“Everyone who comes to Mallorca and wants to take a typical souvenir: let them take a cyclist, there are many... To a whore's house, the bicycle!”. This is how Lluc Aparicio (@parisioproductions) ironically states in an Instagram video that has over 26,700 likes and nearly 10,000 shares. The publication accumulates hundreds of comments, some very harsh. “There are always people who get angry, but I don't want to pay attention to them. They criticize me if I talk about tourist saturation and also if I speak Catalan, but they are people who don't understand that I'm doing humor,” he explains.

Llucia Serra Ferre (Eivissa, 1992) has just won the Ciutat de Manacor poetry prize with Et dibuix un portal in media something (i tu t’hi ajoques). Living in Mallorca since her adolescence, she is a philologist, a high school teacher in Son Servera, and runs a board game publishing company in Catalan, Dino Ludens. So that the reader can get an idea of her writing, in Et dibuix un portal..., she quotes and paraphrases a poem by Antonina Canyelles that says: “You can say my boat, but the sails are always the wind’s”. Llucia Serra’s version is as follows: “You can say my house / but the lands / are always the bank’s”. The poem is titled ‘Idealista’.

I never thought it would happen, but this year I've become a Barça fan (and a big one!). I've followed them all season and celebrated the League title like any other culer. At home, everyone had to watch the Super Cup and Champions League matches. I even dragged a friend to Barcelona to watch the last League match. It was the first time – and also the last – that we were able to see Alexia Putellas play for Barça and, even though the League was already more than won, the blaugranes played a very good match. I don't want to detract from Hansi Flick's team in any way, but the ones who, at 24 years old, have made me a Barça follower are Cata, Patri, Mapi, Pina, Kika, and Alexia. For me, and for many others, 'Barça' is the Women's team, without the adjective, by default; it's the unmarked form, even if it goes against the norm.

Those of us who grew up with Indiana Jones films often fantasized as youngsters about treasure chambers, golden idol heads, and endless questions that were never answered. How did he know so many languages? How did he get into that chamber? In which other film was his research on that shown? Indiana Jones was always surrounded by ancient papyri, medieval books, stone inscriptions, which made young people's imaginations soar.

During recess, amidst running, games, and improvised conversations, the teachers at CEIP Ses Rotes Velles have begun to notice a scene that just a few years ago would have seemed improbable. Some children who usually speak Spanish or who come from families where Catalan is not spoken have started to interact with each other in this language. "In the playground, we've heard children from Early Childhood Education speaking Mallorcan amongst themselves," explains the school's director, Joana Maria Mas. This image summarizes the essence of the project How do we learn to be capable of explaining what we do, think, and feel?, which has made language a central focus of the school and which has been recognized with the Bartomeu Picornell Education award.

The Obra Cultural Balear (OCB) has launched, coinciding with the imminent start of the enrollment process for the 2026-2027 academic year, a new information campaign aimed at families and the management teams of educational centers to remind them of the importance of the linguistic model chosen during the educational stage and to raise awareness among families to opt for the Catalan language.

For years we have been returning to the same examples: the neutral ‘lo’’, direct complements with ‘a’, prepositions that appear before ‘que’ when grammars insist they shouldn't be there, etc. The examples are well-known and the arguments too. Sometimes, in fact, it gives the impression that the Catalan linguistic conversation is trapped in a kind of loop in which we always end up discussing the same things.

Catalan continues to be the majority language in the streets of Esporles, where it represents 64.2% of the observed conversations, according to a study by Plataforma per la Llengua presented this week in the municipality. However, the report warns of a loss of presence among the population aged 15 to 44 and in areas related to leisure and hospitality.

The Acció Cassandra association has filed a criminal complaint before the courts of Palma against the Balearic Islands Blood and Tissue Bank Foundation for an alleged case of linguistic discrimination that occurred in February in Palma. According to the entity, a 65-year-old man who had been a donor for more than 25 years had to leave without completing the donation because the on-call doctor refused to attend to him in Catalan and demanded that he speak in Spanish.

The School Council of the Balearic Islands (CEIB) has expressed its rejection of the measures relating to Catalan language knowledge included in the Omnibus Law, which it considers a “serious attack” on the linguistic normalization process. The body, responsible for analyzing regulations affecting the educational field, has placed special emphasis on two provisions: the exemption from the Catalan requirement for teaching staff accessing civil service positions in areas with very difficult coverage and the possibility that students temporarily residing in the Balearic Islands will not have to be examined in this subject.

