"21 days speaking only Catalan to everyone: will you be able to do it?"

BarcelonaThe eight major Catalan-language advocacy organizations have joined forces to promote #repte21dies across the country. "It's about maintaining Catalan for 21 days, speaking only Catalan everywhere and with everyone: will you be able to do it?" asks activist Txe Arana at the initiative's presentation. The challenge will begin on May 12 and run until June 1.

21 days are the number of days, according to some studies, needed to consolidate any new habit. In this case, the habit they want to reverse is the norm of switching to Spanish: surveys indicate that eight out of ten Catalan speakers they change to Spanish when someone addresses them in this language, a phenomenon that contributes—on the initiative of Catalan speakers themselves—to the submission and residualization of Catalan. "If only we didn't change languages, the social use of Catalan would already improve," says Àstrid Bierge, of Talleres por la Lengua, which offers training in linguistic assertiveness.

Why do people change languages? "In places with a high density of Spanish, there's a mimesis: by not having a dissonance, it always adapts to the person in a subordinate situation," which is Catalan, explains UOC sociolinguist Maite Puigdevall. The expert points out that transforming this habit requires three processes: "Realizing that something is wrong, looking for the causes, and figuring out what to do to change it," she says. That's why at least 21 days are necessary to carry out this process of "awareness and emancipation": "How can we transform ourselves from minority speakers into emancipated speakers like those of majority languages? By sharing our language respectfully, but without giving in," says Puigdevall. In addition to time, she warns that it's also necessary to be a community: "A cause has never been won unless it is collectively," says the sociolinguist. That's why she emphasizes the importance of the campaign being popular, transversal, and nationwide. The 21-day challenge has so far been promoted by the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization in different cities across the country, in collaboration with the city councils.

Testimonies of subordination

The reflex of switching to Spanish is what Leli Camps wants to overcome: "Without realizing it, boom, I switch to Spanish. Perhaps because I've met the other person in Spanish and it's hard for me to switch, perhaps because I assume the other person doesn't know Catalan, and in reality, it wouldn't be necessary; it's an automatism that we must change," says Camps. Gabriel Roca assures that he always consciously maintains Catalan until he gets a call for a doctor's appointment and they speak to him in Spanish: "I feel like the other person has more power than me and I feel vulnerable, and in the end I think I have to give in, and I do it consciously. These are specific situations in which you find yourself defenseless." The 21-day challenge aims to make these difficulties evident and for citizens to try out strategies to move forward.

"Language is a highly charged symbolic element and it's a resource, which can also be an economic resource. If we don't share it, we block the way for many people," Puigdevall points out. This is what happens to immigrants who are addressed by default in Spanish. "In Catalonia, there are thousands of people learning Catalan, and because they lack European phenotypes or have foreign accents, when they say 'good morning' in Catalan, they respond 'good morning"This is a good way to kill your language," says English-born writer Matthew Tree.

"I'm black, I'm a woman, and I have an accent, and people often address me in Spanish. It's something that made me feel self-conscious. I don't speak Catalan that badly!" says Merlys Mosquera. When she arrived eight years ago, she thought: "How is it possible that these people don't want to share their language with me?" she recalls, lamenting. Prejudice is constant: "They tell me 'you speak Catalan so well,' but the thing is, I went from primary school to university here," she explains. At the same time, she also calls for the language to be "made easier" for everyone because "immigrants carry a lot of burdens," she says. "All of us are worse off when we adopt Catalan, because we suffer from racism and, on top of that, linguistic discrimination."

Cultural, Softcatalà, and the collectives Salut per Català, Mantengo el catalán, and No me cambias la lengua.