The author recalls her former teacher Jon, strict yet kind, and emphasizes the significance of the D educational model and a Basque-speaking environment for learning Euskera.
The author remembers her former Euskera teacher, Jon, whom she describes as strict but also pleasant. Looking back, she considers him a good teacher who ignited her passion for continuing to learn Euskera, even though it wasn’t spoken at home.
She became fluent in Euskera at school and, as often happens in her town, socialized in Euskera with children of non-Basque speaking parents, regardless of whether their parents were Spanish or Pakistani.
She completed all her schooling in Euskera, both compulsory and optional. After finishing university and starting work, having already obtained the EGA in Bergara, she returned to take Euskera courses, the first being at Arrasate Press.
While directing the weekly newspaper Anboto in Durangaldea, she commuted to Eibar to attend a writing course organized by UEU. She has always had proofreaders around her, as Euskera is a language that requires practice.
She identifies as a student of the ‘D model’ (education entirely in Euskera) and finds it difficult to imagine that the D model alone would have been sufficient for her Euskera acquisition process without a Basque-speaking environment. She is clear that her schooling provided the foundation, but her Basque-speaking environment was the most valuable element in the process.
All this came to mind following the results of the Euskera exam for university entrance tests, a process she has had to navigate due to work. It is increasingly difficult to have the same luck she had, and therefore, those acquiring Euskera through the D model face a more arduous task, even more so for those educated in the ‘A model’ (mixed language education) living in non-Basque speaking environments.
The author states that it is impossible to think that those taking the same Euskera exam will achieve similar results. It doesn’t take much insight to realize that the problem lies not with the proofreaders, but at the root: in the A model, recalling the saying ‘the emperor has no clothes’.
