(https://elpais.com/tecnologia/2022-12-04/el-idioma-espanol-en-la-ciencia-y-la-tecnologia.html)

An article published on 4 Dec 2022 in El País highlights how Spanish-speaking countries are mobilising to change the long-standing dominance of English in science and tech. The piece reports that Spain is leading a €1.1 billion public investment (via the strategic plan “Alianza por la Nueva Economía de la Lengua”) to promote Spanish and co-official languages in five key areas: knowledge production in Spanish, AI in Spanish, science in Spanish, learning in Spanish, and cultural & creative industries. The article also emphasises how although Spanish is the second most frequent language in scientific output, its visibility is still very low: almost all high-impact experimental science is published in English (or increasingly Chinese). Spanish remains overrepresented in humanities, social sciences and medical fields, but less so in lab-based disciplines. It also stresses that linguistic inclusion in digital technologies is a matter of both justice and economic opportunity: if Spanish is left out of the AI, cloud and translation ecosystem, the gap with English and other major languages will widen.

This is a timely piece that speaks directly to our interests in multilingualism, identity and language policy. A few reflections.

• The move to treat Spanish (and by extension other less-dominant languages) as strategic assets in science & tech is refreshing. It shifts the narrative from “we must learn English” to “our languages also have value and deserve representation”.
• It’s interesting to see how the article links language to economics and technology: not only: culture and identity, but also market share, AI datasets and international competitiveness. That gives the language-policy issue more traction.
• Yet, the structural dominance of English remains huge in experimental science. As the piece says: 99% of the publications from top research centres in Spain still go through English. That means the transformation will require long-term commitment, not just funding.
• For our work in translation/localisation and in language education: this suggests a growing field of opportunity. If Spanish becomes more embedded in AI, data, tech production, there will be demand for terminological expertise, multilingual corpora, machine-learning in Spanish, etc.
• One caveat: the article doesn’t go deeply into how languages other than Spanish (e.g., co-official languages in Spain, regional identities) will fit. It mentions them, but the operational implications are less clear.
• Finally, from a European-multilingualism perspective: this case shows that even large global languages (Spanish) can feel “minor” in the tech/science ecosystems. So for truly minor or regional languages the challenge is even steeper — but the logic remains: visibility, presence and capacity in technology/digital matter more than ever.

In conclusion, the Spanish-language science & tech ecosystem is at a turning point. The push here offers both a symbolic and practical shift in language policy. For anyone working on language education, translation, multilingual tech or European language policy, this is worth watching. Not only the ‘what’ (spanish = asset) but the ‘how’ (investment, digital tech, terminologies) will matter.

Let me know what you think: Do you see opportunities in your field maybe changing because of this? Or perhaps comparators in other European languages you know?