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Madrid, Spain. Complutense University in Madrid held the second conference on Multilingualism on the Iberian Peninsula on November 25-26^th, organized by its Basque Philology Department with the collaboration of the Etxepare Basque Institute.  During the conference various themes were discussed including language policy in Basque, Galician, Portuguese, Catalan, Astur-Leones, and Spanish.  The meeting included the participation of eleven experts from various universities (Complutense, UNED, Salamanca, Aveiro) as well as being attended by university students and the local public interested in the subject.

As part of the conference, two talks were dedicated to Basque.  The first, “High Drama or Comedy: Language Policy and Theater Production in Basque,” by Arantzazu Fernandez Iglesias, Philology Professor at UNED, and the second, “Comparison of the Linguistic Policies of the Provincial Community of Navarre and the Basque Autonomous Community,” by Karlos Cid Abasolo, Professor of Basque Philology at the hosting Complutense University. 

The conference was also attended --throught a video-- by Kike Amonarriz, Philologist, comedian, who is also known to viewers of ETB, The Basque public TV station where he presents very well-known programs like Mihiluze. Currently, Amonarriz is presenting Tribuaren Berbak, a program on Euskera that talks about different aspects of the Basque language, like the myth that it is an impossible language to learn. Precisely, during his stay in Madrid, Amonarriz interviewed Karlos Cid Abasolo, who organized the conference.  We leave you with the link to the video here on the Tribuaren Berbak website. 

Or if you prefer, here is the program in its entirety: