefully, with a message of coexistence. It is the best way to combat discourses critical of these policies," he added.