Last Saturday, 13,068 people took the written test to obtain the higher-level Catalan certificate (C2), the official accreditation that teachers, various grades of civil servants, and language professionals need to practice their work. The surprise, for some examinees, was that after taking a break they were able to review the first part of the exam, which assesses reading comprehension and written expression, accounts for 57% of the grade, and has been eliminatory for a few editions. Vilaweb has collected complaints from some users because they consider it an irregularity that lowers the exam's requirements and gives an advantage to the examinees.

The linguistic emergency is not solely a Catalan concern. According to the UN, a language disappears worldwide every two weeks, and 40% of the world's population does not have access to education in their own language. In this context, an initiative is being promoted from Catalonia that aims to contribute to saving linguistic diversity and protecting linguistic rights. CIEMEN and PEN Català have relaunched a new Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights that will update the one presented to UNESCO 30 years ago. The objective is to take advantage of the window of opportunity that opens with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2028.

As with epic adventures, it all started with a simple whatsapp: "I've had an idea," Pau Emili Muñoz wrote to four friends. He came from the activism of Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua and wanted to make it bigger. "We are tired of having to defend the language from the trenches, because we keep retreating a little. Taking the initiative is more exhausting but more rewarding. It's time to take a step forward," he argues.

Justice is one of the black spots of the language: only 14% of judges have a basic level of Catalan. This not only means that, by default, the linguistic choice of users in the courts is not respected, but also that the sentences written in Catalan are minimal, less than 7%, according to the radiography of Catalan in justice made public in 2022. The figures have never moved from the minimums. According to the latest Linguistic Uses Survey of 2023, only 25% used Catalan in justice bodies, the lowest percentage of all public administrations.

You have just become the father of your first child, you register him at the Civil Registry and, when his documents arrive a month later, you discover that his surname has been Hispanized, and instead of 'Garcia' like yours, your son is called 'García'. This is the case of a Catalan family that Plataforma per la Llengua has reported after the Civil Registry has ignored the family's repeated requests to correct the error and re-register him with his father's surname, which appears without an accent on his ID, passport, and birth and marriage certificates. After several complaints and exhausting administrative channels, the family has now decided to resort to judicial action to ensure their son's documents bear his surname and not one imposed in Spanish. The organization assures that in the last five years it has received about twenty complaints for violation of linguistic rights at the Civil Registry.

Catalan is plummeting among young people in Barcelona. Only 17.8% of citizens between 15 and 34 years old primarily speak Catalan in their lives; one in four young people (25%) predominantly speak Catalan if we include bilinguals. The decline of Catalan over the last ten years is abrupt: in 2015, 37.7% of young people stated that Catalan was their everyday language, a figure that dropped to 28.4% in 2020. By 2025, it will fall another ten points. In other words, Catalan among young people in Barcelona has fallen twenty points in ten years. Three out of ten young people never speak it: there are more young people who never speak Catalan than young people who speak it regularly. Spanish is clearly the predominant language for conversations among young people, although 7% primarily use a third language, according to the 2025 Barcelona Youth Survey, conducted with 1,500 people aged 15 to 34 who have lived in the city for more than six months. Demographics largely explain these figures. Only 30% of young people have always lived in Barcelona, ​​while 43% have lived there for less than five years. 42% of young people are foreign nationals (six points higher than in 2020), and 55% have both parents of foreign origin. Catalan is never the predominant language among foreigners, who prefer Spanish and combinations with other languages. Looking at young people of Spanish nationality, Catalan is the predominant language for 30% of respondents.

Anglicisms are dominating conversations about sexuality and romantic relationships, because English has given names to situations that previously had no name, such as breadcrumbing (give bread springs) or the yearning (the longing). And also to sexual identities and practices that had not been made visible, fromspanking (the one born) in the bondage (the ligament) passing through thesquirting (the sprouting). Traditionally, it has been Castilianisms that have colonized the dirty talk Catalan. However, Catalan has thousands of slang terms for all registers, even the most informal and intimate ones. In Cardamos in Catalan (Rosa dels Vents) Linguists Laura Boj, Xènia Hernández, and Roger Miras propose hundreds of genuine words and alternatives to the most common foreign terms for (oral) sex. "We want to move away from the clichés that using genuinely Catalan words when we have sex doesn't sound dirty or sensual. Does the name make the thing? Doesn't it turn you on when they go down on you, when they give it to you good, when they give you a blowjob, when they give you a blowjob, or when they suck your dick?" in the book.

"What the hell do you really want from me?" asks figure skater Shane Hollander to his rival and lover Ilya Rozanov in the popular series More than rivals. — I want you to suck my dick. — Go to hell. You're unbelievable. Suck my dick — he replies angrily, using euphemistic ethnic pronouns.More than rivals It's one of the trendy shows that has forced translator Alba Garcia Ventura to sharpen her skills, commissioned by the production company Dumilieu Media. The Movistar series (subtitled in Catalan) explores the sexual tension between two hockey players and, in doing so, portrays a linguistic tension present in erotic Catalan in film and television: the need to find genuine words for the constant... fuck, Dick and suck that don't sound repetitive, artificial, or comical.