If you were asked where Mallorca ends and Menorca begins, you probably wouldn't hesitate much. There is an evident physical separation, with a lot of water in between, a clear geographical border and a certain feeling that one thing is on one side and another on the other. The same would happen if the question were a little smaller and you were asked where Baix Camp ends and Baix Ebre begins. Perhaps the exact limit wouldn't be so present (those from Baix Camp and Baix Ebre certainly would, of course), but somehow we have assumed that territories can be divided: there is a point from which we leave a space behind and enter another.

Lara de la Torre is a Canary teacher who works in Early Childhood and Primary Education in the Balearic Islands and has explained in a social media video how she learned Catalan in three years, a process that culminated in obtaining the C1 certificate and which she assures is still ongoing. "First of all, reading in Catalan helped me a lot. At first it was difficult for me, but reading everything in Catalan allowed me to learn a lot of new vocabulary and also to better understand weak pronouns. Also, I joined a book club and it was incredible. Secondly, I started using Catalan for everything: at the hairdresser's, at the town hall, at the supermarket, in shops... and without shame, asking any doubt I had. And the most important thing for me has been going to class. This has helped me to have a good structure and good grammar. And this is how I learned Catalan, even though I am still learning."

The group Ginestà has consolidated itself as one of the most outstanding formations in the Catalan music scene, with a project that has grown from small venues to the major festivals of the Catalan Countries. With a proposal that claims making music in Catalan as an essential part of their artistic identity and focused on everyday emotions, the group has been expanding its connection with the audience. Now they arrive in Mallorca, where they will perform at TribuFest this weekend.

Plataforma per la Llengua will file a lawsuit against the call to cover the position of Deputy Director of Information at IB3 because it considers that it violates current linguistic regulations by not setting any Catalan language knowledge requirement. The entity demands that the procedure be annulled and revert to the moment of the approval of the bases, with the objective that a new call be published that expressly incorporates the level of Catalan required to hold the position.

The Department of Education has announced that positions for teachers and so-called "field" positions will not be able to go through the urgent interim process and that, from now on, they will only be processed through the weekly ordinary procedure. As explained by the counselor Antoni Vera in a parliamentary commission, this is "the only way" to guarantee the control of the Catalan requirement, since the urgent system does not allow verification of the linguistic competence of the applicants. "A position for a teacher or a field position that does not have the Catalan requirement will not be given again," stated the counselor. In the words of a union representative, the urgent procedure "is a sieve" for people who do not master the language.

The PP has insisted throughout the entire legislature that, no matter how much Vox asks for it, they will not touch the Law of Linguistic Normalization. But the truth is that the omnibus law that is being debated in the plenary session this Tuesday and will presumably be approved with the votes of the popular party and the far-right does affect an article of this law: specifically, 23.2. Although government sources insist that not a comma of the rule will be modified on paper, both MÉS per Mallorca and the OCB warn that once the omnibus law comes into effect, it can be violated.

Biology classifies living beings into kingdoms. This classification is not arbitrary: it describes life forms with different metabolic and structural characteristics. From here, zoology uses terms like 'herbivore', 'carnivore', and 'omnivore' to describe dietary conditions. There is no moral judgment in these words: they only describe physiological adaptations.

Sidonie is one of the benchmark bands of Spanish alternative pop with its own discourse that, over more than two decades of career, has evolved without losing its identity. Recently, however, the Barcelona-based group made an unexpected and significant turn: their latest album, Catalan graffiti (2025), is the first entirely in Catalan. On the eve of their concert at TribuFest in Felanitx, on Friday, May 29, their singer, Marc Ros, also talks about the life stage they are going through, their doubts, their successes, and the need to reconnect with music from a freer and more essential perspective.

“My name is Lara, I am a teacher in the Balearic Islands and I have a C1 in Catalan. After three years living here, of a lot of effort, of hours of study, of a lot of patience, of many days when I said: ‘I don’t understand anything! What are these weak pronouns?’. But finally I have the C1 in Catalan and I can say it very proudly. Has it been difficult for me? Yes. If one day I go to live abroad, will I have wasted my time? No. Demanding that teachers know the language of the place where they teach is not an obstacle: it is a sign of respect for the culture, for the families and for the children”, explains Lara, a teacher in the Balearic Islands who has obtained the C1 certificate after three years of effort and linguistic immersion.