Agreement signed to promote the Basque language abroad

Today, the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Aurten Bai Foundation have signed a collaboration agreement to promote the teaching of Basque abroad.

Today, the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Aurten Bai Foundation have signed a collaboration agreement to promote the teaching of Basque abroad. Through this ongoing agreement renewed every year, the two entities organize activities such as online courses or Basque immersion internships at barnetegis for students of Basque language and culture abroad.

The aim of the signatory entities is to promote the teaching, visibility and promotion of the Basque language and culture abroad by organizing activities of all kind. Through this agreement – signed on the International Day of the Basque Language – a series of activities will be set into motion to meet the objectives of both institutions.

One of the activities is to implement the online Basque language course, BOGA. The Aurten Bai Foundation offers online courses at its Zornotza barnetegi using the BOGA self-learning system. During the 2019-2020 academic year, the Etxepare Basque Institute will promote the use of this system among students of Basque language and culture enrolled in its readership network.

Another activity defined in this agreement is language immersion courses for foreign students at the barnetegi. Every year, the Etxepare Basque Institute promotes courses for international students at the Zornotza barnetegi, a winter course (January and February) and a summer course (July, August and September). In 2020, the Institute will commit to sending thirty students to the barnetegi: five in winter and twenty-five in summer.

In addition, the Etxepare Basque Institute and the Aurten Bai Foundation will once again organize the "Aurten euskara bai!" contest. The contest will be open to students of the readerships and will be based on their own work. The winner of the best one-page essay will be invited to learn Basque at the Zornotza barnetegi in the summer of 2020, including free tuition and travel expenses. He or she will be one of the twenty-five foreign students attending the summer course.