PODCAST: Catalan language under threat? – school and streaming woes
Are social, political and technological challenges putting the long-term survival of Catalan at risk?
is catalan a language
PODCAST: Parlem català? – Learning Catalan, at home and abroad
Listeners from around the world on how and why they learned Catalan and their favorite words
Education minister sends questionnaire to schools to validate their language plans
Deadline to introduce 25% Spanish quota in classrooms expires as new government decree says it will 'not apply' it
Court sets 2-week deadline for government to introduce Spanish quota in schools
Magistrates order education minister to give instructions and set controls to make sure 25% of teaching is in Spanish and not all in Catalan
Culture minister calls for everyone to join national pact for Catalan language
First meeting in February ahead of public consultation on way forward for Catalan
Judge imposes 25% of Spanish in Canet de Mar classroom, sparking tensions
Catalan government says judges "make decisions without knowledge of reality" as Supreme Court decision to introduce Spanish not yet complied with
'You can watch 35 movies in Catalan and 93 in Icelandic on Disney+ in Catalonia'
Catalan faces constant difficulties to survive on a social and administrative level, say activists
Half a million fewer usual Catalan speakers than in 2005, says report
Plataforma per la Llengua survey states that 8 in 10 switch languages when someone talks to them in Spanish
‘Viquipèdia’ 20 years on - Catalan language Wikipedia celebrates two decades of activity
Catalan version of the free online encyclopedia boasts the first article written not in English
What's the point in learning Catalan?
Catalan News talks to a number of Catalan-speaking foreign residents who share their thoughts on learning the language
Over 150 world universities offer Catalan studies courses
Autonomous University of Madrid joins Catalan Studies Network that includes institutions on four continents providing classes to 6,200 students
PP splits Valencian society with its Identity Signs Law against Catalan language and scientific criteria
The People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government and holds an absolute majority in the regional parliament of the Valencian Community (also called Valencian Country), has approved the Law on Identity Signs with votes from party members only. The Law entered into force this Friday. The new regional rule sets what are Valencia's identity symbols and traditions, and also insists on defining Valencian as a totally different language from Catalan, going against all scientific studies and experts. It also foresees sanctions for any organisation which states that Valencian is a dialect of Catalan. During the last few decades, Valencian regionalist politicians – most of whom have a strong Spanish nationalist ideology – have been working on differentiating the Valencian dialect from Catalan spoken in the rest of the territories that have Catalan as their native language. The PP has strongly contributed to this split, politicising the unity of Catalan language and also splitting Valencian society over identity issues.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies to offer Catalan language and culture studies
From April 2014, thanks to an agreement signed with the Institut Ramon Llull (IRL), the public body in charge of promoting Catalan culture abroad, the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) will offer a comprehensive course dedicated to the Catalan language and culture. The TUFS, one of the most prestigious institutions for language studies in Japan, will be the second university in the country to provide such training after the Hosei University - also in Tokyo - implemented a similar course in 2010. In the coming months, the TUFS will also host several events to strengthen the bonds between Catalonia and Japan, notably the symposium ‘Facts and fiction about independence, a plural view on Catalonia’.