Great news! Beginning in the AY 2026-2027, Yale will offer Catalan language courses. Now, students may fulfill their language requirement with Catalan (L1-L3). The program is housed in the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese and is offered to students at Yale and Cornell through the Shared Course Initiative, a collaboration among Columbia, Cornell, and Yale that enables cross-enrollment in less commonly taught languages not available on a student’s home campus.
These are not self-paced, computer-based online courses. Classes meet live via videoconferencing technology.
In the case of Catalan, Yale will host the classes and partner with Cornell as the participating institution.
Questions about the Catalan? Please contact the program coordinator, Lourdes Sabé.
Course Offerings
Benvinguts i benvingudes! Catalan is a Romance language spoken by a population of about ten million people and the Catalan-language area, its main city being Barcelona, spans four nations: Spain, France, Andorra, and Italy. In the principality of Andorra, Catalan is the only official language. In Spain, the Catalan-speaking regions are Catalunya (Catalonia), País Valencià (Valencia), Illes Balears (Balearic Islands), and an area of Aragon bordering Catalunya; in Southern France, the Pyrénées-Orientalesand Roussillon regions or Catalunya Nord (Northern Catalonia); and in Italy, in the city of l’Alguer (Alghero) in Sardinia.
Elementary Catalan I (Fall 2026)
A task-based course introducing basic vocabulary, grammar, and communicative functions in Catalan, while fostering cultural understanding of Catalan-speaking territories. Through diverse tasks, texts (written, spoken, visual), and assessments, students develop fundamental skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Conducted in Catalan. May be followed by CTLN 1200 in the spring. Open to Cornell University students through the Shared Course Initiative program in the Center for Language Study (https://cls.yale.edu/sci).
Elementary Catalan II (Spring 2027)
This is a task-based course that further introduces basic vocabulary, grammar, and communicative functions in Catalan, while fostering cultural understanding of Catalan-speaking territories. Through a wide range of texts (written, spoken, visual), activities/projects, and assessments, students develop fundamental skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Conducted in Catalan. Admits to CTLN 1300.