Until very late you had hardly any contact with the Basque Country.

That's right. My mother is from Irun and my father is from Palencia; my mother has learned from Euskera later, as a teacher to teach, but when I was little neither knew from Euskera and I was schooled in Model A at Dunboa School in Irun. At that time it wasn't like now, they were all model A except the ikastola, and because there were so many prejudices towards the ikastola, the parents decided to send me to Dunboa. We spent an hour a week in Euskera, songs and things like that, and at 14 years old we finished Basic General Education without being able to say a correct phrase in Euskera. I also did high school in model A, and in 3rd, about 16 years old, I first went to Euskaltegi.

Was it until then Castellanoparlante its environment?

Yes, the family and friends were Castellanoparlantes – the three brothers are Euskaldunberraiak. A colleague of mine was Euskaldun, but we called that “the Basque”. Imagine. For me, the Basque language was spoken here by some, a parallel world, and I didn't feel it because I could develop without any problems in Spanish around me. After all, the context is very conditioning.

And why did you decide to learn Basque?

I started listening to music groups in Euskera, like Negu gorriak and so on, and I think that sensitization, at least initially, was created there. I wanted to know the meaning of the lyrics of the songs, I wanted to know that other world. When I was 16, I did a one-month intensive course in summer. I entered step 4, with a low level, considering that the profile of HABE 1 is obtained by exceeding level 6. The next year I repeated again, in step 5, and the summer before going to college, at 17, I decided to go to the barnetegi. That was the real thrust, and the shock, because in the barnetegi of Arantza I really met the Basque world and the Basque world. I saw how the Basque really was, I realized that it is often said that things are not as they are written, that the language is richer than what has been learned… I still remember that I approached one of them and asked him, in my ordained Basque, “what, reading the newspaper?” and he, “not slow, reading the newspaper.” The following year I repeated my stay at the barnetegi of Arantza.

At the same time, when we lived in Euskal Herria, with its own culture and language... I began to become aware of all this at the institute – after all, language is not only a communication tool, it is a matter of heart – and at that time I changed friends and got into an Euskaldun environment. After taking EGA, as a social educator, I started teaching Social Skills and Affective-Sexual Education at the Hondarribia Institutes and took the habit of working in Euskera.

Each one has its own process and its rhythms, in my trajectory many factors were joined, both internal and external. The students of the Basque Country ask me when the moment passes from thinking in Spanish to thinking in Basque, to not having to make mental translations. It doesn’t happen overnight, but in the barnetegi they already told me, ‘Today you have dreamed of Euskera, Jokin, the night you were monologues’. And I was telling them it would be a nightmare, ha, ha. That was the beginning, the first steps to move from one site to another. Anyone who wants to learn the language would be advised to go to the barnetegi, as this is where a real dive takes place.

You also participated in Antxeta Irratia.

Yes, with a friend I did a radio show on sexuality and it helped me work on how to communicate technical issues in Basque. The loss of the fear of speaking is fundamental, and that is where the red card has to be drawn to many Euskaldunzaharras, who almost laugh and ashamed to correct errors to those who are immersed in the process of Euskaldunisation. You have to do the opposite, you have to push to talk.

You've started learning Basque at the age of 16 and you've become a professor of Basque. Is it a myth that learning Basque is difficult?

The Basque country is not difficult. Verbs in English are easier than in Spanish and in Basque, as there is almost no need to decline, etc., but otherwise all languages are difficult or easy depending on the motivation and context of each. On the other hand, I really like the challenges and this has been one of them: if I have learned Basque, why am I not going to teach that language? Moreover, as I have experienced the process of Euskaldunization, it is very useful to understand the students and their disabilities. To help students internalize concepts, I take advantage of the techniques I used in my day.

What has brought you to know Euskera?

I lived in the context of Castilian, and the Basque country has opened the doors of the Basque world: it has served me to meet new people, to know a whole sensibility and culture. I am passionate about the Basque singer-songwriter (Laboa, Lertxundi, Peio and Pantxoa…) and, even if it does not seem so, you learn a lot from the lyrics of the songs. It has also served me to read the press in Euskera, and therefore to see the world from another point of view, and since I am a bartender, I use Euskera more with clients than Spanish. In Irun there are many Euskaldunes, but there are many in the closet, and when they know that you know Euskera, they speak to you in Euskera. Otherwise, the first word in Spanish tends to be pronounced.

What has your experience been like as a professor of the Basque Country?

I've been working in the Basque Country since 2004. First in Oiartzun's AEK and now in Irun's Herri Jakintza. We have everything: young people who want to take the title, who want to improve the Basque country, who start from scratch – especially because they come from outside –… My profile, that of those who have studied in model A, is difficult to see today. In general, in Oiartzun there is a greater awareness or an attempt to not feel strange and different; and in Irun it is frequent that, due to the study or work, sits in Irun which makes it rare in Euskera in different stores and places, not the other way around. Anyway, it has occurred to me to join with those who learned with me as a child and speak now in Basque, because they have also learned. Many times they are two parallel worlds, each in its bubble, both the world in Spanish and the Basque world, and sometimes they are halfway, in people like us, in Euskaldunes of new creation.

How is the Basque Country in Irun?

I would say it's getting better. In Irun you can see a group of young people speaking in Basque today, that was not common a few years ago. Also in playgrounds, the Basque language is being heard more and more, and in schools, model D is the most successful model. Much remains to be done, especially in terms of use. I would say that the City Council's attitude towards the Basque people is good, but it is often a matter of rhythms. Some of the initiatives planned to boost the Basque country should do so more quickly.

And what comes to mind when you see an older Euskaldun, who has received Euskera from a young age, but who today does it wrong?

It makes me sad. The context pushes you in the end, and here we often start in Basque but end up in Spanish. And if there's someone who speaks badly in Euskera in the group of friends, he often pushes everyone else to do it in Spanish.