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This Wednesday, the International Day of Euskera will be celebrated and at the Complutense University in Madrid they are joining in with activities dedicated to “Multilingualism in the Iberian Peninsula.”  This the third edition of this conference that will focus this year on Czech poetry.  During the session Czech poems translated into Basque, Spanish, Catalan and Galician will be recited. 

Madrid, Spain.  The Complutense University in Madrid will celebrate the third Conference on Multilingualism on the Iberian Peninsula this Thursday, organized by the Area of Basque Philology and the Department of Roman Philology, Slavic Philology, and General Linguistics.  As always, Basque will be highlighted at the gathering.  This time, the star, however will be Czech poetry the key to understanding European poetry, according to organizers.

During the conference, Czech poems translated into some of the languages that are spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, Basque, Spanish, Catalan and Galician will be read.  The conference includes the support of the Etxepare Basque Institute and has been organized by Karlos Cid-Abasolo, former Basque language and culture lecturer at this university. 

Euskera at the Complutense

EuskalKultura.com spoke to Karlos Cid-Abasolo about the situation of teaching Basque at Complutense.  “You have to distinguish between two kinds of instruction, on the one hand, Basque as part of the UCM curriculum is practically non-existent,” he told us.  “Before Bologna was an option for all students and there were 60 students in the class.  Today though, it is only an option of philology students, and there are currently three students.  An unfortunate situation,” he said.

The other type is the Basque language and culture lecturer sponsored by the Etxepare Institute.  “For a second year, Etxepare has a lecturer, Arantzazu Fernandez Iglesias.  Her students are from all colleges and get additional credit, so there are many more students, fourteen this year.  Last year it was the same, and thanks to her work the majority of the students want to continue second semester,” he said.

Korrika and the comic “Azken Garaipena”

Cid-Abasolo also told us about other activities related to Basque that will take place at UCM.  Next year, in conjunction with Korrika 19, they will organize another edition of the “Korrika txulapoa,” the Madrid version of Korrika.  Prior, they will present the translation into Galician of the comic “Azken Garaipena,” by Iban Zaldua, translated from Basque to Galician by Cid-Abasolo and the Galician lecturer at the university.