November 2006 - The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Dimandouros, and the Spanish ambassador in the EU, Carlos Bastarreche, signed an agreement in Brussels the 30th of November to allow Spanish citizens to address complains to the European Ombudsman in Basque, Catalan and Galician, all three co-official languages in Spain.
The European Ombudsman is the 6th European Institution, after the Committee of the Regions, the Council of the European Union, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee and the European Parliament, to sign an agreement of this kind. Thus, the Ombudsman aligns his practice with the conclusions of the European Council of Foreign Ministers of 13 June 2005 providing for the use of these languages to allow communications from Spanish citizens.
The arrangement establishes that the complaints addressed in these languages will not reach the Ombudsman directly but will be translated first by a translation body which will be set up by the Spanish authorities. Until such a body is not established the agreement will not become effective.
European Ombudsman: ombudsman.europa.eu
The European Parliament votes in favour of a report on multilingualism but waters down many of its proposals
November 2006 – In its plenary session of 15th of November the European Parliament adopted with a large majority the Report on Multilingualism as an answer to the Commission’s Communication “A new framework strategy for multilingualism” issued by the Commission in November last year. Nevertheless, its repporteur, the Ibizan Greens-EFA MEP Bernat Joan i Marí, abstained in the final vote arguing that the document was considerably watered down of its main proposals both in committee and the plenary.
According to Joan "we cannot support a report where almost all the relevant points have been removed. This includes the recognition of equality amongst all European languages, regardless of their official status, the extension of the mandate of the Agency of Fundamental Rights, and the guarantee of a fair funding allocation for those agencies responsible for lesser used languages."
Some positive points remain in the report: the proposals calling for the 2003 Ebner Report to be implemented, that EU citizens be able to communicate with the EU in their own national language, regardless of whether it has official status at member state or EU level, and that the European Ombudsman to pay particular attention to guaranteeing respect for the linguistic rights of European citizens, and to provide more ways of resolving EU language conflict situations.
Final report: www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?objRefId=130498&language=EN
A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism 2005: ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/com596_en.pdf
Ebner report: ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/hebner_en.pdf
Campaigners continue to press for stronger legislation protecting Welsh speaker's rights (Source: Eurolang)
November 2006 - On Wednesday 29th December, in a meeting attended by the three opposition parties in the National Assembly of Wales –the Conservative Party, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats–, a draft measure presented by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) was adopted calling for a commitment to new legislation. Although the Minister for Culture Alun Pugh was not present, he has agreed to meeting the Cymdeithas in the near future.
According to Catrin Dafydd, of Cymdeithas yr Iaith: “Presenting the draft measure to the parties in Cardiff is a very significant step. We invite to make comments on the draft and ask the three parties to further commit themselves to a new language act. She added that “the Speaker of the Assembly has issued a challenge to voluntary organisations to propose new legislation. The proposed measure on the Welsh language should be one of the first to be considered when the Assembly receives its new powers. The fact that a leader from each of the opposition parties has attended the lobby is a reflection of the importance of the debate”.
According to the Cymdeithas, a consensus has now been established in favour of the need for new legislation in order to establish official status, specific rights for the use of Welsh and an ombudsman for the language.
The draft law:
cymdeithas.org/pdf/languagemeasure2007.pdf
On-line petition for a new Welsh language act: welshlanguageact.org
Cymdeithas (Welsh and English): cymdeithas.org
The teaching of minority languages in Norway considered insufficient
November 2006 – The Council of Europe has issued the second opinion of the Advisory Committee on the application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities by Norway. In general terms, the Committee acknowledges that special projects enjoying government support have been launched in recent years to support and give new impetus to the Kven language. The Kven language is closely related to the three other official modern-day Finnic languages spoken in Northern Scandinavia: the Meänkieli language (spoken in today's Northern Sweden), the Karelian language (spoken in today's North-western Russia) and the Finnish language. Once considered a dialect of the Finnish language, Kven received a legal minority language status in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Sami in Norway, though, are not covered by the Framework Convention because they are recognised as indigenous people, so they benefit from a specific protection regime.
