BABEL•LONA

MALENTENDIDOS EVERYWHERE. BCN’S LINGUA FRANCA IS HARD TO NAME.

by Big Mark Borland

The language reality in Barcelona is a tricky one. For many guiris the importance of Catalan in Barcelona is not understood upon first arrival, not at all. My 2002 guide to the Iberian Peninsula assured me that Catalan was simply a dialect (ouch, dialect) that would be of no hindrance to my Spanish experience. Catalonia is Spanish, after all, and here begins the uphill battle that Catalans confront on a daily basis: defending their culture and language against misinformation, malicious or not. One doesn’t need more than a few weeks to understand that the Catalan vs. Castilian conflict plays a defining role in the current sociopolitical reality of Catalonia’s citizens. Lines are drawn in very personal sands across the region everyday.

In discussion of this topic, we came across a document called Què faig si...? published by the organization Plataforma per la Llengua. The pamphlet’s purpose is to provide suggestions to Catalans on how to interact with people who don’t speak Catalan; how to protect the language and encourage its use. It has caused a lot of conversation among our guiri group as well as among Catalan friends and lovers. Some of the recommendations are extreme, to say the least. Granted, any social movement that wants to affect social change has to go to an extreme so that, in societal negotiations, an acceptable middle ground can be found (I’m thinking of the 70s feminist movement). However, being so over the top they open themselves to the ridicule extremists are due. Cue: BCN WEEK. We have excerpted a few of the more difficult questions giving voice to our own anti-hero to represent our two particular cents.

I encourage everyone to look at the Plataforma’s website (www.plataforma-llengua.cat) to get a more complete idea of what they are saying and trying to achieve. And when you’re ready to step up to the Catalan challenge, the organization Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística (www.cpnl.cat) will teach you for free.

Stepping Back from the Edge

by the one and only Adela Lawson

A Catalan friend of mine recently split up with her boyfriend, in part because she felt tricked into believing he was Catalan, when it turned out not to be true. The boyfriend, of Catalan parentage, who did grow up speaking Catalan in his home, also happened to grow up in Venezuela. His parents had emigrated from Catalunya in the 1950s, seeking economic opportunities and an escape from the dictatorship. Catalan was his mother tongue, but she felt, and he concurred, that he was, culturally, more Venezuelan. Language, it turns out, is not always the only, or even the most important, cultural identifier. Not even for Catalans.

Welcome to the complex reality of the present-day residents of Catalunya. It’s a reality informed by centuries of cultural history, 20th century political and social upheaval and repression, and major recent demographic changes. In Barcelona, it’s a reality in which Catalan is not the mother tongue of a significant percentage of the population. Leaving aside for a moment the question of whether it should be, it’s important to look at some of the self-perpetuated reasons it isn’t.

The Plataforma per la Llengua’s new guia Què faig si...? would have readers believe that the only internal reason is the Catalans’ lack of linguistic self-esteem and their failure to speak Catalan to everyone. Naturally, the guide cites historical politico-social factors as well, but these are all external. It ignores several other internal reasons such as that in many parts of Catalunya, and Barcelona in particular, Catalan isn’t the exclusive language in use.

Obviously, one major factor affecting this is the sizeable population of families originally from other parts of Spain. While one can argue that this migration was originally an external influence, the current reality is that there are now many people who were born in Catalunya and who speak castellano at home. They’re not going anywhere. Delicate topic, this, and I won’t try to list all the possible reasons that someone whose mother tongue is castellano or gallego (or valenciano) chooses to primarily speak (or refuses to speak) Catalan to Catalans. What is clear, however, is that if someone’s mother tongue is Castellano, and someone speaks to him in Castellano, he will probably respond in Castellano, thus perpetuating the active bilingualism of this city.

Immigrants from outside Spain are another major factor. If they come here with children, or have them in Catalunya, and are not from a Spanish-speaking country, chances are very good that those children will grow up speaking Catalan naturally, as they are taught it in school. The first-generation immigrants from those same families might also learn a good deal of Catalan, as they may need it to work. But if the immigrants are from Spanish-speaking countries, the same language issues apply as with immigrants from other parts of Spain. Furthermore, if these immigrants only come for a few years, drawn by economic opportunities, and if they feel marginalized by society because of their position in the social hierarchy, they might not have a real impetus to learn Catalan. This is not a wholly external imposition. Catalunya needs and has encouraged immigration in order to boost population numbers and supply cheap labor, but doesn’t have the infrastructure or social programs in place to effectively assimilate the increasing numbers of newcomers.

