Expanding Catalan Usage

According to Catalan News, the Catalan government is going to invest a lot of money to expand its promotion of the the Catalan language (€200 million per year!). This is great news!

However, two caveats. Both of which are particularly endemic with nearly everything I've seen while living here.

1. The government will give barely any consideration to "accessibility" when trying to get people to learn Catalan, especially foreigners. A couple years ago, I took some government-sponsored free Catalan classes. Some of what I learned stuck, but less than zero effort was made to provide a teacher that could also speak English. I had to learn Catalan while also trying to master Castellano. If you want someone to learn your language, you must meet them halfway, meaning provide a teacher that also speaks the student's language! At higher levels of Catalan learning, sure, total immersion would make sense. But if you want someone to learn your language from zero knowledge then you have to make it easy. You can't afford to sit back on your ego. This mentality is also very evident in public signage around town: The local government will put up signs aimed specifically at tourists, such as "No smoking on the beach" or "Be quiet after 10pm"... But these signs are in Catalan!!! As if it would require the Catalan government to sacrifice their high moral ethics to put it in a language that the tourist will understand, meaning German or English.
2. And it is these "high moral ethics" that will kill this proposed funding. Another thing I've learned while living here (and reading about Catalan history) is that this culture goes all-in with the concept of "Perfect is the enemy of the good". So when the government announces this massive amount of funding for the promotion of the Catalan culture and language, of course some Catalans are unhappy saying "This isn't good enough" and "It's propaganda". I mean, really, FFS. This is the sort of in-fighting that makes us lose wars. Thousands of people will be exposed to the Catalan language and the culture will be strengthened because of this proposal, but you're bitching about it being some sort of subversive tactic by an opposing political party? Get over yourselves.

To be clear, I completely agree with and support the nine objectives laid out in this article. I love the idea that a regional government would take so much pride in its history and culture to invest this kind of money and time. While I don't necessarily buy that Catalan language or culture is being actively persecuted (anymore), it still needs some concrete support and protection so that it doesn't fade away like Welsh or Navaho. I would like to be a part of this solution!

I am very much looking forward to the success of this program and hopefully I can take advantage of some of the offerings.

Poc a poc i bona lletra!