News
Requesting something in Basque is not an attack on the seller
About a month ago two friends who had been to Barcelona on business brought me a menu as a present from the smart La Bodega restaurant, located in the Gracia district. It was written in Spanish and Basque.
When these friends turned up at the restaurant for dinner, the waiter asked them what language they wanted the menu in. Half jokingly they said they would like one in Basque, whereupon the waiter brought them one. The menus written in Spanish and Basque have a little basque flag (ikurriña) on the front cover, so that they can be easily distinguished from other languages, and the one in Basque has been very nicely written.
At that time Kosovo had just declared its independence, and noticing the surprise on the faces of our friends, the waiter told them that the restaurant was in the process of having the menu translated into the language of Kosovo as well.
Not long ago we at the town councils in the Buruntzaldea area (group of towns not far from Donostia-San Sebastian) launched a campaign among the local bakeries called Eska ezazu ogia euskaraz (ask for your bread in Basque). The aim was to increase the public presence of Basque and to encourage Basque-speaking customers to use Basque when they go shopping. One bakery that has many customers refused to take part in the campaign, arguing that they had not had sufficient time to consider the proposal properly. Yet the inhabitants liked the campaign and apparently some customers asked the bakery staff why they were not participating in it. Seeing the attitude of these citizens, the managers of the bakery went to the town hall and said they wanted to join the campaign.
A baker in the Buruntzalde area will obviously have more Basque-speaking customers every day than a restaurant in Barcelona, but has yet to realise that offering the Basque-speaking customers a service in Basque is important for gaining their loyalty. The restaurant in Plaça Molina, by contrast, is aware that offering its menu in Basque to the much smaller number of Basque-speaking customers it gets is also good for business.
With people talking these days about the decree for implementing the Consumer Law, perhaps an obligation will be established for those who provide a service in the Autonomous Community in order to guarantee the rights of Basque-speaking consumers. But, apart from the law, I believe that we customers have a duty here and can exert an influence as well. We need to have a more proactive attitude with respect to the language and prepare for this; we need to be prepared to use suitable arguments and discourse, in order to act in the most friendly way possible, and not throw in the towel at the first unsuccessful attempt and, if possible, try to convince the person in front of us. I know these proactive attitudes have often been accused of being negative; they have been regarded as intolerant, and have led to unease in most cases. But with the progress we have made in the normalising of the language and the level of knowledge we have acquired, I believe it is an attitude of respect that needs to be promoted among people, and accorded prestige.
Malores Etxeberria
Basque language technician in the Town Hall of Hernani.