Lastly, tourism in Barcelona continues to grow. Though in absolute numbers tourists represent a small percentage of the people in the city at any given time, they’re just so much louder. They stick out like sore thumbs all over the center of the city and along Catalunya’s coast, driving up the price of accommodation, getting sloshed and making messes, and speaking nary a word of Catalan. But their presence here is a result of an established, continuing, and highly effective marketing campaign designed to bring tourism dollars to Catalunya, and services are provided to serve these people. This means that if locals think you are a tourist, it’s damn easy to get by speaking nothing but your limited castellano indefinitely. The same is true of the growing university population, filled with large numbers of Europeans who come here, in part, to learn another language. That language is often not Catalan. It’s a sticky problem, because while Catalunya has a rich social and linguistic history, castellano is clearly a more applicable language at the international level.

The sum total of these factors is that Barcelona will never live the same language reality as the pobles, where the language is free of yeísmo and other vocabulary bastardizations, even if every native Catalan speaker refuses to speak anything but Catalan. Unfortunately or fortunately, there are plenty of other people the transient population can talk to.

But let’s back up before we fall over the precipice. As the brochure states, the attitude of Catalan speakers shouldn’t be exclusive or defensive. It should be welcoming and educational. Most people who choose to live in Catalunya, provided that they don’t have a chip on their shoulder prior to coming, will eventually learn how to speak Catalan. Language is a very important element of culture, and one has to assume that people who have chosen to live here want to learn from locals and integrate themselves.

It’s a good idea for people to speak Catalan more regularly, or at least try to initiate conversation in Catalan. If Catalans stifle their laughter and make an effort to understand non-native speakers, many will be more than willing to make fools of themselves, and learn by practicing. But this brochure, man—do people really need to be told how to hold a conversation? Does it boost self-esteem to be told that you have none? And how about the brochure’s introductory excerpt, which compares Catalans to the ex-slaves of the Bahamas? People living under a representative government with the power to tax, fine, jail, and set laws on behalf of its citizens shouldn’t compare those citizens to slaves when half the people they can’t speak Catalan to are probably cleaning their toilets or constructing their homes.

On one note, however, the pamphlet is correct: languages do not live or die on their own. They are both social construct and component, and we create our own reality. Sometimes, when people want to foment major social change, they have to go overboard in order to reach, through negotiation, the desired middle ground. Still, as situations change or improve, so must our tactics. Catalans, better than anyone, know that imposing language on people doesn’t make them want to learn. In Barcelona, we live in a society made richer for its diversity, and we must be realistic about how Catalunya’s complex needs have changed her face and voice.

Obrir la boca i menjar-se la llengua

by Jordi Corominas i Julián

¿Clar i català? Home, jo no diria tant. El ventall robòtic de possibilitats de la llengua en relació amb els guiris residents a Barna no només depèn de la meravellosa política del govern Montillesc. Veiem uns quants exemples i així m’entendreu.

La versió guiri

Obert 1.0: Hi havia una vegada un estranger que arribà a Barcelona. De caràcter tolerant, es preocupà per aprendre determinats aspectes d’allò que hom anomena mentalitat nacional, concepte nodrit per cultura, tradició i costums del país. Trobà més d’un català totalitarista, però el nostre estranger, res a veure amb el de Camus, volia provar molts vins, i això li possibilità conèixer catalans amb les mires més obertes, com les seves. D’aquesta manera entengué que a la terra hi havia dues llengües, vàries comunitats i unes instruccions d’ús. Primer, sobrevisc amb el castellà, però com vull integrar-me al cent per cent vaig empapant-me de cultura catalana i un dia, qui sap si arribarà, m’atreviré amb el català, que al cap i a la fi, no és tan complicat; si ja en sé una mica amb tant cartell i propaganda televisiva! L’estranger triomfà, es tornà políglot i cosmopolita i aportà el seu granet de sorra a Barcelona. La seva curiositat ha rebut el premi de l’aprenentatge d’una nova identitat que complementa l’anterior, aquella amb la que arribà a la Ciutat Comtal.

