Only 10% of young people speak Catalan among themselves when they do sports in Barcelona
Almost 70% of the conversations between monitors are in Catalan, but the dynamic does not transfer to the young people
BarcelonaCatalan is residual in the sports and leisure activities of young people in Barcelona. Only 11% of conversations among young people are exclusively in Catalan and 76% are exclusively in Spanish (the remaining 13% are bilingual usage), according to a pilot study carried out by the Institute for Catalan Studies (IEC) on the use of Catalan in 14 municipal sports and leisure entities in the capital. On the other hand, the percentages flip when it comes to conversation among instructors: 32% of instructors converse exclusively in Spanish among themselves, but the majority, 68%, speak in Catalan.
However, even though Catalan predominates among instructors, this does not happen when they address users during training sessions or activities. When instructors speak with young people, 40% do so in Catalan, but 55% address them in Spanish. The reason could be that they adapt to the language of the young people, who basically address the instructors in Spanish: 73% of the young people speak to them in Spanish, while 25% speak to them in Catalan.
Thus, Catalan maintains a high presence among adult role models, but it already decreases when the relationship is between the adult and the young person and falls drastically when the communicative initiative comes from the young people and in their spontaneous interactions. The goal of the IEC project is to reverse the linguistic drift, and for the modeling by the instructors to transform the habits of the young people; that is, for Catalan to be the habitual language of spontaneous interaction within youth spaces.
In the IEC study, supported by the Barcelona City Council, 10 sports clubs in Barcelona have been analyzed, which involves 1,400 male and female players and nearly 200 male and female coaches. These are clubs from different neighborhoods, such as Club Esportiu Europa, Club Esportiu Handbol BCN Sants, Club Esportiu la Marina, Eurofitness Estació del Nord, Lluïsos de Gràcia, and Unió Esportiva Sant Andreu. Four youth spaces in the Sants district have also been analyzed, representing 60 youth space users and 10 municipal leisure monitors. In the field of leisure, the data is even more pronounced: while 58.5% of the dynamic staff address young people only or mostly in Catalan, only 4% of the young people interact with each other in Catalan.
New pilot plan
Following the observation, the pilot plan will roll out various linguistic usage protocols at sports facilities and municipal centers starting this September: creation of linguistic protocols, training in linguistic assertiveness, training on linguistic criteria, promotion of Catalan in informal and leisure moments, welcoming newcomers, and linguistic support groups. Subsequently, there will be a periodic monitoring system that will allow for the evaluation of the impact of the adopted measures, and if the pilot plan proves successful, the goal is to expand it to the entire city.
"Leisure and sport are strategic spaces because it is in informal environments where bonds and linguistic habits are built and we look to role models. And they are also essential for incorporating new speakers," says Marta Salicrú Serra, Commissioner for the Social Use of Catalan. "The project has been created to be applicable to any situation related to leisure and sports activities aimed at young people," says Teresa Cabré, president of the Institute for Catalan Studies. "The IEC contributes to systematizing interventions in favor of the language to increase its real use and improve its effectiveness."
