12 November 2009

Euskara and Català: Disparities in Language Promotion

These past few days, I have been going through my online resources for Euskara and Català as I previously mentioned doing a master list so anyone reading this blog can look through and select what can be of use. As I was doing this, I realized that resources in Català dominate in quantity, quality and availability. I then started to wonder, "What can the Basque Country learn from Catalunya when it comes to promoting their language?"

Before I go on, I would first like to make it clear that my goal in all this is to share my observations and maybe inspire people (as well as myself) to help make a change. The last thing I would want is for anyone involved in creating the resources in Euskara to feel that I am in any way putting them down or belittling the hard work that they put into it. Far from it! I have made use of and benefited from a lot of resources but I feel that there is still room for improvement especially when it comes to making these resources available for the use of people who would can only learn it through English and not Spanish or French.

In order try and find solutions to the language promotion problems in Euskara we must first find out what is not quite working or what needs to be improved upon. As I was forming my list, I kept in mind that I needed to look at it from the perspective of my target audience: English-speaking language-learners who do not live in the Basque Country.


  1. There are not enough resources in English - When I first started looking for materials I could use to learn a bit more about Euskara, I wanted something light, something that would give me a bit of an idea about how the language works without doing my head in with all the complex grammar rules (i.e. textbooks). I was only able to find one book that met those requirements: Beginner's Basque by Wim Jansen.

  2. There are few quality online courses/programs - One of the reasons I ended up using the BOGA program is because it was the only choice that would meet my requirements: good quality and low cost. The other program I was looking into, UNR's Basque Studies course, failed on the low cost department. I think that there are a lot of other study guides for Euskara online but only a few actual structured programs that will take a person through all necessary levels.

  3. Books in Euskara are hard to come by - I remember early on I wanted to get a children's book in Euskara so I could at least read something basic along with the help of my dictionary. I did find a couple of online bookstores with great books at reasonable prices, except shipping to the US was something to the tune of 27€.

  4. There is a stigma attached to Euskara - There is a website I sometimes visit that has a chat where language learners can meet up for language-exchanges. When I joined the chatroom in Spanish, I met more than a couple of people living in Spain who tried to talk me out of learning Euskara and I got reasons such as: "It is the language that the terrorists use", "It is the language of the radicals", "It's too difficult- you will never be able to learn it", "It's a language of the rural folk" and so on. Now, I personally found some of those reasons to be ignorant and offensive however, that sort of mindset is unfortunately quite common.


Now that the problems have been identified it is time to answer (or at least try to) the question: "What can the Basque Country learn from Catalunya when it comes to promoting their language?"

In truth, I don't really know what can be done to improve the quantity and quality of resources for learning Euskara. I would like to say that more funding is necessary however I am not completely sure that lack of funding is indeed the reason behind it. I sometimes think that maybe it's also because the resources created are targeted mainly for a certain audience (the Spanish or French-speaking audience) and because of this, there is a disparity in quantity of resources available. When it comes to finding resources for learning Català on the other hand, I have been able to find a lot of books in English as well as a lot of good quality and low cost online programs and each and every one of those programs is can be accessed in at least three languages (Parla.cat can be accessed in five).

As for finding books written in Euskara, I would really love to find out one day that there is a US-based online bookstore that would meet those needs. One of my main sources for finding books in languages other than English is Bookmooch and it is far easier to find books there in Català (in fact there are a lot of members from Catalunya) than in Euskara. I think that if those books are readily available then the learning process would be much easier.

The last part is the most difficult one of them all. How does one go about changing other people's negative perceptions of their language? How can we go about convincing people that Euskara is a language for everyone and not just for a certain set of people or a certain set of political beliefs? I believe that this is particularly a cause for concern because it could turn off people who want to learn Euskara, people who were searching for support and found nothing but negativity instead.
I believe that more needs to be done to present Euskara (and Basque culture, as a whole) in a more positive light. I think that it would be unrealistic to try and occult the negative aspects but if the positive aspects can be brought to the forefront, then the negative will not be so overwhelming.

When I first thought of writing about this topic in my blog, I didn't want to set out to try and find concrete answers but I felt that if I saw something that needed to change, I should at least try to find a solution. I may not have figured it all out, but I hope I at least got some wheels turning. Maybe this could be the start of great things to come.

11 comments:

  1. I want to learn Euskara (or Euskera?) too. Can you recommend a book or a program?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very interesting post!
    I think (in an ideal world) for a language to be an attractive study option for learners, you need learning resources available that are:

    1. FREE
    2. Plentiful
    3. High quality
    4. Have audio (you can't learn a language without it)
    5. Easily accesible (via the internet)
    6. With explanations in English and other widely spoken languages.

