Language Week: good intentions, little ambition
3Cat celebrated Language Week to promote the use of Catalan, this year focusing mainly on new speakers. On television, this work of awareness and promotion of the language has been noticeable, for example, in the pieces from Telenotícies that delved into testimonies and circumstances related to the use and normalization of Catalan. The sports section has conducted interviews with relevant personalities who have learned Catalan as another tool to integrate into the dynamics of their respective clubs. Míchel at Girona, Diego Ocampo at Baxi Manresa, Moncho Fernández at Bàsquet Girona or Fermín López, Kika Nazareth and Ludovic Fàbregas at Barça. Some regular programs on the grid have tried to incorporate content related to the normalization of Catalan, and Català fàcil has premiered, a space with pedagogical intent for beginners. But it has remained a superficial program with more good intentions than television appeal.
In the realm of the 3Cat platform, Language Week lacked ambition and rigor in gathering under its umbrella a large part of the content promoted during these days to facilitate its recovery and dissemination. Despite everything, it is almost inevitable to think that this initiative is a way of preaching to the converted. It is a type of dissemination that for TV3 viewers is nothing new. It is not clear how this content will be available to potential speakers who must broaden the base of social use of the language.
However, seeing a week dedicated to the language on 3Cat media also causes some perplexity. Because this desire to “reinforce the visibility of Catalan”, as announced in the press releases, should be one of the usual essential pillars of the media structure. Demonstrating sensitivity to the use of Catalan and its normalization must be a constant. Turning it into a specific week of promotion highlights that the rest of the year the demands are lowered.
On the other hand, this Language Week makes it timely to reflect on the message that 3Cat has given about Catalan when building the platform and television content in recent years. The public television has signed as new stars of the entity influencers from social networks who have dedicated themselves to creating content in Spanish with the excuse that their popularity would attract new viewers. The result of these pretensions has been rather relative, setting aside their linguistic and phonetic competence. But, in addition, the message has been given that Spanish is the language that drives you and makes you successful, and Catalan is the one that lags behind and tries to serve it. A strategy that rewards content creators in Spanish and not those who bet, in every way and without complexes, on Catalan.