The latest figures on young people's language use revealed two contradictory realities. On the one hand, according to l'Survey of Language Uses of the Population 2023Those aged 15 to 29 and those over 65 who report having Catalan as their family language (38%, alone or with Spanish) are the groups in which Catalan is most prevalent. On the other hand, historical trends show a clear decline in the social use of Catalan among young people, a worrying trend that, according to Esteve Valls, a sociolinguist at the University of Barcelona, ​​could jeopardize the transmission of the language to their children in the future.

The Department of Language Policy has presented one of the lowest budgets in the Catalan government compared to other departments, but also one of the most expansive, and, looking at historical trends, it represents a record amount allocated to public policies for the Catalan language. The new department, headed by Francesc Xavier Vila, became independent from the Department of Culture in 2024 (although it still shares some services) and I had never publicly presented the accounts until today.. Yeah Culture aims to have 524 million In its accounts, the Language Policy department anticipates having 85 million euros available should the proposals be approved. Salvador Illa's 2026 budgetThis would represent an increase of 26 million euros, or 42.8%. Looking at per capita spending, the Generalitat would go from allocating 7.24 euros per person for language in 2025 to 10.34 euros. The current 85 million euros contrast sharply with historical trends. During Pere Aragonès's years in government (2021-2024), the Language department received a budget exceeding 50 million euros, but prior to 2022, the allocation for language policy never exceeded 40 million euros in any single year. A decade ago, language budgets did not surpass 30 million euros, so the budget increase compared to a decade ago would be 213%. The department will allocate 65.3 million euros to direct transfers to its own public bodies. 17.3 million euros will be allocated to subsidies, 50 percent more than in the extended budget. For example, 6 million euros will go to the audiovisual sector to increase film exhibition and dubbing and subtitling across all platforms. A 1.5 million euro subsidy line will also be created to improve the status of the Catalan language in technology and AI. The 40 Propulsion grants for content creators will continue to be awarded, and the Crit awards will be presented. The Minister also announced a new general campaign (with a budget of 400,000 euros) aimed at breaking down stereotypes and raising awareness among the population about not changing their language due to racial prejudice.

An exhibition at the Palau Robert on critical thinking, disinformation, and hate speech has drawn a complaint from Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language) because it "stigmatizes Catalan speakers as alleged aggressors." In a space designed to resemble a gym changing room, the exhibition placed the phrase "Let them go back to their country!" alongside the phrase "Let them learn Catalan!", which could be interpreted as equating demanding language learning with racism or exclusion. According to Plataforma per la Llengua, the exhibition presented learning Catalan "with a negative, belligerent, and even hateful tone." The ICIP (International Catalan Institute for Peace), the organizing body, admitted on Thursday afternoon that "the central message of the piece could be misinterpreted and that the text was unfortunate," and has since removed this section from the exhibition.

You might think you are cool because you can serve fig But you're actually being pond And you don't even know it. Youth slang is evolving faster than ever thanks to social media, which has transformed communication into a global and dizzyingly frenetic exchange. Lols and hypes were overtaken by PECs and haulsAnd new expressions have already appeared on TikTok, sea and air, which millennials and older are finding difficult to understand. We've updated our dictionary for boomers in version 2026 with ten expressions new of Generation Z.

A study by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) shows that the most popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools spread errors in Catalan because they are trained in Spanish, in addition to English: non-standard forms in Catalan grammar and lexicon are spread due to the influence of these global languages. The study, led by Professor Thomas Brochhagen from the UPF's Department of Translation and Language Sciences and published in the journal "Linguamática", is pioneering in demonstrating the bias towards Spanish. According to researcher Mireia Almena (UPF), "AIs not only reproduce language, but also influence its evolution and can have a much greater impact on languages like Catalan, with less written content in digital media, than on other languages with more speakers and text production capacity such as English, Spanish or Chinese." Therefore, they call on institutions to work to improve these biases. In fact, the Accent Obert Foundation has already announced that they will "take the official exams of Catalan students for the most popular AIs" to evaluate their knowledge of Catalan language and culture, in order to objectify the shortcomings in this area. Spreading Errors

Junts has denounced in Congress the Castilianization of Catalan place names on signs along the AP-7 highway. Responding to complaints from various users on social media, who shared photos with specific examples, such as Barberá (with a closed accent), Montornes (without an accent), or the Girona Sud/Sur and Oest/Oeste exits (now bilingual), on Tuesday they submitted a series of questions regarding the changes in road signage, which in some cases has switched from Catalan to Castilian. The same is happening in the Valencian Community, with Valencia (without an accent) and Alicante (replacing it with Alacant). In fact, the toponymy of the Valencian Community is one of the main points of contention for the current PP and Vox government. On Wednesday, Junts deputy Isidre Gavín denounced "the Spanishization of public spaces" and stated on RAC1: "They are taking us back to Francoism." Gavín asserts that there is a "replacement of signs to add the place name in Spanish when it is completely unnecessary, absurd, and pointless." He also frames this within the critical situation of the social use of Catalan. "Is now the time to do this? It doesn't make sense. Are they Catalanizing the second channel of Spanish Television and Castilianizing the roads?" he asked. For this reason, they have asked the Ministry of Transport, which is responsible for the AP-7 highway, to explain why these changes have been made. Miriam Nogueras also made reference to this. in Wednesday's session Addressing Pedro Sánchez directly.