Tancat 1.0: Hi havia una vegada un estranger que arribà a Barcelona. De caràcter tancat, orgullós a més no poder del seu origen, aterrà a Barcelona seduït per la marca, la qual cosa sol implicar un desconeixement absolut de la ciutat, en ser el nostre personatge, més semblant al de Camus, un superficial de nassos que viu de la futilitat postmoderna. Si hi afegim un encontre nocturn amb un grup de catalans pseudofatxes, l’homo catalanus radical que viu a la irrealitat absoluta, es decebrà i sortirà perdent. ¿Por què no hablan español, que no castellà, estos malditos? ¡Qué maleducados! La nostàlgia de la terra, que no és compensada amb les festes a Danzatoria ni amb el sexe fàcil al centre, farà que lluiti per conèixer gent de les seves contrades, creant allò que antropològicament coneixem com Ghettos lingüístics. Emprarà un castellà de pa sucat amb oli per comunicar-se i, si fracassa, tirarà d’anglès, que per alguna cosa vivim a l’era global. Sense saber-ho, l’estranger adoptarà la forma negativa del país que l’acull, del que mai s’hi sentirà partícip i al que criticarà, dia sí i dia també, rabiós per saber de l’existència d’uns homes amb barretina que mengen pa amb tomàquet amb voluntat d’una llengua, una nació i un... no! Que els catalans pseudofatxes són republicans sense saber ben bé quin és el significat del terme.

La versió catalana

Obert 2.0: El català que considera Catalunya amb mentalitat positiva i que està orgullós de ser bilingüe. Això li permet aprendre amb facilitat altres llengües llatines, quelcom molt important per lligar amb els nouvinguts; el català és un fan d’èpater le bourgeois, i per saber més de tot. Quin és el motiu del seu miracle? Considera Catalunya com una infinitat de cultures en constant evolució, estimant el passat però amb la ment enfocada al futur des del present. Lluitarà perquè l’estranger pugui apreciar els matisos i li parlarà en castellà fins que el nou amic decideixi- llegint, escoltant o apuntant-se a un dels cursos oficials- temptar la sort amb el català. El català obert creu en una cultura de Catalunya, que diferencia de la catalana la qual és un espai tancat ideal per menjar closques i provocar la ignorància de la diversitat.

Tancat 2.0: El català de la ceba no plora perquè té la veritat universal. La seva sang podria ser com la de tots- blaugrana, és clar- però la veu amb quatre barres. És una bandera ambulant carregada de tòpics que demana al Dunkin un Donut de gerd. Si la pobra dependenta, una noia de Logronyo acabada d’arribar a Barcelona, no li dóna, potser la denunciï i tots contents. Enlloc de mirar l’xtube mira el pubillaalcelambdiamants.com i només llegeix l’Avui i la versió catalana d’ El Periódico. Parli amb qui parli, ho farà en català i gaudirà si usa paraules impossibles que deixaran als pobres guiris amb cara d’emoticon frapat de Messenger. Després a casa riurà i criticarà la brutícia de la Plaça Reial, tot culpa dels guiris i els extracomunitaris, que no s’integren. Hauria de pensar que ell tampoc fa res per fer-ho possible. Al seu mapa Mallorca és una illa a reconquerir i Perpinyà la capital de la Catalunya Nord.

Anomalia 3.0: El sud-americà és l’excepció. Com que arriba parlant castellà, no atorga valor a l’ús del català i amb una certa concepció tribal esdevé un cas estrany, el revers de la moneda, amb la mateixa imatge, del català tancat. Parla la llengua del Raúl i el Guti fins i tot quan no toca, i li encanta. ¡Cómo me gusta la huevada! ¿La huevada? Kikiriki!

Solució 4.0: Consultori del Doctor Corominas i Julián? Mi sente? Hola, miri, només li puc aconsellar que no tanqui cap porta i faci crítica de la realitat. El carrer hauria de dictar la llei, però com que vivim a la societat de la imatge, no estaria de més que La teva, aquell ens públic anomenat tv3, deixés la seva rocosa política i acceptés el bilingüisme imperant. D’aquesta manera, les motivacions serien més profundes per a tots i els estrangers podrien pensar que el català, obert o tancat, no és un cec que es nega a acceptar el veritable escenari quotidià, magnífic babel que fa progressar la ciutat per molt que uns pocs, ¿són pocs?, es neguin a acceptar-ho i siguin apòstols feixistes del clar i català o del Me gusta el Ghetto, me gustas tú...je ne parle pas le catalan!