Kuna Yala, the homeland of the Kuna nation, is a region in northeastern Panama that extends to the Columbian border along the shores of the Caribbean Sea. The Kuna General Congress, the institution representing this native nation in Panama set up an Education Commission, active since 2001 to persuade Kuna organizations to kick-start a Bilingual Intercultural Education reform. With Spanish International Cooperation support the reform is now at the second stage of implementation.

On May 22 France's National Assembly almost unanimously approved an amendment concerning its regional languages. The amendment, unexpectedly put forward by Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, proposed that the following sentence be added to Article 1 of the Constitution : Les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la Nation; in other words: regional languages are part of the Nation's heritage.

On the past 8th of May, 2008, regional languages were the topic of a debate at the National Assembly, following a declaration by the Government. Did this constitute a historic debate? It is true that it is the first time since 1958, since the birth of the 5th Republic, that this subject is debated.

The European Commission hosted a public hearing on the place and role of languages within the EU on 15th April, 2008. The event ended a wide-ranging public consultation on multilingualism which was launched at the end of last year. However, while the survey revealed strong support for less widely used languages the EU support and provision for Europe's endangered languages has virtually disappeared.

Europe took the market as the starting point on its path towards union in a bid to create a closer, more solid union among the countries. The market is taken as the basis of the union, yet many fear that it may have become the aim on the road to union when it was only supposed to be the basis.

Let me tell you an event belonging to the pre-digital age. Two girls were dancing together, two boys went up to them to ask them to dance, and this was the «conversation» that ensued. It goes without saying that the environment and the people around them were Basque, bilingual people (Basque bilinguals), to be precise:

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.

A few months ago in a conference in Barcelona on the declaration by the United Nations of the year 2008 as International Year of Languages, the famous British linguist David Crystal expressed his reasons for being sceptical about any positive changes that this celebration might bring.

For the second time, the Commission has set up a multilingual internet debate open to all. The three topics chosen this time are «Climate change and energy», «Future of Europe» and «Intercultural dialogue». The debate opened on January 29th, with good press coverage in Catalonia (for instance, paper.avui.cat/article/mon/113797).

Native Speaker is the title of a fascinating novel published several years ago by the writer Chang-Rae Lee, which, among other things, constitutes a sociolinguistic document of irrefutable empiric relevance. The quality of the novel is evident in the fact that it has won a number of different accolades, including the PEN Hemingway Award, the Oregon Book Award and the American Book Award. In my modest opinion, it is an exceptionally well-written piece of work with universal value that extends well beyond the specific geographical area in which it is set, namely the city of New York. It is a paradigmatic work, mainly because it is set in the world’s most important city, a city which is the birthplace of trends, attitudes and behaviours that are subsequently exported to all corners of the earth. The author, who was born in South Korea, emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was just three years of age. Whether or not the novel has any autobiographical basis (something which does not necessarily concern us here), Chang-Rae Lee describes the situation of an immigrant in the city of skyscrapers, and takes a long hard look at his attempts to construct an identity within the complex world of the Big Apple. An American who speaks fluent English but who nevertheless feels himself to be an outsider in the capital of the world, despite the fact that it is the place where he grew up. «Ancient Rome», writes Chang-Rae Lee in Native Speaker, «was the first genuine Babel. The city of New York is perhaps the second. And the last, without doubt, will be Los Angeles».