The opinion points out that “positive legislative and practical measures have been taken with regard to the use of minority languages for personal names and topographical indications”. However, other fields suffer from lack of advancements: the Advisory Committee has not been informed of any initiative taken in order to introduce “legal guarantees for the use of minority languages in contacts with the administrative authorities, in particular for the Kvens, or to examine existing needs in this regard”. As regards the press, despite the increase in government funding, the Kvens consider that “the resources available to them for their written publications do not enable them to meet the needs of the Kven and Finnish-language population satisfactorily”. In addition, they think that increased funding on a more stable basis is essential in order to achieve the current objective of the Kven community, which is to convert the journal into a weekly publication.
According to the opinion, teaching of the mother tongue still poses problems for the Kvens. The Advisory Committee notes that “there are no plans at this stage for teaching in the Kven language”. It also seems that, apart from the Kven, the needs of other groups as regards minority language teaching have not been adequately considered.
Second opinion: http://www.coe.int/T/E/human_rights/minorities/
Related article from the Government and the Ministries: http://odin.dep.no/odin/engelsk/norway/social/032091-990909/index-dok000-b-n-a.html
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (Norway): http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/local_and_regional_democracy/
Presented in Sardinia the project Nuràminis bilìngua
November 2006 – The Council of Nuràminis celebrated on October the 30th a public assembly to present the project Nuraminis Bilingue–Nuràminis Bilìngua. The project, funded by means of the economic provisions included in the Act 482/1999 on the protection of historical linguistic minorities, aims at putting into practice the highest possible degree of bilingualism Italian-Sardinian in the town. This bilingualism is intended to affect all social and public life, from the administrative and economic spheres to the field of culture, sports and education. Nuràminis belongs to the province of Cagliari and has a population of nearly 3,000 people. It is expected that the project will be tested in other towns of Sardinia.
There is already an operative office which offers linguistic advice to the local administration and the rest of citizens, translates all kind of documents and co-ordinates all the activities. A free course of Sardinian language for the town council staff –but open to general public too– is also being organized.
Regional Act nº 26 of 1997: Promotion and valuing of the culture and language of Sardinia (in Italian): http://www.regione.sardegna.it/leggi_regionali/lr-n_26_1997_10_15.htm
Act 482/1999: http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/butlletins/38-06.htm
Euromosaic: Sardinian in Italy (http://www.uoc.es/euromosaic/web/document/sard/an/i1/i1.html
The Balearic civil organisation Obra Cultural Balear will complain to the European Parliament and the UNESCO against the trilingualism decree
November 2006 – The Balearic civil and cultural organisation Obra Cultural Balear has announced the preparation for the forthcoming March of a formal complaint to be presented at the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament against the so-called trilingualism decree in the primary and secondary education of the Balearic Islands. They are also preparing a report for the UNESCO.
The trilingualism decree, known as well as Decree Fiol (the name of the Councillor who promoted it), was approved by the Balearic Government on 16 June 2006 under the title “Decree to promote the competence in foreign languages among pupils of primary and secondary public education”. The decree has been strongly rejected by civic organisations active in the field of the language as well as by teachers and their trade unions.
The main criticism to the decree is that with the excuse of promoting the competence of a third language, that would most probably be English, and which it is very positive, there will be a reduction of teaching hours in Catalan. According to the decree the hours taught in Catalan cannot exceed 40% of the time. The implementation of the decree coincides with a cutting of the budget proposed for 2007 when precisely teachers will need to be trained and adapted to the new model of education that the government pretends to introduce in all schools of the Balearic Islands.
