Discovering Catalan as a linguistics content creator

"I've always been into linguistics, so that was sort of my life passion. But just about three years ago, I thought, why don't I start making videos about this? And one thing led to another, and here I am in Barcelona now doing a master's in linguistics for a year," said Griffin Bassett, or @wordsatwork as they're known on TikTok. 

Bassett's short-form videos on sociolinguistics, constructed languages, and etymology have gained an audience of more than 450,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. They're now three months into a master's program at Pompeu Fabra University, where they're studying applied linguistics. 

"The reason I was like, I'm going to do a masters in Barcelona was because of the whole Catalan situation," Bassett told Catalan News. "Barcelona is just such a cool city in that way, such a multilingual city. And I was very curious about that."

Before leaving their native Chicago for Barcelona, Bassett wasn't sure how much Catalan they would actually hear in day-to-day life. But on their second day in the city, a conversation with a classmate in an elevator inspired them to start learning the language. 

"She's being very friendly, you know, 'Whereabouts are you from? What language do you prefer?' And I said, 'Anything works, I guess Spanish.' And she's like 'oh, okay,'" remembered Bassett. "And then another girl came into the elevator and they just started talking in Catalan. And then she said, 'oh, he doesn't speak Catalan.' It was just kind of awkward after that. Not their fault, but I was like, all right, I'm never going to feel like this again if I can help it. I'm learning this language because you can see how much it means to people."

Since then, Bassett has been self-studying, attending language exchanges, and speaking in Catalan with friends from Pompeu Fabra. They've found that members of Barcelona's Catalan-speaking community have been excited to practice the language with learners, even absolute beginners. 

"In my experience, a lot of people have been like, 'Really? Oh my gosh, let's only speak Catalan! I wrote you a whole sheet of advice about your grammar constructions if you want to use this direct object pronoun correctly!' One of my friends gave me a little cheat sheet that I keep in my wallet," they said. "There's just such a joy to it. And that is what I think makes a language easier to learn, is if people are really willing to meet you where you're at."

Bassett has also incorporated what they've learned about Catalan into their linguistics content on social media. In one recent video, they share what they've noticed about Barcelona's linguistic landscape and how language on signage varies. In another, they break down Catalan's dialect groupings, vowel reduction, and infamously complicated weak pronouns. As a linguist, they've been drawn to the language's grammatical precision and regional variation. 

Although they'll likely only be in Barcelona for a year before returning to the U.S., Bassett believes there's still value in learning a lesser-spoken language. 

"I think if you learn a language, even if it's a more obscure language or there's less opportunities to use it outside of where it's spoken, it guides you to opportunities that you might not have sniffed out otherwise," they said, remembering when a museum they worked at in Chicago last year received a letter written in a language no one recognized at first. It turned out to be Catalan. 

For Bassett, learning languages is also an exercise in building confidence by leaning into the inevitably embarrassing mistakes of navigating daily situations in a new language. And in their experience, the enthusiasm to support new Catalan speakers makes it one of the easiest languages to learn. 

"I do think it makes Barcelona feel a lot different while you're here," they said.