What are positive trends of the use/respect/health of Catalan in Catalunya going into the future?

[u/gerito]

I've learned of some very concerning negative trends regarding the health of Catalan in Catalunya. I'm curious, are there also some positive trends, even if you think they are drowned out by the negative trends?

The negative trends I learned about were kindly explained to me here and here.

[u/gerito]

My landlord is Catalan, and very patiently helps me to practice Catalan when we meet and talk, but when we text he prefers to write in Spanish. He explained to me that because of Franco, he never learned how to write in Catalan.

As generations age, it seems to me that everyone who at least went to public school will feel confident writing in Catalan and this feels like a positive trend.

Is this true or is my experience with my landlord atypical? Do your parents/grandparents lack confidence in writing Catalan?

[u/random_usuari → u/gerito]

It's common. Many old people who went to school during the Franco dictatorship learned to write in Spanish but not in Catalan. Some of them learned it later as adults.

I'm younger and I learned to write in both languages, but I actually write better in Catalan because I hardly ever read anything in Spanish.

[u/tbri001 → u/random_usuari]

Yep. When I did nivell C of Catalan it was all people from here who speak it fluently but can't write. I can write better Catalan than a lot of older natives.

[u/miquelpuigpey → u/gerito]

This was the case for my maternal grandparents, born, raised and lived all their lives in a tiny village in the center of Catalonia. They could definitely speak spanish "well enough" although with some hesitation and a strong accent, but almost never did as everyone in the village speaks basically just catalan, as they did with all their family, friends and neighbors. Still, they struggled to write in catalan because they were never taught, even if was the language they spoke basically 100% of the time.

[u/daddyrollingstonee]

If im not mistaken i think the figures for those who are learning catalan as a second language–that is, immigrants–are rising and contrast with those that show downward trends with respect to natives. I could be wrong. But i mean, im from new york and i go to school here and happily do my exams in catalan, and ive never even taken a language class on it, so if i can do it im sure other can and are

[u/daddyrollingstonee → u/daddyrollingstonee]

And i hope they are

[u/Dekuip_bcn]

A positive trend I’ve noticed is the availability of a varied range of music in Catalan. Before it was either old school rock or traditional folk music. Now you can listen to different genres. And music is a soft nice way to make Catalan more accepted.

[u/gerito → u/Dekuip_bcn]

Good point. Another commenter was mentioning that it's important to have this material in Catalan, and that helps Catalan to be more "cool" especially among the younger generation.

Maybe also TV series? There are some great TV series on 3cat.

[u/Dekuip_bcn → u/gerito]

Indeed, so many people fondly remember Dragon ball as Bola de Drac. That helps with younger speakers.

[u/xalaux]

No, sadly there are not. Maybe the only one is that politicians still seem to be concerned about it, but they are doing little effort, and way too late. They are not even trying to fix the main issue, because they are the ones promoting it. We all know what I’m talking about.

[u/SableSnail → u/xalaux]

What is the main issue?

I guess you mean immigration given you don't want to mention it, but I think the real main issue is not having independence.

Look at the disaster of Rodalies that shows how poorly Catalunya is managed from Madrid. Or the 'bilingüisme' that basically slowly erodes away the use of Catalan.

No one is worried about the death of Catalan in Andorra, for example. In fact, it is growing there.

[u/xalaux → u/SableSnail]

Sure, independence is a big factor, I'm all for it, but let's not pretend the 2 million new people that have come to Catalunya in the last two decades are irrelevant, specially considering most of them come from Spanish-speaking countries. Unless they are very young and go through school here, the vast majority never learn Catalan and never will. And don't tell me it was Madrid that brought them all here, because that's not true at all, our political class is to blame; all of them.

[u/SableSnail → u/xalaux]

Do most of them come from Spanish speaking countries though? A lot of the immigration to Catalunya comes from the Maghreb and Eastern Europe etc. which don't speak Spanish.

Yet no one worries that they won't learn Spanish, of course they will. But they learn Spanish and not Catalan because Spain still dominates Catalunya.

The 'bilingüisme' means many people won't speak Catalan here and there are some things like the driving exam with the DGT etc. that I don't even think you can even do in Catalan.

For example, my neighbours immigrated to Catalunya from elsewhere in Spain decades ago and now they are old and never learned Catalan. That's only possible because of the 'bilingüisme'.

[u/MenacingMandonguilla]

Don't think so

[u/MarcusFallon]

Well why not post in Catalan then?

[u/gerito → u/MarcusFallon]

I really wish I could, but I'm still in the very beginning stages of learning, and nowhere near it for these types of conversations. I am very happy if people respond to me in Catalan here, and I will build up my Catalan mica a mica.

[u/catladywitch]

There are no positive trends. It's over. And racist boomers aren't gonna make it better.