Flyer for tourists given in the 1970s by the Catalan independentist and revolutionary communist party PSAN (Socialist Party of National Liberation of the Catalan Countries).
It has a map of the Catalan Countries and a text in Catalan, Spanish, French, English and German that says:
You are in the Catalan Countries (North Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Valencia, Principalities of Andorra and Catalonia), a nation oppressed by the Spanish and French states that struggles to achieve national, social and economic liberties.
Source: Centre de Documentació de l'Esquerra Independentista.
Which are the Catalan Countries? (each Catalan country)
Where can I learn the Catalan language? (free online resources and where to find classes)
What social media accounts can I follow that post in Catalan?
Other Tumblr blogs similar to this one but for other cultures of the world.
If your question isn't answered here, you're more than welcome to send me an ask!
1. Who are the Catalans? Where are they?
Catalan people are a cultural group who come from the area known as the Catalan Countries. We speak the Catalan language (a language that descends from Latin) and have a distinct culture (cuisine, traditions, holidays, dances, music, literature, etc) and history since the Middle Ages.
Our nation is the Catalan Countries, located in the coast of the Mediterranean sea, in South-Western Europe.
As a result of past wars and invasions, most of the Catalan Countries are under Spanish rule and a part of it is under French rule (+1 city in Italy). In fact, Spain and France have harshly persecuted, illegalized and tried to exterminate the Catalan language and culture for a long time, well into the 20th century. But Catalan people have survived the ethnocide and we still exist, even though we continue to face discrimination and there are some settings where it's still not legal to speak Catalan (for example, public schools in the French-controlled part, or European Union ambits, among some others).
There is also Catalan diaspora around the world.
We are not a closed culture, we are very open to foreigners learning our language and culture, and the Catalan diaspora often organizes celebrations for our holidays or groups to do traditional activities (most famously the castellers, aka human towers) that everyone can join.
2. Which are the Catalan Countries?
We say the Catalan Countries in plural because it's made of different areas for historical reasons. The Catalan Countries are all the areas where Catalan is the native language, which have historically been part of a whole, and which share a common culture (with local variants, of course). Here they are:
From North to South:
Northern Catalonia. Capital city: Perpinyà. It's under French administration (part of the region Occitanie in the new French regions system, used to be Languedoc-Roussillon in the old one).
Andorra. Capital city: Andorra la Vella. It's an independent microstate.
Catalonia. Capital city: Barcelona. It's under Spanish administration (it's the Catalonia region in the Spanish regions system).
Eastern Strip, also called Aragon Strip. It's under Spanish administration (it's part of the region of Aragon in the Spanish regions system).
Balearic Islands, including Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa (in English also known as Ibiza) and Formentera. Capital city: Palma. Under Spanish administration (Balearics region in the Spanish regions system).
Valencian Country. Capital city: València. Under Spanish administration (called Valencian Community in the Spanish regions system).
El Carxe. Tiny rural area. Under Spanish administration (part of the Region of Murcia in the Spanish regions system).
L'Alguer. One city in the island of Sardinia. Under Italian administration (part of the region of Sardinia in the Italian regions system).
3. Where can I learn the Catalan language?
We are thrilled that you want to learn our language. Catalan people love it when others learn our language. Here I'll link you to classes and free online resources.
If you want face-to-face classes outside of the Catalan Countries, you can check this website to find if there's a university that offers Catalan classes near you. There are 101 around Europe, 25 in North America and Cuba, 5 in Asia, and 4 in South America. Students from these courses can also participate in language stays and internships in the Catalan Countries.
If you're already in the Catalan Countries, you will easily find courses for foreigners which the government offers for free or for a cheap price (depending on the level and each person's economic situation). Check out your local CPNL (Consorci per la Normalització Lingüística).
If you want to learn independently on the internet, there are two resources I recommend the most, both are available online for free.
One is the book "Life in Catalonia. Learn Catalan from..." that you can find in various languages. Here I add the link to the official government page where you can legally download the PDFs for free, you only have to scroll down and click under where it says "text complet". You can find the book Learn Catalan from English, from Spanish, from Arabic, from Tamazight, from French, from Hindi, from Urdu, from Punjabi, from Romanian, from Russian, and from Chinese.
The other resource I recommend the most is the online course Parla.cat. It has different levels for beginners or advanced learners. You have to create an account (it asks for an official document number, don't worry about it, it's not a sketchy site, it's because it's an official course paid by the government of Catalonia and if you immigrated to Catalonia having taken this course would officially count as a language course and can give you some benefits). You can either use it for free (all the learning material is available in the free version) or you can use the paying version. In the paid version, you will get assigned a language teacher from Catalonia who can help you and correct you.
There are many more resources. You can find more free resources in this post, this post, or in this link.
Here you have some recommendations to start practising. And remember that you can watch Catalonia's public TV streaming service 3Cat for free from anywhere in the world!
4. I want to follow social media accounts that post in Catalan. Can you tell me some?
Of course! According to the WWW Consortium, Catalan is the 35th most used language on the Internet, out of the more than 7,000 languages in the world.
Here's some lists with recommendations by topic:
Anime and manga
Cooking
Travel accounts
Videogames
Fashion and lifestyle
Folk culture
More lists will be coming soon
Update: a new website has been published which lists people who post in Catalan by topic. Find it here: llista.cat.
If your question wasn't answered, you can send me a question clicking here. 🙂 You can also browse this blog by topics here.
5. Can you recommend other blogs like this one but for other cultures of the world?
Yes, I made a list of recommendations in this post.
What’s the difference between Catalan Countries and Catalonia?
This is a confusion we see often. As you can see in the following map, the Catalan Countries (in Catalan called Països Catalans) are all the areas where the Catalan language is spoken (with its different dialects) and the Catalan traditions and culture are celebrated, ans that share a common history.
Catalonia is only one part of the Catalan Countries, and it’s neither more nor less important than the others. In the last years, Catalonia has become more famous to foreigners, so out of ignorance there’s been a trend of foreigners identifying all Catalan people as people from Catalonia, where this is not the reality.
The other areas of the Catalan countries are the following: Northern Catalonia (occupied by France), Andorra (an independent microstate), the Balearic islands (occupied by Spain), the Valencian Country (occupied by Spain), the Western Strip (administratively in the Aragon region of Spain), El Carxe (in the Murcia region of Spain), and the city of L’Alguer (in the Sardinia island of Italy).
Each region has some own traditions, celebrations, food, etc, but we all share a general Catalan (not Catalonian!) culture and the Catalan language, and we all share a common history (and present) of oppression.
