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Neue Praktiken, neue Herausforderungen?

The Real Academia Española in the Age of Social Networks

La Real Academia Española à l’ère des réseaux sociaux
Nick Kukuk

Résumés

Depuis sa fondation en 1713, la Real Academia Española (RAE) a été pionnière dans la préservation de la langue espagnole. À l’aube de l’ère numérique, la RAE a également adapté sa mission aux exigences actuelles, et notamment à l’importance croissante des réseaux sociaux, en faisant évoluer la nature de la RAE. Ceci passe en effet par l’établissement de profils sur différents réseaux sociaux et par la création d’une présence en ligne constante. En particulier, la RAE utilise Twitter pour communiquer directement avec le public. Le fleuron de la RAE est la campagne en ligne à succès Lengua madre solo hay una, dans laquelle la RAE critique l’utilisation de plus en plus fréquente de termes anglais, notamment dans le secteur du marketing. En ce qui concerne la présence en ligne de la RAE, l’article vise à examiner les fonctions et les possibilités des réseaux sociaux pour la RAE, à la lumière de sa mission autoproclamée de maintien de la langue espagnole.

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Texte intégral

1. Introduction

  • 1 English translation: Clean, fix and give splendor. All translations are made by the author.
  • 2 The most all-encompassing that could be made.

1On August 3, 1713, Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco y Zúñiga founded the Real Academia Española (RAE), modeled on the French language academy, L’Académie française, founded in 1635. The RAE transferred the Académie française’s aim of cultivating and purifying the language to the Castilian language. In this way, the RAE aimed to preserve Castilian at the height of its literary heyday in the Siglo de Oro, the Golden Age, during the 17th century. True to its motto, “limpia, fija y da esplendor”,1 the RAE wanted to document the Castilian language in a dictionary, “el más copioso que pudiera hacerse2 (RAE, 2019). From 1726 to 1739, the RAE published its six-volume edition of the Diccionario de Autoridades, with circa 42,500 entries. However, in a later step, in 1780, the Diccionario de Autoridades was reduced by the Autoridades and published as a single volume.

  • 3 Wishing to make it easier to use, and that the public could have it for a comfortable price, they d (...)
  • 4 The Academy wants to communicate more frequently and directly with the public interested in our wor (...)

2The reduction of the six-volume edition can be traced back, on the one hand, to easier handling and, on the other hand, to the resulting possibility of cheaper production as well as a more affordable sales price: “deseando hacerle de mas fácil uso, y que el Público pueda tenerle por un precio cómodo, determinó reducir los seis tomos a uno solo3 (RAE, 1780: Prólogo). Thus, the RAE could produce the Diccionario en masse and reach a wider readership within Spanish society. It becomes already clear what Rafael Lapesa would later emphasize in the 67th edition of the Boletín: “la Corporación quiere comunicarse más frecuente y directamente con el público interesado por nuestras tareas4 (Lapesa, 1987: 229). In addition to maintaining the Spanish language, another objective of the RAE was and still is to reach as many Spanish speakers as possible. Therefore, ideally, the information should be available and retrievable by all speakers and interested parties at all times. In this regard and given the advancing digitalization, the RAE discovered new possibilities for presenting its works digitally early on by publishing the 21st edition of the Diccionario as a two-volume small edition with CD‑Rom in 1995, for example.

  • 5 “Web 2.0 is a term that was first used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software developers a (...)

3The year 1989 with the development of the World Wide Web, marks a new era and the start of the digital age. Due to further development of the World Wide Web into Web 2.05 in the 2000s and the possibility of user participation, the RAE also extended its reach by putting its Diccionario online as a retro-digitized version for general availability free of charge on its homepage in 2001. The emergence of more weblogs, wikis or social networks increased the possibilities of user participation to such an extent that passive users now became active contributors. The new potential and functions of social networks found great popularity worldwide, and thus, also the RAE started to present itself in the 21st century in various social networks.

4Based on its social media presence, the main research questions of this analysis are, first, in which social networks the RAE appears; second, how does the RAE present itself in those social networks; third, the extent of the Spanish language academy’s reach on those social networks, taking into consideration the RAE’s objective of reaching as many Spanish speakers as possible. In order to answer the research questions, I will first briefly define and explain basic terms and introduce the most common social networks, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. In the second step, I will evaluate the current media presence of the RAE on these very platforms. Furthermore, I will examine the online campaign Lengua madre solo hay una (“There is only one mother-tongue”), in more detail, and analyze its purpose. Finally, I summarize the RAE’s current social network presence considering its central objectives of outreach to worldwide Spanish speakers and to work toward maintaining the language purism of Spanish.

