CANTV says "vete" to English language

Earlier today we highlighted how Mexico City’s government wants city employees to learn the Aztec language of Nahuatl in order to preserve indigenous culture. In the meantime, Venezuelan leaders have their own plans on language and culture.

Officials at state-owned Venezuelan telecom firm CANTV have urged their workers to refrain from using English-language terms as substitutes for words in Spanish. The “Say it in Spanish, say it with pride” campaign was launched yesterday with the hope of get staff to stop using “words like "staff" ("equipo" is preferred), "marketing" ("mercadeo") and "password" ("contraseña").”

According to a statement issued by Venezuela's Communication and Information Ministry:

The campaign was born from the worry of a group of workers at the Communications and Public Affairs department who observed that much of the telecommunications jargon is of Anglo-Saxon background…

Via stickers and posters, the campaign will bring to attention the large amount of English terms used daily by Venezuelans and substitute our on way of naming things. This has been the case for many years where many sectors have been threatened with the cultural domination of our towns. – [ed. personal translation]

Image- Clipperz

Sources (English)- Associated Press, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Sources (Spanish)- Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela