# How is Valenciano taught in the classroom??



## Luna112 (Dec 10, 2014)

Hello everybody! 

We live in Vega Baja Alicante province. My son studies in the local concertado school and learned Valenciano from primaria 1.

He speak English at home and some Chinese. He came here at age of 5. He manages quite well in the local school. He gets NOTA above the average in his class. His worse subject is Valenciano. He does not speak at all. Nobody speaks in my town.

However, I heared from ESO the Valencia government will force all the students learn 25% subjects in Valenciano. It can be math, biology or history. This is becoming very very unpopular in my town. 

We have to rethink our son's future. We plan to move to Murcia or Elche and put him in a spanish private school, not international school. His English is very good. 

If we choose a private school in Elche,we would have to pay around 6000 euros a year. This is ok for us. But can he 100% escape to learn useless Valenciano?

If we choose to move to Murcia, we probably can get him into a public or concertado school. Whatever,it is quite stressful for us.

I talked to my son yesterday and he insists he will be able to manage whatever they teach in Valenciano or not. He does not think we need to move or change schools.

Can anybody know this tell me how exactly this work in the classroom if 25% subjects are taught in Valenciano? Are all the books related to the subject will be Valenciano??


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

My daughters were in school in this region from the ages of 4 & 7. They are now 20 & 23.

In primary they did about 45% of their classes in valenciano & the rest in castellano. That means that the subjects were delivered in those languages, & yes, all textbooks were in those languages. 

In secondary school the elder chose to do more in valenciano than castellano, but the younger carried on as before. In reality there wasn't much difference.


Even in a private International school he wouldn't escape it. By law, a certain % of subjects must be taught in valenciano. 

As to whether or not it's useless... when my elder daughter was looking for work in Barcelona she was only successful because she was fluent in castellano, valenciano/catalán & English. The catalán was the required language, the other two were bonus. 

The only way to 'escape' it, would be to move out of the comunidad Valenciana.


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## Luna112 (Dec 10, 2014)

xabiaxica said:


> My daughters were in school in this region from the ages of 4 & 7. They are now 20 & 23.
> 
> In primary they did about 45% of their classes in valenciano & the rest in castellano. That means that the subjects were delivered in those languages, & yes, all textbooks were in those languages.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much! It is better in northern Alicante because people actually are used to Valenciano. But in the south, nobody speak or even hear it. We may just have to move to Murcia.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Luna112 said:


> I talked to my son yesterday and he insists he will be able to manage whatever they teach in Valenciano or not. He does not think we need to move or change schools.


You don't mention his age, but presumably he is old enough to know his own mind? Why not trust his judgement? 

We have a similar issue here with the Andalusian bilingual programme. Key subjects like maths are taught in English, but the teachers have to make sure that even those with bad English get the support they need. I'm sure the same will happen in Valencia, nobody wants their students to fail.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> You don't mention his age, but presumably he is old enough to know his own mind? Why not trust his judgement?
> 
> We have a similar issue here with the Andalusian bilingual programme. Key subjects like maths are taught in English, but the teachers have to make sure that even those with bad English get the support they need. I'm sure the same will happen in Valencia, nobody wants their students to fail.


Many English speakers find that valenciano is easier to learn than castellano, & yes, there is extra support for those who don't speak it. 

Here we now have trilingual teaching in primary school, which the kids take with them as they progress through their education. Classes are delivered in castellano, valenciano or English.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

xabiaxica said:


> Many English speakers find that valenciano is easier to learn than castellano, & yes, there is extra support for those who don't speak it.
> 
> Here we now have trilingual teaching in primary school, which the kids take with them as they progress through their education. Classes are delivered in castellano, valenciano or English.


In some schools, maybe - but certainly not in all schools.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> In some schools, maybe - but certainly not in all schools.


There should be, even if it's only offered for a limited period. 

It's a legal requirement - comes under the 'special needs' heading.


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## Luna112 (Dec 10, 2014)

Alcalaina said:


> You don't mention his age, but presumably he is old enough to know his own mind? Why not trust his judgement?
> 
> We have a similar issue here with the Andalusian bilingual programme. Key subjects like maths are taught in English, but the teachers have to make sure that even those with bad English get the support they need. I'm sure the same will happen in Valencia, nobody wants their students to fail.


He is 11 years old. He is fluent in English and Spanish. But there is no way he will ever able to speak Valenciano fluently because nobody speaks in my town. All the parents are protesting this. It goes on for a few years. PP always won the election in my town and is very very against Valenciano. A private school in Murcia offer English and Spanish teaching and a second foreign language- German. We may think about that school.


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## Brangus (May 1, 2010)

Luna112 said:


> I talked to my son yesterday and he insists he will be able to manage whatever they teach in Valenciano or not. He does not think we need to move or change schools.
> 
> Can anybody know this tell me how exactly this work in the classroom if 25% subjects are taught in Valenciano? Are all the books related to the subject will be Valenciano?


I don't live in that region, but if it were my son, I would talk to the teacher(s) who gives classes in Valenciano and ask if my child seems capable of handling ESO material in that language. I would also ask what resources are available (at school and/or at home) if he needs support. I would not make any negative comments about the regional language, culture or politics. 

I would also consider meeting with the orientador/a at school to get details on what and how much is taught in Valenciano in ESO and whether it could be a problem. It might be possible to have a talk with both the teacher and the orientador/a at the same time.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Brangus said:


> I don't live in that region, but if it were my son, I would talk to the teacher(s) who gives classes in Valenciano and ask if my child seems capable of handling ESO material in that language. I would also ask what resources are available (at school and/or at home) if he needs support. I would not make any negative comments about the regional language, culture or politics.
> 
> I would also consider meeting with the orientador/a at school to get details on what and how much is taught in Valenciano in ESO and whether it could be a problem. It might be possible to have a talk with both the teacher and the orientador/a at the same time.


I agree although instead of "orientador" who in my daughter's school was to do with careers advice, I would ask to meet with the language teacher and the head of year or head of studies.


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## Brangus (May 1, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I agree although instead of "orientador" who in my daughter's school was to do with careers advice, I would ask to meet with the language teacher and the head of year or head of studies.


The orientador at our primary school had a doctorate in psychology and provided invaluable wisdom that went far beyond career advice. I guess we were lucky!


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## Chopera (Apr 22, 2013)

Luna112 said:


> He is 11 years old. He is fluent in English and Spanish. But there is no way he will ever able to speak Valenciano fluently because nobody speaks in my town. All the parents are protesting this. It goes on for a few years. PP always won the election in my town and is very very against Valenciano. A private school in Murcia offer English and Spanish teaching and a second foreign language- German. We may think about that school.


If Valenciano is not spoken in the local area then I imagine the teachers will take this into account when introducing the language. I think the main risk is that the pupils might not be that motivated to learn a language they haven't had much contact with, but if a child who already speaks Spanish is motivated to learn Valenciano, then it should be fairly straight forward. 

I do sympathise with you though, because it looks like yet another case of political agendas interfering with the curriculum in Spain, especially when it comes to the teaching of languages. It's one thing to have obligatory classes in the regional language, which is understandable, but it's another thing to compromise other subjects such as maths, history and biology by teaching them in a language that is not spoken in your local area, and which the pupils are not familiar with. This happens a lot in Spain, but hopefully the teachers in your school will take this into account when introducing Valenciano.


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## Luna112 (Dec 10, 2014)

Brangus said:


> I don't live in that region, but if it were my son, I would talk to the teacher(s) who gives classes in Valenciano and ask if my child seems capable of handling ESO material in that language. I would also ask what resources are available (at school and/or at home) if he needs support. I would not make any negative comments about the regional language, culture or politics.
> 
> I would also consider meeting with the orientador/a at school to get details on what and how much is taught in Valenciano in ESO and whether it could be a problem. It might be possible to have a talk with both the teacher and the orientador/a at the same time.



Thank you and all the other coments.

My son is not happy at all. He refused to even visit the new school. He thinks it is not necessory to pay so much for a private school. He does not want to lose his friends at the current school either.


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## mickbcn (Feb 4, 2013)

Valenciano/catalan is the natural language of Valencian Community, with the spanish too,can you imagine to go to Sweden for example , and your son don't want to learn swedish?, don't be afraid the brain of your son don't explode with another language, catalan /valenciano will help him to learn easily another romanic languages , I know then maybe in the first and second year will be hard for him, but nobody die for this.


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## Jinjol (Jan 2, 2020)

mickbcn said:


> Valenciano/catalan is the natural language of Valencian Community, with the spanish too,can you imagine to go to Sweden for example , and your son don't want to learn swedish?, don't be afraid the brain of your son don't explode with another language, catalan /valenciano will help him to learn easily another romanic languages , I know then maybe in the first and second year will be hard for him, but nobody die for this.


A better comparison would be if you went to Spain and didn´t want to learn Spanish. Valenciano (which isn´t Catalan by the way), isn´t spoken widely in the Valencian capital or area, whereas Spanish is. The best option would be for the parents decide if their children should be able to learn Valenciano?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Jinjol said:


> A better comparison would be if you went to Spain and didn´t want to learn Spanish. Valenciano (which isn´t Catalan by the way), isn´t spoken widely in the Valencian capital or area, whereas Spanish is. The best option would be for the parents decide if their children should be able to learn Valenciano?


It isn't exactly the same language - but it's close enough that a lot of my daughters' set reading books in ESO were in catalán rather than valenciano - there are more available. 

A proud catalán who I know described the difference as being similar to the difference between British English & American English - & a mutual proud valencian friend agreed.

Valenciano is spoken widely where I live. It's the language of the home. Everyone speaks castellano too, with the exception of some much older people who were determind to defy Franco - though they can't usually write it! 


I speak a little, read & understand it spoken well & write it a bit. My elder daughter speaks it fluently (though with a catalán lilt now) on a par with castellano & English. 

My younger daughter never really liked valenciano, but will speak it with the locals if they prefer. Both prefer castellano to English now. I'm pretty much the only person with whom they regularly speak English - although we often speak castellano together too.


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