Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.
Christopher Howse: A Pilgrim in Spain
Spanish Life- Are they taking the piss? After 8 weeks of incessant rain we get this. Oh, I forgot . . . Meteorologically speaking, winter doesn't start here for another couple of days. BTW . . The worst thing about the rain is that it knocks out my satellite reception of British TV.
- Thinking of taking out Spanish citizenship because: 1. You fear the consequences of Brexit, and 2. You like to be stressed out? Here's all you need to know, courtesy of The (ever-informative) Local.
- Surprising stats about the percentage of 'social housing' of the national/regional totals:-
Denmark: 21
Sweden: 19
UK: 18 [Really?]
France: 16
Finland: 13
Spain: 3
Germany: 3 [?]
Estonia: 3
Portugal: 2
Galician Life
- Are they taking the piss? After 8 weeks of incessant rain we get this. Oh, I forgot . . . Meteorologically speaking, winter doesn't start here for another couple of days.
- Last month's rain was 53% above the norm. Good to know. BTW . . The worst thing about it is that it knocks out my satellite reception of British TV.
- The EU is worried about the demise of Galician (Gallego/Galego), says El País here, in Spanish. Shades of Canute? I can't say I've noticed the cited 'obstacles' here in Pontevedra. Rather the opposite. See Google's translation below.
- Just in case anyone's interested, here's the timeline of the various specious promises made about the arrival of the AVE high-speed train here, since 2000. As I've said, it was originally promised for . . . 1993. So, will be at least 30 years late when it finally does happen.
The USA
- An immense surprise: Ffart's letter to Pelosi was 'packed with lies'. I guess that means by the normal definition of the word 'lies'. Not, say, "Untruths which I - in my bizarre, self-serving parallel world - firmly and psychotically believe to be totally true."
- Dear dog. An 8-year-old Texan boy who unboxes and reviews toys has topped a list of the highest-earning YouTube stars after making almost £20 million in a year. The second highest-earning channel was Dude Perfect, on £15.2 million. This follows 5 American friends in their 30s who perform stunts and try to break world records. A Russian-American 5-year-old came in third. Her videos show her playing with her father, dressing up and visiting amusement parks. She made £13.7 million.
- The billionaire boss of the online gambling company Bet365 has cemented her status as Britain’s best paid CEO, after she took home a salary of £323 million. In 2000 she took a punt on the burgeoning world of online gambling and co-founded Bet365 in a Portakabin in a Stoke-on-Trent car park with her brother. I know that car park . . .
- Words of the Day:
- Pichichi: Leading goal scorer.
- Boutad: Google says this is Galician for 'bladder', cf. Spanish vejiga. But my go-to friend on these things says it's vexiga in Galician. And he should know.
Finally . . .
- I hope I'm not alone in finding this sentence amusingly bizarre: It was completed in the early 1500s before being registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
THE ARTICLE
The Council of Europe warns of the serious retreat of the Galician language
The agency questions education in Galicia and denounces that the obstacles persist in health and justice for all co-official languages
Spain breaches its European commitments to preserve the linguistic richness of the continent. This is stated by the committee of ministers of the Council of Europe, which has just issued a report with recommendations in which it calls on the Spanish Government to strengthen the use of co-official languages in the Central Administration and guarantee the right of citizens who speak them to Use them in legal proceedings. The Strasbourg-based institution also urges the regional authorities of Galicia to eliminate the limits imposed on classrooms in their own languages.
The fifth official diagnosis on the degree of compliance in Spain of the European Charter for Minority Languages, a 1992 treaty but to which the Spanish State acceded in 2001, is the toughest. The Council of Europe criticizes the lack of progress and reiterates the need to reform Article 231 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary. This rule states that the use of a co-official language "is only allowed if neither party opposes." What should be guaranteed, European experts object, is that it can be used whenever requested by one of the parties.
The Ministry of Territorial Policy argues that the State Council report covers the period 2014-2016 with the PP in the Government, so it does not take into account the advances promoted by the PSOE, such as distance courses for officials, recognition of the co-official languages as merits in the transfer competitions or the salary supplement that will be charged from 2020 by employees who use them. What Meritxell Batet's department does not clarify is whether the law of the judiciary will be amended as expressly requested by European experts.
Galician is lost in schools
The Council of Europe especially affects the serious setback that Galician is suffering. “The process of degleguization is being very fast because the appropriate policies are not adopted to maintain the minority regional language that has more speakers in Europe,” agrees the sociolinguist Henrique Monteagudo.
In the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, the percentage of children who never speak Galician has skyrocketed almost 15 points in a decade, from 29.59% in 2008 to 44.13% in 2018, according to the Galician Institute of Statistics . To appreciate the rupture of the generational transmission that these figures reflect, it is enough to compare them with the number of grandparents who express themselves only in Castilian: 13%. "The transmission of the language from parents to children is no longer guaranteed and, therefore, the proportion of students with a command of Galician as a language of daily life has also decreased significantly," said the Council of Europe, which focuses on the problem in schools and urges the Government of Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP) to reverse the model that was established in 2010.
In Galicia, for 9 years, schools and institutes must teach the same number of subjects in Spanish as in the community's own language. The previous system, implemented by the two-party PSOE and BNG based on a plan approved by Manuel Fraga, allowed to teach more classes in Galician.
The Council of Europe concludes that the presence of the language itself in the education system of Galicia "is insufficient, particularly at the preschool level". “By signing the European Charter for Minority Languages, Spain promised to have an education line entirely in Galician and does not exist. It is a flagrant breach of a State commitment, ”says Monteagudo, secretary of the Royal Galician Academy. The PP abolished voluntary language immersion programs that worked in early childhood education to facilitate the learning of Galician to children from Spanish-speaking environments.
The [PP] Xunta does not intend to comply with the recommendation of the Council of Europe. The Government of Feijóo clings to the “legality” of its educational model and emphasizes that the latest statistical data it handles reveals that the number of Galician speakers haas increased from 50.9% to 51.88%. The Galician president admits the fall among the youngest but maintains that the solution is to promote "promotional campaigns".
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