Decree 52/2006 (in Catalan):
http://www.caib.es/boib/tipus-norma.ca.jsp?numero=52&any=2006&tipus=2
Obra Cultural Balear: http://www.ocbweb.org/
Free Welsh Office Software launched in Cardiff
Agored, a new free office software suite was launched in November by Alun Pugh, Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport of the autonomous Welsh Assembly Government. The suite, a Welsh and English dual-language version of the OpenOffice suite used worldwide, has been developed over the past two years at the Mercator Centre, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Agored represents a major investment by the Welsh Assembly Government, S4C and the Welsh Language Board in the provision of a comprehensive office suite functional in both English and Welsh. Most significantly, Agored is free of charge. A complete and legal copy of Agored can be downloaded from www.agored.com.
"Agored is going to be an extremely useful tool to many businesses right across Wales who operate bilingually," said Andrew Davies, Minister for Enterprise, Innovation and Networks of the Welsh Assembly Government. Alun Pugh, the Minister for Culture, Welsh Language and Sport added: "The launch of this office software is a major advance within the IT strategy developed by the Welsh Language Board as part of the Assembly Government's strategy for the language, Iaith Pawb ."
"This is the largest Welsh software project to date" says Ned Thomas, Academic Director of the Mercator Centre at UWA, "and has involved a team of five at Mercator, with further translators throughout Wales working on the project. Over half a million words of help screens and interface have been translated, and a comprehensive, original handbook has been written from scratch."
Meri Huws, Chair of the Welsh Language Board said "Agored is the latest in a series of important developments in Welsh language Technology. It's surprising how much is already available in Welsh in this field. This is a most welcome additional contribution."
Agored is a complete office suite, with a word-processing
programme (Writer) , a spreadsheet programme (CALC), a slideshow programme
(Impress), a drawing and design programme (Draw), and a database programme
(Base). It will happily use all your existing office files in Microsoft
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint format. It has been specially designed
with the bilingual office in mind: you can swap from English to Welsh
and back again very simply without having to restart your computer
or re-install different versions of the software. All the commands
and help messages are available in both languages, and the Welsh-language
content of the programme is authoritative and standard. You can also
use Welsh and English spell-check options within the same document,
should you wish to do so.
Welsh-language daily newspaper company announces appointment of editor
Dyddiol, the company engaged in the project to establish a new Welsh-language
daily newspaper has announced the appointment of an editor and deputy
editor for the paper Y Byd which is expected to commence publication
in 2007. The appointments are dependent on the securing of a grant
from the Welsh Assembly Government. Aled Price, the editor, is a journalist
from Cardiff who has previously worked for the BBC in Wales and for
S4C, the broadcaster of Welsh-language television programmes. Catrin
Rogers, the deputy editor, is currently working as editor of a local
paper in London, and has also worked as a freelance journalist. Further
announcements about the paper's launch date and the location of its
main office are expected early next year. The project's website can
be found at www.ybyd.com.
Sámi Macbeth wins first European Minority Film Festival in North Friesland
The Sámi version of Macbeth won the first European Minority Film Festival held on 18 and 19 November in Schleswig-Holstein. The first edition of this Film Festival for stateless European minority languages was organised by the North Frisian Friisk Foriining in close collaboration with the national minority organisation FUEN (Federal Union of European Nationalities).
Under the slogan 'Great films from small peoples', the festival featured seven films in six European stateless minority languages: Frisian, Scottish Gaelic, Ladin, North Frisian, Romantsch and Sámi. All films were shown in the original language with subtitles in English or German. The festival was accompanied by a seminar with contributions from some of the directors involved.
The festival attracted several hundred people and concluded with a film gala in Husum Hus, the theatre of the Danish minority. At the gala there was music from the Breton singer Claude Nadeau, the North Frisian rockband Lembek and the Danish-Scottish folk band Drones and Bellows.
The largely North Frisian audience appreciated the Frisian film 'Sportman fan 'e ieu'. This slightly absurd and humorous movie from Friesland features well known actors from both Germany and the Netherlands. Most of them had to learn Frisian for the movie. Although 'Sportman fan 'e ieu' did relatively well in Friesland in the Netherlands earlier this year, it failed to attract a crowd elsewhere. For the North Frisians the Minority Film Festival was the first occasion to see the movie.
