You surely have heard about Barcelona, but did you know that Catalan is the native language there? That there is an entire culture that is different from that of Spain? The Catalan Club is a brand-new project at University of Maryland that aims to bring this distinctive culture to our students. It is projected as an informal gathering to exchange ideas and learn, co-constructing the events together. Som-hi!
Catalan is a Romance language that is spoken by about 8 million people.
The language spoken in Barcelona, as well as València, the Balearic Islands, the south of France, Andorra, and the city of Alghero, in Sardinia.
It is different from Spanish and French, although it bears some resemblance with them (as Romance languages do!).
It is taught at more than 150 universities worldwide.
You can get certified in it by the Ramon Llull Institute.
Anything you want! Since the initiative is new, you will get to voice your interest (Barça, intercultural competence, history, politics, literature, culture, folklore, language, sociolinguistics, cuisine, anything!). Based on the most voted topics, we will prepare workshops and discussions. The goal is to get as hands-on as we can, through workshops, crafts, readings, games, and discussion.
The idea is to address a different aspect each week, and if there is interest in learning the language, there will be two meeting hours, one for language and the other one for discussion.
It will be a weekly one-hour informal gathering. Given the newness of the club, the schedule for it will be set based on the members’ availability, and the club gatherings will start on the first week of October.
Mireia, under the supervision of Dr. Lacorte (Associate Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Director of the MA track in Hispanic Applied Linguistics at UMD)! Mireia is a Ph.D. student in Second Language Acquisition, and she is a native speaker of Catalan born in a masia an hour south of Barcelona. She holds a B.A. in Catalan Language and Literature, an M.A. in Linguistics, and an M.A. in Intercultural Communication, as well as a certificate in TESOL. Besides her diplomas, she is extremely motivated and has been teaching Catalan to Americans in the DC area for the last two years. If we have not convinced you, you can check her out here.
You can send your questions to me, at todacosi@umd.edu. And to sign up you can just fill this survey.