The influence of education on the preservation of the Catalan language
I remember that in primary school we were asked to speak in Spanish in the classroom. This practice continued through high school and even into college. However, when we left the classroom and met in the playground, we spoke to each other in Catalan, the language we also used on the street and at home. This situation was repeated in the years after the war, when immigrants from Spanish lands arrived in our region. They told us that it was impolite to speak in Catalan in front of the new arrivals. Despite the fact that teaching was compulsory in Spanish, the children learned Catalan with ease. After a few months, they were already speaking Catalan. On the other hand, his parents did not have the same ease. Some learned it at work and spoke it, but most understood it but did not know how to express themselves in it.
Linguistic submission and its consequence in the preservation of Catalan
From school, we were told that it was ‘bad education’ to speak Catalan in front of the Spanish. They asked us to speak to them in their language, and this continued on the street and at work. Many Catalans speak Spanish to Spanish speakers, even those who have lived here for years and understand Catalan perfectly. This linguistic submission prevents new arrivals from learning Catalan. We have been educated in submission, we have assumed it and now, with the arrival of new immigrants, we are about to abandon it. This behavior endangers the millennial survival of Catalan.
The influence of the media and Spanish culture
Linguistic submission is aggravated by other factors imposed from Spain. The media, customs and way of being have contributed to supplanting our own identity and imposing theirs. Although our people and our ancestry differ from the Spanish in many ways, we have been assimilating their culture without realizing it. Nowadays, we receive a large amount of Spanish information through television, the press, online media and mobile devices. This information has nothing to do with Catalan culture and is opposed to what we have learned for centuries in school. They tell us their imperial history from their perspective, which has nothing to do with our past and our own idiosyncrasies. Also, their governments impose laws that differ significantly from what we would apply, and when we legislate them in Parliament, if they don’t like them, they declare them unconstitutional.
The repression and the division of Catalonia
The submission that has been imposed for centuries and that intensified fifteen years ago has generated an unprecedented division between Spaniards and Catalans. In Spain, the PP and the PSOE are fighting for power, and both have control of the General Council of the Judiciary, which should have been renewed six years ago, in contradiction to the Constitution. With their bellicose attitude, they blame each other with false evidence, as they did in the past against Catalonia. Now, Illa, like the Moncloa school in Catalonia, wants to preside over the Generalitat. Don’t you remember the application of article 155, which dismissed the government of the Generalitat elected by the people? Do they not remember that, with the help of the PP, they prevented Xavier Trias from being the mayor of Barcelona? It is enough to submit to his will and to be submissive like lambs in a flock, following the orders of the shepherd.
conclusion
The preservation of the Catalan language is fundamental for our identity and culture. Education plays a key role in this task, as it influences the way young people learn and use language. It is important to break with linguistic submission and encourage the use of Catalan in all areas of daily life. In addition, we must be aware of external influences that try to supplant our culture and language, and defend our identity with pride and determination.