"Movies like ours usually do not break the box offices'', director Alex Scherps of Sámi Macbeth said at the festival seminar. The film he made with the Swedish director Bo Landin in the winter of 2004 never reached the ordinary cinemas in Norway and Sweden, apart from a few film festivals. "Films like ours need new windows in order to find their way to the audience. This festival, small as it may be, does exactly this, and we are grateful for that.''
In the Macbeth of Landin and Scherpf, Shakespeare's drama is transformed and rewritten into the culture and language of the Sámi. This was not easy, partly because Sámi culture has no corresponding concept for war, God or money. For the Sámi, wealth traditionally consists of a large herd of reindeer. Thus, it was no coincidence that spectacular shots of a large reindeer herd are shown at the beginning of the movie.
Landscape and nature play a leading role in the Sámi version of Macbeth. The film was shot in twelve days in temperatures between minus 5 and minus 25 degrees centigrade and used as a backdrop the Ice Hotel and the Ice Globe Theatre in Jukkasjärvi in Sweden.
The fighting and murder in the movie are carried out with swords made of ice, which, understandably, continuously broke. It was just one of the few probelms that the producers had to face.
The jury of the film festival were immensely impressed by the strong acting skills of the leading characters, the quality of the camera work and photography and decided to give the winning award to Macbeth . The Frisian movie, Sportman fan 'e ieu , came second.
Alex Scherpf, the winning director, had some clear advice for his colleagues. "Use your own culture, traditions and languages in your movie. Dare to be different.''
Links with more information:
http://www.minority-film.net/ website
of the minority film festival
http://www.friiske.de/ website of the
Friisk Foriining
http://www.scandinature.com/ website
of the company which produced Sámi Macbeth
http://www.sportmandefilm.nl/ website
of the Frisian movie Sportman fan 'e ieu
Source: www.eurolang.net
Since November it has been possible to watch all TV-programmes from the West Frisian broadcaster Omrop Fryslân throughout Europe via satellite. For Omrop Fryslân this is a big step forward.
Previously, Frisian broadcasting could be watched only in the Dutch province of Friesland. Now all Frisian programmes are broadcast free to air by satellite. Free to air means that the programme will be distributed uncoded and free of charge for the viewers. This is good news for the thousands of Frisians living outside Friesland. It is also good news for the Frisians who already watch satellite television, but who missed a television channel in their own language. Omrop Fryslân is very glad of the opportunity to bring these viewers back to the channel.
The measure became necessary because in the Netherlands all analogue public television will be switched off in December. In the Frisian countryside many people depended on the analogue signal for the reception of Frisian television. Omrop Fryslân therefore campaigned for some time for transmission by satellite, but up until a few months ago the Dutch government refused to pay for the distribution of so-called regional broadcasters by satellite. According to the former secretary of state for culture, Medy van der Laan, Omrop Fryslân and the province of Fryslân should pay for satellite distribution and not the Dutch state.
This point of view changed when the Dutch cabinet fell and the party of Medy van der Laan (D66) left government. Last Friday Christian-Democrat minister of culture, Maria van der Hoeven, pushed the button to put Omrop Fryslân on satellite.
With the analogue signal disappearing in a few weeks time, offering Omrop Fryslân by satellite was by far the best option to safeguard its availability to all Frisians.
According to Dutch legislation all Frisian citizens have the right to receive Frisian broadcasting. This is also necessary because Omrop Fryslân is the official channel of information in case of catastrophy such as an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
Source: Eurolang 2006
Websites:
http://www.omropfryslan.nl,
website of Omrop Fryslân (Frisian, Dutch, English)
http://www.signaalopdigitaal.nl,
website of the Dutch state about the switching off of analogue television.
