Euskara Munduan organises winter barnetegi in Buenos Aires

In January 2024, the Euskara Munduan programme, under the auspices of the Etxepare Basque Institute, organised a ‘barnetegi’ Basque language immersion programme at the Euskal Etxea Basque Centre in San Nicolás, Argentina. The barnetegi students continued their training remotely from their respective homes throughout the remainder of the year via an online platform overseen by Euskara Munduan from the Basque Country.

In six months, they will meet again in the Winter Barnetegi organised by the Euskara Munduan programme. In the barnetegis, in addition to receiving classes and living together in Basque, the students take part in activities that introduce them to relevant aspects of Basque culture and help them in their learning process. Buenos Aires will host the barnetegi at the Laurak Bat Euskal Etxea from the 13th to the 19th of July. In addition, at the end of the course, exams will be held to certify language proficiency.

The group is made up of 19 Basque students, 18 from Argentina and one from Chile. Inés Olazabal and Rocío Basterra will be in charge of teaching the classes at the barnetegi, using material specially prepared for the South American students by Jon Urdangarin. Gabriela Mendia (FEVA, Federación de Entidades Vasco Argentinas) and Kinku Zinkunegi (head of the Euskara Munduan programme at the Etxepare Basque Institute) will coordinate the barnetegi.

Basque language level exams

At the end of the barnetegi, on Saturday 20 July and Sunday 21 July, written and oral exams will be held to certify levels B1, B2 and C1 of Basque according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The exams will be held at the Euskal Etxea Laurak Bat in Buenos Aires.

Irene López de Vicuña, Sabrina Otegui and Kinku Zinkunegi will sit on the examining board, and 24 students will take the exam: 8 students for level B1, 9 for level B2 and 7 for level C1.

Euskara Munduan Programme

One of the missions of the Etxepare Basque Institute is to promote knowledge of the Basque language among Basque communities abroad. Euskara Munduan (Euskara in the world) was set up for this purpose. Today more than 70 Basque centers around the world offer Euskara classes in collaboration with the Institute.

The programme has its origins in Argentinan Euskaraz, a project launched in 1990 to revitalize the Basque language in Basque centres in Argentina. Years later, the programme spread to Basque centers in other countries and became known as Euskara Munduan.

The Etxepare Basque Institute has been running the programme since 2018, performing the functions detailed below.