In 2005, the Catalan was given a wake-up call with Queta. Now, eighteen years later, that talking mouth has been modernized, it works with a button, it has acquired multiple voices and you can give it the look you want. In the Palau Robert in Barcelona, the Ministers of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, and of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, will present the new campaign to promote the use of Catalan, with the motto "Try it in Catalan. Much to talk about, much to live."
“La Queta of 2005 was a single voice and now there are many. Now she has arms and legs so she can be customized and represents the whole world with all the accents,” Garriga said. The campaign is one of the 100 measures that the Generalitat announced at the end of last year to promote the use of the Catalan language, in parallel to the Pacte per la Llengua, in the process of being drawn up with broad parliamentary support.
“One of the objectives is that, from the outset, we use Catalan with whom we speak and maintain it, without prejudice. With the desire to add, to unite, to be positive ”, continued the Minister of Culture. With this objective, a new website has been set up with linguistic resources "so that we don't have to change languages". The Moltperparlar.cat website contains information on learning Catalan and ideas on the use of the language. Garriga also pointed out that "in the calendar there are two electoral days and, then, this campaign will stop."
The event that was held at the Palau Robert yesterday afternoon, with background music that was not in Catalan, was presented by the actress Natalia Sánchez, "from Madrid through and through", as she defined herself, but who speaks the Alba de Vic language with a perfect central accent. This has allowed him to act for the first time in a play in Catalan, FitzRoy, by Jordi Galceran, at the Borràs theatre.
After the video, some of the singers performed the promotional song, recorded by Oriol de Ramon and Xavier Coca (The Tyets, from Maresme), Kelly Isaiah (of the Nigerian group Koers), and Sandra Monfort from Valencia, Clara from Mallorca Fiol and the Catalan Selma Bruna (from Marala Trio). A range of accents of the same language, which is one of the purposes of the campaign.
For her part, the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, stated: "From the Government we act firmly to protect and defend our language, because language defines us and unites us." The minister considers that "it is our strength as a country", and that is why she exhibited the initiatives that are already underway. Of the 100 measures that were presented in November, there are 51 that are already on their way. “Now this campaign has to help us in the awareness part, so that all citizens get involved in this absolutely necessary reinforcement of the use of Catalan”, she concluded.
Also present at the event was the General Secretary for Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, who gave an analysis of the current situation of Catalan: “It is a complex situation because there are many aspects that stress the language. But there is a very important one: the cultural one. But we Catalans have something too internalized, which is switching to Spanish when we think or suspect that the other person will not understand us. Every time we deprive ourselves of this stimulus, of encouraging the other person to speak Catalan, we are preventing the other person from learning it”.
Catalan version, here
