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Adopt the Catalan Language The Catalan language needs your care to grow. It’s a language full of life, but it needs your protection. Catalan belongs to you too. Adopt it. On this website we explain the problems you may encounter, some ways of getting around them, and the advantages of adopting Catalan as the language you use in everyday life. Learning Catalan is easy, but... ...when you want to speak it, things aren’t quite so simple. Many people will hear your accent and switch to Spanish. It’s their way of letting you know you’re not from here. Sometimes it’s hard finding places to speak it outside the classroom. Some of us may feel embarrassed about speaking it because we believe we speak it badly. Very occasionally someone might laugh or accuse us of “butchering the language”. Some people might feel that if they habitually speak Catalan, they’re giving up something of their own origins. Catalan is yours too Don’t miss out on it, and don’t let anyone keep it from you. Be patient. Every day you’ll speak a little better than you did the day before. Remember we all learn from our mistakes. They might not know it, but most Catalan speakers make errors, and many new speakers speak more correctly than Catalans and Valencians who have been speaking the language since childhood. Tell your Catalan-speaking friends to speak to you in their language. Insist on it. And when you meet someone for the first time, start out in Catalan and you’ll see how the two of you will always speak to each other in Catalan. Look for people in the same situation as you. Join a conversation group. Sign-up for one of the Voluntaris per la Llengua or Voluntariat pel Valencià programs, or come to the Veu Pròpia meetings. And don’t think that speaking Catalan means giving anything up. Use Catalan to express your identity and share your roots with Catalans and Valencians. New relationships, new experiences Some people say that there’s no point in speaking Catalan. How wrong they are. Learning Catalan will help you be rid of the ‘immigrant’ label. If you speak Catalan in your daily life, people will treat you like one of them and think of you as an equal. Without losing anything of yourself, you will have gained a language. Through it, you’ll be able to meet new people, express yourself in new ways, take part in new activities and have new experiences. Speaking Catalan will improve your employment prospects: companies will rate your efforts highly and see you as an adaptable, flexible employee. If you were born here, adopting Catalan is finishing the job your parents or grandparents started when they came here to live. You will be proud of speaking their language, but you’ll also be proud of forming a part of Catalonia or Valencia without having to justify a thing. No embarrassment and nothing to give up. Catalan needs us. Our accent gives it life. Adopt Catalan and join Veu Pròpia We came here from elsewhere, or our parents or grandparents did. We’ve adopted Catalan and we care about it. And we feel we are as much a part of this place as anyone. We are an association of people like you: Catalan isn’t our first language but we speak it habitually, and we’d like to help you to do the same. Catalan is yours too. Adopt it.