Language plays an important role in social cohesion and in the feeling of belonging among both long-time residents and newcomers. Thus, at Fundació Vincle we are firmly committed to campaigns that bring people together through the Catalan language, so that newcomers can forge ties of cultural and linguistic belonging in this country.
The Catalan language needs to be the backbone of our community and the common denominator amid our diversity.
Manual of Basic Vocabulary for the Telecommunications Sector (Catalan, Urdu, Punjabi and Amazigh) (2020)
Fundació Vincle and other institutions and associations collaborate in developing the material promoted by Plataforma per la Llengua. The aim of this manual is to make Catalan more accessible to the Urdu-, Punjabi- and Bengali-speaking business owners who operate in the telecommunications sector, making them aware of the importance of incorporating Catalan into their daily lives and to improve their customer relations. The manual responds to the language needs of Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi speakers who work in telecommunications establishments, as most of these establishments are run by native speakers of those languages. It offers educational material containing general vocabulary as well as specific vocabulary for the telecommunications sector, frequent expressions, greetings and phrases associated with interpersonal relations, etc. In addition, it offers examples of everyday situations that might take place in a telecommunications shop and includes a final section dedicated to resources with a list of websites on topics such as opening a business, translation and proofreading services, bilingual teaching materials for learning Catalan, Catalan language courses, etc.
See the manual here: 2020 Manual vocabulari bàsic telecomunicacions català-urdú-panjabi-amazic.
Points of Contact: Sabadell Sud Project (2019)
During 2019, Fundació Vincle continued to focus on the areas of belonging and social cohesion with two Points of Contact projects: on the one hand, the continuation and further elaboration of the Action Plan in Sabadell Sud; on the other hand, actions were completed as part of the La Mina project. Both projects were carried out in collaboration with Plataforma per la Llengua. The goals of the Sabadell Sud project include making the different groups aware of the importance of the social use of Catalan as a language of opportunities and citizen participation; making Catalan more accessible to religious organisations and their members; promoting the social involvement of newcomers from the 6th district of Sabadell through the adoption of the Catalan language; increasing the visibility of Catalan in the neighbourhood’s businesses; and making Catalan accessible to people of foreign origins who do not speak it regularly so it can serve as a tool for cohesion and integration in a society that is free from racism and gender discrimination. The news item is available here.
Publication of New Leaflets El català, llengua d’oportunitats al comerç de Sabadell (2019)
The publication of these leaflets is part of the Points of Contact campaign: Sabadell Sud project, carried out by Fundació Vincle in collaboration with Plataforma per la Llengua. The content of the leaflets is a list of vocabulary provided by the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística, translated into Chinese and divided into four categories: cafés, bazaars, fruit and vegetable shops, and clothing shops. Thus, it expands on the commercial sectors that were included in the different leaflets in 2018.
You can find them all here:
2019 leaflet fruit and vegetable vocabulary Catalan-Chinese in Sabadell
2019 leaflet bazaar vocabulary Catalan-Chinese in Sabadell
2019 leaflet café vocabulary Catalan-Chinese in Sabadell
2019
2019 leaflet clothing shop vocabulary Catalan-Chinese in Sabadell
Study: La vitalitat del català als establiments comercials al districte 6è de Sabadell (2019)
Fundació Vincle collaborated on a study of the vitality of the Catalan language among businesses in the 6th district of Sabadell. The study was presented by Plataforma per la Llengua in the Creu de Barberà neighbourhood. The study, called La vitalitat del català als establiments comercials al districte 6è de Sabadell [The vitality of Catalan in the commercial establishments in Sabadell’s 6th district] assesses the situation of the Catalan language and is part of the Comprehensive Linguistic Action Plan for Sabadell Sud, developed by the NGO in defence of the Catalan language. The signage, spoken customer attention, logos and websites of all the establishments in the district were reviewed and the data is worrying: only 20% of the commercial establishments in the district fully incorporate the Catalan language. If we differentiate between the neighbourhood’s two sectors, the result is 22% for Creu de Barberà and 15% for the Southern Sector. By industries, restaurants are one of the most prevalent types of business in the district, with 90 establishments, and their situation is one of the most unfavourable for the language: the presence of Catalan is optimal in only 5%, compared to 48% where Catalan has no presence at all. 74% of establishments are classified in the two lowest categories. Plataforma per la Llengua and Fundació Vincle both intend to make an effort to improve this situation.