Accent Obert will deploy an urgent plan to enable AI to speak Catalan. To verify if AIs are self-centered and have a good level of Catalan, the organization will administer the official Catalan language and culture exams to leading chatbots in 2026—the same exams taken by citizens, such as university entrance exams, basic skills tests, and proficiency tests up to level C2. This will allow for the objective assessment of Catalan culture in AI and enable the creation of a ranking of the best AIs for Catalan culture. Another challenge is ensuring that all Catalan-language content on the internet is properly tagged so that AIs can detect this information. They also plan to create a federation of Catalan-language content so that AIs can be asked to respond "given that I am Catalan." This means explaining to the AI ​​"what it means to be Catalan," which involves not only language but, above all, cultural background.

Methkal Khalawi (Homs, Syria, 1990) thinks he has to write an autobiography of his last fifteen years, and it would probably seem like a work of fiction. In 2011, with the Arab Spring, a civil war began in Syria between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and various armed groups among the civilian population. Khalawi was imprisoned by the Islamic State for two weeks, escaped, and managed to leave the country six months later. "I lived through very difficult situations, I spent days living on the street, without food; they shot at us; they told me they would cut my throat. Told like that it sounds like an adventure, but the memory is difficult," he confesses. Ten years later, he is now planning to return to Syria to visit his mother and all his family, with whom he has only spoken via WhatsApp since then. "I remember when I left, she didn't want to say goodbye to me, she covered her face with the sheet, I said 'goodbye' and left." He is now a different man. "I'll only go for a visit, now I'm Catalan!" he says, smiling with a hint of white teeth and in perfect Catalan. He is now the father of little Sama (Heaven, in Arabic), has a Catalan partner from Molins de Rei, and a project in hand: an exclusively Catalan social network, Xiuxiuejar.com. The son of a family with a nomadic tradition and thirteen siblings, Khalawi was a student of electronic engineering and English literature and worked in an oil extraction base when the war stopped his life. He managed to flee to Turkey, where he worked in a textile factory in Istanbul for 14 hours a day. From there he went to Greece, where he got stuck, working as a translator and for NGOs. His destiny was to resort to the mafias, with the aim of reaching Ireland, because he mastered English. But then he met a Catalan girl who was looking for testimonies from refugees. They were in contact for six months through Facebook. "We fell in love," he says, smiling again.

The Yelmo Campanar cinemas in Valencia refused to process a film reservation for a group of students because the teacher who requested the tickets addressed the company in Valencian and refused to switch languages, despite repeated requests from cinema staff. This was reported on January 28th by the school council of the Benicalap neighborhood high school in a statement, and the story was first reported by the newspaper on Thursday. Levant

It is well known and evident that the Catalan's health is not at its best. However, among so many discouraging surveys on language useEspecially among younger generations, positive initiatives that inspire optimism and hope are also making a name for themselves. One such project is that of Irene Carreras, a 27-year-old from Girona who, through her social media accounts—where she has amassed over 75,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram—charmingly teaches simple expressions and words to capture the attention of new speakers. Carreras, who was a singer in the second-to-last generation of the family band Macedonia, often appears in her videos with her grandmother Dolors, who revives obsolete vocabulary, expressions, and idioms. And, thanks to her online presence, she has already begun offering online courses. More than 500 students at the basic and intermediate levels.

Of the 114 films released in commercial theaters in Catalonia in 2025, only 20 were shown in the Valencian Community (17.5%), 17 in Andorra (14.9%), and 16 in the Balearic Islands (14%). There was no trace of 85% of the films, according to a report by Plataforma per la Llengua (Platform for the Language), published just before the 18th Gaudí Awards. Only two films were released in all territories, and not simultaneously. Wolfgang and Sea and skyIf we remove Andorra from the equation, which has a different distribution system than the Spanish state, there would only be five films that could be seen simultaneously in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, four in their original version and one in a dubbed version, theanime of Detective Conan. In fact, outside the Principality, films dubbed in Catalan are practically nonexistent. In Andorra, however, where Catalan is the only official language, Catalan dubbing is the norm, with the biggest box office hits arriving there.

After suffering a suicidal crisis, in February 2024 a patient was referred from the public healthcare system to the Córcega Passage Day Hospital in Barcelona, ​​managed by the CPB Foundation, to continue her treatment. In the first session, she requested to have therapy sessions in Catalan, but after two days she found that the nurse attending to her was speaking in Spanish and said he didn't feel "comfortable" switching languages. When the patient complained, the psychiatrist told her that she couldn't ask the center's staff to speak Catalan and, therefore, they couldn't guarantee her treatment would be conducted entirely in Catalan. She told her to consider whether she was "able to prioritize treatment over that [referring to Catalan]; if not, we must stop the process," she added. She even compared the desire to be treated in Catalan to problematic behaviors that are not acceptable for continuing treatment, such as drug use or self-harm.