Nick

I'm not sure I can add anything to this debate but I'll mention this. My flatmates are foreign students on Erasmus programmes who have come here to study Spanish literature and culture. It seems the majority of their teachers, even knowing that half the class are international students, refuse to conduct the classes in Spanish when asked. I'm all for greater autonomy for every region in Spain but I think this kind of stubborn attitude really lets Catalonia down. I understand that after the terrible repression of the language here last century, Catalans wish to protect their language and culture more than ever before. But I also think there is a danger that if this kind of inflexibility continues, it will end up alientating much of Europe, or at least young Europeans that come to study here. I have to say, frommy own experience of attending political meetings, Catalans are more than happy to convert to Spanish if they realise just a few people will struggle although the longer I live here, the more I cringe at asking because I should speak it by now. Shame on me too then.

Trevor, thanks for linking me to the appropriate thread. But do you know any more about this grouplet, Grup d'Estudis Catalans, or were they just one more bubble rising to the surface in the language wars?