"CaixaRecerca Institute"
The "La Caixa" Foundation has just inaugurated a center of excellence research in Barcelona, at the foot of Tibidabo. It has invested 100 million euros in 20,000 m², which will host more than 400 scientists who will investigate "in depth the immune system and its relationship with diseases prevalent in society, such as neurological, oncological or infectious diseases". Magnificent news. The name: CaixaResearch Institute. Why not Institut CaixaRecerca?
I anticipate the reply that "They are spending a fortune on a scientific center and now it turns out that the problem is the name" or "The day they find the cure for an immunological disease, will it matter much that the name is in English?" It's not about that, but about asking ourselves why we should give the name of an institution that will be in Barcelona in English. It is one thing for English to be partly or wholly the language of scientific communication for an institute that will attract international talent, and another is for us to give up naming an institute in our own language.
It's not that English is useful, but it's already basic. Just as the economy has overridden politics, English has completely overridden concepts like official language or native language, and it is already the lingua franca. However, even so, it contains a depersonalizing and homogenizing element that makes the world a bland place. I still remember the day I made myself understood in France in reasonably decent French and, because they deduced I was not a native French speaker, they replied to me in English. My heart sank. The country of grandeur switched to English in a boulangerie. Or when I hear an Italian and a Catalan (or a Spaniard) speaking in English, I think how come they are not moved to discover so many proximities and equivalences that Latin languages share. In a world of permanent connection, the use of languages has created new rights of way, but it is fundamental not to always give way to the most spoken one if we want to keep them alive.