How did it come into the realm of languages from the world of sports psychology?

My partner, Ferran Suay, is Valencian and when I went to live there we discovered that quite paranormal phenomena occurred around the use of languages. For example, while his friends always talked with him in Spanish, with me, who I am Catalan, they spoke in Catalan. This is very common. Those who have become known in a language continue to speak in that language, but at the same time it does not seem right not to do so in Catalan with a person who is trying to learn Catalan. Other times it has happened to me that after fifteen minutes speaking in Catalan with a person, I ask myself where I am and when I tell him that I am from Bilbao, that person automatically goes to Spanish. It was the last trigger that in a demonstration in favor of Catalan some young people from the group Estudiants per la Llengua entered a café and called it in Spanish. So we realized that some speakers who want to keep their language and who have a favorable attitude towards it, then don't behave very coherently. This led us to think that perhaps this is not just a matter of conscience and that we need to learn how to act in practice. So it occurred to us that maybe we, as psychologists, could offer the speakers some tools to do that. From various quarters, including sports, we have taken different resources to achieve linguistic assertiveness and to make people feel comfortable speaking in their own language.

What tools are those?

From the psychology of sport, for example, to use respiratory techniques to control anxiety, to imagine events before they occur, to see again what is being achieved to realize progressivity or to set short-, medium- and long-term goals, among other things.

How is your relationship with the Basque Country?

It's a special story. I was born in Bilbao, but my family did not know Euskera and also studied in Spanish. I wanted to speak in Basque but I had no capacity to do so. I am a mountaineer and when we left the city to go to the mountain we always tried to put into practice the little we knew in the villages. We were often met with speakers from big complexes. In college I worked in Euskaltegi for three years until I went to Salamanca. When they went to live in Valencia and my daughters were born, I thought I wanted to speak in Basque with them. Now we make language holidays, and every year we come to Euskal Herria in summer. At that time we also started coming here with the TELP workshops and saw that these had to be in Basque. It was absolutely necessary for me, if I did not want to run into contradiction.
Are there many vasco-speakers with complexes?And from many points of view: for being Euskaldun berri, for being Euskaldun zaharra, for speaking in a dialect, I do not know to whom… There is a great lack of self-esteem among minority language speakers and that is something
that has entered our mind. Minority language speakers are often like divers: we stay below the surface of the water and only get to the surface in safe areas. We only speak in Catalan or in Basque when we are sure that they will answer us in the same way.

Why is this happening?

These complexes are based on many historical reasons and subliminal messages. It is still said: be cosmopolitan and not cosmopaleto or the Basque is only for domestic use, it is rare, it does not serve any purpose… The image of the Basques is peasant, old and without studies, while the statistics say otherwise: the profile of the current Basque is young, urban and with a high level of studies, but these old myths have a lot of strength. Among all the prejudices, the main one is that speaking Basque is about poor education. The issue of courtesy has done a great deal of damage. The bilingual speaker is often called to speak in Spanish, as he knows both languages and gives the same thing. But we know that we are different people in one language or another. If you think and feel Euskera, you will better express your inner world in Euskera and that must be respected. When they tell you that you care about a radish or that you don't cost anything, they ask you for extra effort and we have to learn to express it and reclaim it clearly. Courtesy must be two-way and not always in the same direction.

But they soon argue that it’s very difficult, that you can’t ask anyone…

It is very cheap to say it and it is very easy for everyone to speak in Spanish. We have to be clear about this saying that that language is not necessary, and so why try?

We, therefore, in all places in Euskera?

Try, at least, to speak the first word in Basque. That’s why nothing will happen to you unless what you have in front of you is not Basque.

Here in Navarre there is a lot.

There are clinical cases everywhere, but that doesn't mean it's a problem for you. Looks don't kill anyone. Try it, at least. If someone gives us an abrupt answer, it's their problem. Or because of a lack of capacity or why it's going to be angry. If you have to turn to a person like this again and again, you'll suffer the first time, but the next time you know what you're going to find. In addition, not knowing that it is not a mental or structural disorder. Not knowing is a variable, something that can be changed. We can be for them, to some extent, and if you will.
How can we do for Euskera as consumers of the market?
We are customers and we are at the top of the market hierarchy. We played with it, and we put in speakers. “I have come to spend money and I will do it there and not here, because there they serve me in Euskera.” You should know that your attitude has a cost, which is not free. If you decide to act in this way as consumers, it's worth being told, because you're creating the need for language.

