Language exams

John Chappell quotes a letter from Maria Pilar Pellegero of Ripoll in La Vanguardia as an example of the Catalan ethnocracy’s use of language exams as a means of excluding allochthones–including those from other parts of Spain–from public sector jobs. This fuckoff-ism is sometimes taken to bizarre extremes. An American acquaintance took the advanced level D exam a couple of years ago. For her oral she was asked to read two texts to the panel, the first praising to the skies the Catalan bourgeoisie and the second describing what a shitty country the US was. She’s approximately a million miles from being what one would describe as a patriot, but I believe she found it most unpleasant and duly fucked off.

Trevor @ 21 November 2006 8:02 PM

Categories

Related posts

• French exam
• Toponymical totalitarianism as a source of variation
• Irredeemably bad language
• Pasolini and the sacred
• Blogger self-help therapy pamphlet

Previous/next post

Comments

1. Ian Llorens
   12:55 AM on 24 November 2006

   A fuckoff-ism similar to the one of those who live in and from Catalonia, and spend most of their time criticizing the nation that welcomed them.

2. Trevor ap Simon
   5:04 PM on 24 November 2006

   Hey, don’t get all offended Ian. I don’t mind if you visit us every now and again.

Feeds: RSS2 · Atom

Trackback link.

Tell me if the spam dragon gives you a hard time. Log in if you want to be really foul.