Hundreds of Catalan learners call government to offer classes for 200,000 people

Hundreds of new Catalan language speakers have joined a promotional campaign launched by Òmnium Cultural civil society group, calling for the Catalan government to offer more language classes.

Òmnium is promoting that everyone living in Catalonia should have access to Catalan, even if they are just living, studying, or working in the territory.

The campaign featuring Catalan language speakers born outside of the territory calls for the regional executive to offer language courses to at least 200,000 people per year and offer the service across all municipalities in Catalonia.

The civil society group wants the government to offer courses to 200,000 people annually during the next decade. Promoters also call for Catalan speakers to not "automatically" switch to any other language and to speak it "without any prejudices."

"We cannot lose any more time," Catalan learners say, calling for the right to access the language and a "worthy" life where Catalan is a common language.

The text states that non-native speakers "believe that all those who live, study, or work in Catalonia should have access to the Catalan language, but that is not the case right now. "

Finding places and people who speak Catalan in their surroundings is "not very easy." Many people automatically switch to Catalan based on the color of their skin, accent, or appearance, which "excludes us and bans us from moving forward as a society."

They say that the language courses offered are not enough, as there are over two million people interested in learning Catalan, especially in rural areas where these courses are not offered and have very "incompatible" schedules with work-life balance.

Data revealed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN) in October showed that at least 9,000 people are on waiting lists to access one of the Catalan courses offered by the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization, a group of public institutions.

This number set an all-time high, as demand increased by 10,000 requests since 2019, while only 1,500 new places had been created.

The manifesto was published on Monday, just a few days before the Catalan government releases a new survey on society's language use. The last one was issued in 2018.

Authorities will unveil the study based on 2023 and early 2024 data on Wednesday. It was scheduled to be published by the end of last year, but the May 12 Catalan election delayed its publication.

Back in 2018, the study showed that 94.4% of inhabitants aged 15 years or older understood the Catalan language. Meanwhile, experts said that 81.2% were able to read in Catalan.