Studytrip to Lithuania by Mercator-Education and Frisian Academy
A delegation from Mercator-Education and the Frisian Academy (Cor van der Meer and Tjeerd de Graaf) visited Lithuania in the week 7-14 November 2006. The visit was planned together with Lithuanian collegues in order to investigate the local situation of minority and regional language education in one of the new states of the European Union and inform representatives of the minority language communities in Lithuania about the work of Mercator-Education and the policies of the European Union in this field. Meetings were planned with Department of National Minorities and Lithuanians living Abroad, Institute for Lithuanian Language and lectures were given by De Graaf en Van Der Meer. Visits related to Polish and other Slavic minorities: Polish school , Department of Polish Language and Literature at the university, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, its sound archives, Vilnius Pedagogical University, Faculty of Slavonic Philology in Vilnius. Meetings related to Karaim and Yiddish, Stateless Cultures: Vilnius Yiddish Institute at the University, Trip to Nida (former German territory in Memel Land, Meeting related to minorities in Klaipėda and Samogitia. Suggestions for a follow-up of their visit and possible new activities with colleagues in Lithuania have been made for the future.
Source: Tjeerd de Graaf en Cor van der Meer
Visit of Moldavians to Mercator-Education and the Frisian Academy, Ljouwert, The Netherlands
A delegation of scientists from Moldavia has been visiting Mercator-Education and the Frisian Academy , 21-23 November 2006. They would like to obtain further information about the way the Frisian schools manage with multilingualism. In Moldavia different language communities such as Bulgarians and Ukrainians live together. The government of Moldavia has plans to promote more integration between the different language communities for instance by supporting bilingual or multilingual schools. The visit takes place in the framework of the project named: “Prevention of Ethnic Conflicts through Meaningful Educational Integrations Policies”. The Moldavians visited also the Frisian broadcasting corporation Omrop Fryslân , the Afûk (Frisian courses), Cedin (educational services) and several multilingual schools for primary- and secondary education.
Source: Fries Dagblad 20-11-2006
The delegation of scientists from Moldavia visiting the Frisian Academy
Introduction of Basic course Frisian at cd-rom
In july 2006 the cd-rom “Basiscursus Fries’was presented by the Afûk (www.afuk.nl). The targetgroup are people who live in Fryslân but do not speak Frisian as a first language. Their mother tongue is Dutch. In 10 lessons they can learn the basics of the Frisian language. In the coming years the Afûk will develop more e-learning courses.
Frisian secondary education– E-learning
"Digital Subject Room Frisian"
At the website www.digischool.nl (Digital School) you will find a lot of subjects which are being educated in Digital Subject Rooms. The subject Frisian has been added. It is an initiative of the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden (the Netherlands). Several organisations are participating in this project e.g. Afûk (www.afuk.nl), Cedin Friesland (www.cedin.nl), Tresoar (www.tresoar.nl) and institutions of secondary education in Fryslân. The Digital Subject Room supports pupils. They can download information about the subject Frisian, do excercises, get in contact with one another etc. It is not only intended for pupils, but also for anyone who is interested in the Frisian language.
Presentation new method: Studio F (primary education)
In September 2006 a new method Studio F has been published for the groups 4, 5 and 7 of the primary education schools in Fryslân. The method consists of a basic book with 8 themes for all pupils, 4 level books for the different levels of education. Also digital material can be found on www.studiof.nl . All themes begin with a television broadcast programme of Omrop Fryslân. More information: www.afuk.nl
Presentation new method: Freemwurk (secondary education)
The method Freemwurk is part of “Learplan en learmiddels Frysk yn it fuortset ûnderwiis” and intended for secondary education schools. The method is not only developed for the lower section of the secondary education schools, but also as learning method Frisian for pupils who have Frisian as examination subject. The Digital Subject Room Frisian of the Digischool (www.digischool.nl/fry) is also participant in the project.
More information about the principles of this project: www.afuk.nl.
Literature: Learplan en learmiddels Frysk yn it fuortset ûnderwiis 2004-2007 / Jan Popkema and Henk Jongsma – Ljouwert: Afûk, 2005.
Education in national minority languages is a precondition for maintaining the cultural identity of national minorities in Latvia. The Latvian government provides education in eight national minority languages, even where only a small number of children are seeking instruction in a certain language. (9-8-2006)
More information: www.am.gov.lv/en/policy/4641/4642/4643/