Consult the study here: 2019 La vitalitat del català als establiments comercials al districte 6è de Sabadell
Contact Points: La Mina Project (2019)
The La Mina 2019 project was carried out during 2019 and in the first months of 2020, through various actions, such as rap workshops and the development of a language guide. The main objectives of the campaign include normalising the use of Catalan among young people; encouraging students, teachers, and secondary schools to discover the playful and creative side of the Catalan language; promoting the invention of improvised song lyrics as a unique cultural practice characteristic of our country; producing a guide for presenting the Catalan language to the Philadelphia Evangelical Community; and promoting Catalan among the Romany community and the Philadelphia Evangelical Community.
We publish the Diagnosi de la situació sociolingüística del districte sisè de Sabadell (2019)
Fundació Vincle and Plataforma per la Llengua published the study Diagnosi de la situació sociolingüística del districte sisè de Sabadell. This diagnostic report is part of the Sabadell Sud project, one of the Points of Contact developed by Fundació Vincle, and the first phase of the Comprehensive Linguistic Action Plan for the 6th district of Sabadell promoted by Plataforma per la Llengua. It aims to increase the presence of Catalan in public and recreational spaces with the aim of making the Catalan language a force for social cohesion and the backbone of a multicultural and diverse society. Once the sociolinguistic situation of the district has been examined, it will be possible to gain a more precise understanding of the state of Catalan and the deficits in its use. Thus, it will be possible to launch more successful, targeted efforts through campaigns and actions intended to improve the use of the language.
Consult the study here: 2019 Diagnosi de la situació sociolingüística del districte 6 Sabadell
Publication of the leaflets El català, llengua d’oportunitats al comerç de Sabadell [Catalan, a language of opportunities for business in Sabadell] (2018)
The content of the leaflets is a list of vocabulary provided by the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística, translated into different languages and divided into four categories: cafés, bakeries, butchers and fruit shops. The languages were chosen in keeping with the foreign origins of the people who most commonly run these establishments.
See the leaflets here:
2018 leaflet vocabulary fruit shops Sabadell Catalan-Spanish-Chinese-Arabic
2018 leaflet vocabulary bakeries Sabadell Catalan-Spanish-Chinese-Urdu
2018 leaflet vocabulary butchers Sabadell Catalan-Spanish-Chinese-Urdu
2018 leaflet vocabulary cafés Sabadell Catalan-Spanish-Chinese-Arabic
Basic Vocabulary in Catalan for Urdu-speaking Taxi Drivers (2014)
Fundació Vincle, Plataforma per la Llengua and the Pakistani taxi drivers’ association PAKTAXI, in collaboration with the Generalitat de Catalunya, have created a new tool to improve the use of Catalan in the taxi sector. It is a pocket-sized reference that offers examples of the most common communicative situations in the field, which has become a common option in recent years for the city’s Urdu speakers to earn a living. This didactic material is intended to offer workers of Pakistani origin in the taxi sector a basic vocabulary, in Catalan and Urdu, of words and expressions related to their jobs with the aim of helping them in carrying out their work and in relating with customers.
See the PAKTAXI card here:
2014 Catalan-Urdu vocabulary for taxi drivers
Vocabulary for the Restaurant Industry, in Different Languages (2011)
Fundació Vincle and Plataforma per la Llengua have created a new online resource to improve the use of Catalan in the restaurant sector. It is a project with two parts: on the one hand, an audio-visual application designed so that the staff of restaurants, bars and cafés can quickly learn the most common terms in Catalan related to their work and know how to pronounce them. Additionally, small pocket language guides in five languages were distributed to industry workers.
The audio-visual presentations can be accessed and the cards can be downloaded at the following links:
2011 Basic restaurant vocabulary Chinese-Catalan
2011 Basic restaurant vocabulary Arabic-Catalan
2011 Basic restaurant vocabulary Spanish-Catalan
2011 Basic restaurant vocabulary Urdu-Catalan
2011 Basic restaurant vocabulary English-Catalan