What are people looking for at TELP workshops?

Looking for tools. We want to provide them with techniques that allow them to be assertive and feel comfortable talking.

The assertiveness, at the bottom, that is to say what you think well but clearly?

That's it. If silence brings you losses, there are things to say. Not just in the realm of language, of course. We live in society and have our assertive rights, which no one knows. To say no, to criticise, to think, not to criticise, to ignore, to receive nice words or to say to another… We have to learn what our rights are.

There is a lot of talk about the getization of Euskera.

Getization is very damaging. When only one language is spoken by independentists and leftists, that language and its image have a problem. For the ordinary speaker, it's very exhausting and very punishable, because no one wants to have street labels. The most important reason for the speakers to speak Spanish is today the getization of the Basque country.

What can we do about this?

I, for example, sometimes tell people to do something that might be silly: to change their image, their clothes, their hair…, for example, to put it right and act assertively around language. So we're going to break up molds and prejudice. They have spent a lot of money and a lot of time stigmatizing the Basque country and relating it to violence, and they remain the same. One example: When there has been some kind of listening in Basque on Spanish television, it has almost always been about a police operation against ETA. That is not by chance, but a strategy with a specific objective.

Many street speakers tell us that we're ETA fans or stupid fans, because they use us for a poletic goal. What do we do?

Influence and move in our environment to the extent of our possibilities. We do not have the tools to participate in this organised war from above. We do not get into this situation because it is not our fault. The concept of guilt is highly internalized in our Judeo-Christian culture, which often leads to immobility. Instead, if you feel responsible, you can at least do things in your environment.

And what can be done for children to speak more in Basque?

Children work by imitation and if adults speak Spanish among them, they will do the same.

But even when you give them a good model, they often slip to Castilian.

Many factors must be taken into account, such as the enormous impact of television. If you can't watch television in Basque or Catalan, you'll do it more easily. I have seen this clear with some of our friends in Bakaiku: since children cannot watch television in Basque, because in Navarre ETB3 it is not seen, Euskaldunes children with conscious parents also throw 50% more in Spanish than before. In addition to the programmes, the advertisements, which are often not translated into ETB or TV3, should also be taken into account. As a result, children learn that toys do so in Spanish. When they place restrictions and obstacles on television to a language, they know very well what they are doing and what they are doing for. In any case, they will be bad years because of the influence of television on the development of children, but if adults speak to them in Basque or in Catalan they will also do so regularly.

How is Catalan in general in Valencia?

Knowledge of the language is very high. Use depends on the place. It is clear that the linguistic landscape changes radically depending on our attitude. If you speak Catalan, you find that most people understand it and that many also do it in Catalan. Some say that they only find Catalan speakers in the city of Valencia, but also that they always start speaking in Spanish.

And in the field of education?

The need for local society is not being met. In Valencia there are 25,000 children who cannot study Catalan because the government says there is no place. They say there is no money for that, but there is money for many things, as you know. It is a very harsh reality.

Aren't there centers with a private initiative immersion model?

Very little. Organized as a cooperative like the ikastolas here, very little. The age of having the fingers in one hand.

And haven't TIL started?

They began to say that they wanted to implement a multilingual project, as in Mallorca. In Valencia people are very warm with that and with many other things. And if they continue to force the situation, people will go out on the streets, as in Mallorca.

Up until now, the Valencian authorities have had money to buy and create their own reality in the media, but they have become increasingly difficult to hide the burglaries and abuses they have committed.

Catalan is also spoken in Catalonia, Northern Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Principat, Valencia, Andorra and eastern Aragon.

Yes. The latter is called “the ponent plot”, which is the region in which Catalan is most alive. Use is 90%. The Aragonese Government, not to combat this reform of the language law, adopted in May, has disappeared the designations of Aragonese and Catalan in the text. Instead, there are the Pyrenees and the Aragonese Language of the Pyrenees Regions LAPAPYP and the Aragonese Language of the Eastern Region LAPAO.

The name implies being.

Yes, it is. From Aragon they want to put an end to Catalan.