Goodbye to Catalanisms

I belong to the generation that came up saying plug and busson, and at home we would laugh under our noses every time we went to visit the house of an unexpected aunt of our mother's, with eight Catalan surnames, who lived on the Rambla de Catalunya and who asked us if we wanted some sandwiches for a snack. As easy as it was to say sandwich.

That's right, we placed all the weak pronouns in the sentences with Fabrian-like precision. It wasn't magic, it was the Catalan my parents spoke, and the level of the language you could hear on the street. I'd say even more: although I was educated in Spanish and the only television channel during my childhood and youth spoke Spanish, from time to time they had to correct me on Catalan things like "a tooth" either "tomorrow morning".

Catalan used to infiltrate through the cracks of everyday life. Now it doesn't infiltrate much, and for thousands of boys and girls who will never do a Catalan thing, not at all. That's why Catalan students speak better in Spanish than in Catalan, according to the latest oral language tests that have been done. Three times as many Catalan language students fail than Spanish language students..

That's why the 40,000 Catalan language course places announced yesterday by President Illa are insufficient, and it's all very well that he assures us that "official recognition of Catalan in Europe will eventually happen." But the recognition Catalan needs is for it to be equal in rights and responsibilities to Spanish in Catalonia, that is, mandatory (at least understanding it) in order to be able to work in Catalonia. And you'll see how it will infiltrate again through the cracks of everyday life.