![La classe dels dilluns al Centre de Normalització Lingüística de Barcelona amb immigrants que fan el primer curs de català.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 16 9"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
After approving a shock plan with an extraordinary investment of 8.8 million euros to strengthen Catalan among adults, the Language Policy has announced that this year a record 41,000 people have enrolled in one of the 1,900 Catalan courses available. A 15% increase in places has been offered, a total of 43,000, following repeated complaints about a lack of courses tailored to the needs of immigrants and long queues. Sixty-three new teachers have been hired, and 131 have had their hours extended. The Consortium has a regional network of 20 language training centers and 143 service points in Catalonia. This year , the regional offering has been expanded to 27 new municipalities and new neighborhoods in Barcelona. Evening courses have been increased, and coordination has been achieved with other institutions to offer the C2 level.
Seven years, 8,000 km, and 2,600 euros: Anastasiya's odyssey to learn Catalan
A record 41,000 people have enrolled in a Catalan course run by the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization.
Barcelona"You speak Catalan so well! There are many people who never learn it in their entire lives, but it doesn't cost anything!" a guy told Anastasiya Oliynyk Kabachynska. He was trying to flatter her during a chance encounter during their vacation. "Yeah, man, it doesn't cost anything!" she replied. "I almost exploded thinking about the time, money, and kilometers I had invested!" she recalls to ARA. In fact, she started to talk about it and the result was impressive.
"For me, it was more of a battle than a learning process," she confesses, now that she sees it in the news that more resources will be dedicated. On the day the Generalitat (Catalan government) announced a record 41,000 people enrolled in a Catalan course run by the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization (43,000 places have been offered, 15% more than in 2024), his testimony serves to reframe expectations: it's not that easy, it's not all fast, and there aren't enough offers for everything.
After working for ten years at the UN, Anastasiya arrived eight years ago from Ukraine to Catalonia, specifically to Tàrrega, where her partner is from. A graduate in international law and an English interpreter, she arrived with Spanish already learned, while only finding Duolingo as a digital resource to learn Catalan. At the moment, she was speaking Spanish C1 - Catalan A1. Perhaps in a more Spanish-speaking environment, she wouldn't have been in such a hurry to learn Catalan, but she was clear that in Urgell, it was a priority. "I'm an ambitious person eager to integrate. I understood the situation with Catalan and Spanish because I compared it to that of Ukrainian and Russian. I needed Catalan to speak with my family, for my career, and to be part of society. I signed up for the choir and yoga, and here everyone speaks Catalan and doesn't switch languages. Serious!" We already have our cell phones to learn Catalan. Now comes the crime.
No courses in the capitals
It turns out that in Tàrrega—where 24% of the population was born abroad; the average in the Urgell region is 21%—she could only take the beginner's level of Catalan, because the Center for Linguistic Normalization offers classes up to level A2. When she passed that, to take in-person intermediate-level classes she had to travel 50 kilometers to Igualada. But history soon repeated itself. Despite being a city of more than 40,000 inhabitants, twice that of Tàrrega, Igualada closed the language group because only nine people were enrolled. Anastasiya had to travel the 50 kilometers toward Lleida. Improving her Catalan required time, money, and a car, because there isn't a good public transportation service within the region either. "Every year the same story was repeated: me wanting to learn, but no courses. Here it's easier to learn English, French, and German than Catalan!" she lamented. Finally, she completed her B2 level online because it coincided with the lockdown.
Although she already spoke enough to lead a normal life, she persisted because she needed the C1 if she wanted to aspire to a public position. "Oh, this C1 has cost me tears, effort, time, and money!" she exclaims. With the physical exhaustion of having a child and the exhaustion of experiencing the war in her country in the future—that year she welcomed thirteen refugees into her homeland—she had to take a one-year hiatus from language courses. Once she returned, the C1 took her three years of online study, and at the same time, she enrolled in the only in-person course she could take in her town, the C2 at the Official Language School. She even quit her job to focus on Catalan. Progress has also depended on colliding with good and bad teachers; she has found interest and indifference, which exacerbates the fact that there is little material for learning Catalan from a non-Romance language.
Finally, Anastasiya has passed the C1 level twice and is close to passing the C2 level. "I'm finally happy with Catalan, but I wanted everyone to know how hard it is," she says. That's why she sent a letter to the ARA (Argentine Association of Catalan Languages). Now she has to focus on passing the exams. But, just so that the guy who told her it "doesn't cost anything" knows, these are the numbers to get the C1 level in Catalan: "Almost 1,000 hours of study over seven years, about 8,710 km of travel, about 2,600 euros spent, and thirteen Catalan teachers."