    Until only about eight years ago, there were no Catalan Book/CD courses that satisfied all these criteria. There was 'Teach Yourself Catalan' but it had no audio and there was 'Digui Digui' but it had no English explanations. This has now been rectified with a few Book/CD courses and I agree that there are a decent amount of Catalan resources available if you look around.

    As for how to get more lessons available in less widely studied languages (such as Basque), I think the answer is to make it easy for anyone who speaks one of these languages to make lessons themselves which fulfill all the above criteria. An easy way for people to teach eachother. That is why I made my program (www.mylanguagenotebook.com).
    If say, ten Basque speakers decided to each make a set of lessons using MLN, there would suddenly be a whole lot more Basque material available on the web. Not all of it would be high quality but I am sure that some of it would be, like the Manx lessons here made by a Manx speaker:
    http://www.mylanguagenotebook.com/learn_manx.aspx

    As for the stigma attached to learning Basque, I think what you said here is true:
    "if the positive aspects can be brought to the forefront, then the negative will not be so overwhelming."

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Anonymous

    Hi there! A few pages back, I posted an entry called "So you want to learn Euskara..." and in it I write the different methods people can use to learn the language, from learning in in the Basque Country to learning it through self-study books.

    Technically, the Euskaltzaindia (Royal Academy of the Basque Language) says that Euskara is the official name of the language, however, in Spanish it is perfectly acceptable to call it Euskera and sometimes, that name is transferred over into English. In any case, it can just be a matter of preference. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Jim

    Thanks! I definitely agree with you on all six points, especially when it comes to audio. I use a lot of self-study books without buying the tapes but I make up for that through listening to the language online (news clips, songs, words on Forvo.com, etc).

    I would also add that the resources have to be double checked by a native English speaker (or a native-speaker of their target audience) so that the explanations actually make sense from the point of view of the student.

    I totally agree with you! More Basques needs to start actively promoting the language and I really do think that even mid-quality work can be beneficial and it would be great if more people come on board to help improve the quality and quantity of the resources.

    I long for the day when I can tell a stranger the word: "Basque" and they think of something positive instead of something engative.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think that part of this negative vision has nothing to do with the language per se. It is of course a difficult language for us because its structure differs from Romanic or Germanic languages, but this is not negative, as far as I see it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Anna

    That's true, the negative vision has more to do with the politics of the Basque Country rather than the language. Unfortunately, it does have negative effects on learning the language.

    I think the difficulty of learning the language isn't too big of an issue especially for people who have found a strong enough reason for wanting to learn it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Isabel! I'm learning Basque and Catalan too :)

    There's a really great Basque learning website I found useful, and it's availble in English too.

    http://www.hiru.com/ikastaroak/ikasten

    I think that service is provided by the EITB.

    I'm not too sure how useful it is as I only did the first few lessons. I found I learned a lot more from a Spanish-language guide called BAKARRA. I'm not sure where you'd get it in N. America though. I imagine it wouldn't cost all that much to import it.

    Good luck with it!

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Chris

    That's fantastic! :)

    I've heard about Ikasten and I'm not sure how similar that is to BOGA but I suspect they might be quite similar in structure.

    I haven't heard of BAKARRA but I do know of a set of self-study books written in Spanish called "Bakarka". I use that in conjunction with BOGA as there are some grammatical concepts that are easier for me to grasp in Spanish than in English. I was able to find the whole 5-volume set on Abebooks.com but they are also available on Elkar.com

    How are you doing on your studies in Euskara? and in Català?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Basque = negative. Personally, the term 'Basque' has never had negative connotations for me. When I hear the word I immediately think of mountain folk and the last Ice Age. My next thought is of the most exotic and difficult European language and like a Victorian mountaineer in the Alps I feel a great urge to climb it, even though I don't need to!

    Yes, I agree that anyone and everyone in the Basque country should have a stab at promoting their own language. If there are any Basque native speakers reading this, please, have a look at what this Madrilena and her English bloke have done for Castilian (out of nearly nothing - read the history of their blogs), and see if you can't do something similar for yourselves - and us!

    http://www.notesfromspain.com/ Spanish culture (surely the Basques have as much to offer - and some of this material to reclaim for the Basque nation too!)

    http://www.notesfromspain.com/ Spanish language podcasts - now a real 'empire' and undoubtedly the best podcasting service I have seen on the web for any language.

    Go on, promote yourselves! You have everything to be proud of!

    ReplyDelete
  10. @ Father John:

    I'm glad that the term Basque has no negative connotation for you. :) If you're thinking about learning Basque, I'd say go for it! It might be difficult and it might take a while, but I'm sure once you reach the summit, the view will be spectacular.

    I love Notes from Spain and Notes in Spanish! I've recommended it to a lot of my friends, and it's been a great help for beginners.

    ReplyDelete