2. Methodology

5Analyzing social networks is still a relatively new discipline in academia. Although the works of scholars such as Sanderson (2013), Reichart-Smith and Sanderson (2015), and Thorpe, Toffoletti, and Bruce (2017) provide guidance, their research aimed for a better understanding of sports athletes’ identity construction through social networks. Their works followed a two-fold approach. First, they categorized their data timely and, second, according to the content posted on the different social networks. As this work aims for a more general understanding of the RAE’s overall social media presence, I will realize a qualitative analysis of the RAE’s social networks content and generally categorize the content if possible. This analysis will follow the above-presented research questions and look at the different social networks. When analyzing its visible online reach, I will take into consideration the global Spanish-speaking population present on the analyzed social networks, given the RAE’s overall objective to reach as many Spanish speakers as possible.

6The RAE’s most viewed social media activity—its online campaign Lengua madre solo hay una—allows for a deeper analysis. Therefore, I will follow a close reading approach to analyze the video and its intended effect on the viewers. Brummett defines close reading as a “mindful, disciplined reading of an object with a view to a deeper understanding of its meanings” (Brummett, 2019: Chapter 1; emphasis in original). But it is necessary to acknowledge the difference between classical written—literary works—and social network-typical (audio-)visual texts like pictures or videos. Given its audio-visual production, analyzing the online campaign requires an additional semiotic approach for a better understanding. The evaluation of the online campaign will be realized considering the RAE’s objective—the conservation and purity of the Spanish language.

3. Social Media and Social Networks

7“Social Media is a group of internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010: 61). This means that users can communicate and interact with each other on the Internet using various platforms via messages, comments, or reactions. However, these are only a few examples of how users can actively help shape content. In this sense, Oliver Bendel (2018) describes social media as the profile-based networking of users for communication and cooperation via the Internet. Characteristics of social media are mainly the different possibilities of communication forms and design. Here, communication can take place via status posts, text messages as well as image-based messages such as photos or videos.

8Since many of the functions of social media are essential parts of social networks, social media and social network(s) are often equated. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that social networks are a specific form of social media application. Roland Gabriel and Heinz-Peter Röhrs describe social networks as a collaborative network on the Internet, a loose connection of people in a computer-based network for communication (2017: 12). The ease of use and multiple communication tools are the main advantages of social networks. Social networks come in a variety of shapes and sizes on the Internet. They can have a regional, national or international reach and focus on specific topics or interests. Social networks can connect millions of people worldwide. Moreover, users include not only individuals using social media accounts for personal purposes but also companies that use social networks to conduct both market research and marketing, collect information, or network with their customers, as does the RAE.

  • 6 With 2.9 billion monthly active members, Facebook is the world’s largest social network (We Are Soc (...)
  • 7 Instagram has an entirely mobile design and is geared toward visual posts, mainly photos. Due to re (...)
  • 8 On Twitter, users upload—or tweet—a status message of up to 280 characters. Individual images or vi (...)
  • 9 YouTube exclusively distributes videos and reaches an immense number of users. In January 2022, You (...)
  • 10 Flickr is a photo service similar to Instagram. Despite RAE’s high activity with 5,109 photos poste (...)

9After its establishment, the RAE oriented towards the French language academy. But since then, it has developed into a leading and exemplary language academy, primarily due to good communication and high efficacy. Thus, RAE’s appearance in social networks should be looked at by values such as exemplarity and progress. In addition to a well-organized, structured, and extensive homepage, the RAE operates various social network accounts and shows a notable presence. The RAE is active not only on the most common, major social networks such as Facebook6, Instagram7, Twitter8, and YouTube9, but also on Flickr10. Therefore, in the following, I will mainly present and analyze the media presence on the most common social media accounts.

4. Media presence of the RAE on Social Networks

4.1. The RAE on Facebook

10The RAE has been active on Facebook since May 8, 2013. By now, it has generated over 616 thousand subscribers and a comparable number of “likes” (as of January 5, 2023). Under the account’s description, a brief historical explanation based on the statutes of the RAE and its mission of Spanish language preservation can be found. The Departamento de Comunicación de la RAE is responsible for the site. An email address as well as a phone number for contacting are listed. There is further a link to the official homepage and links to the RAE’s most popular social network accounts. In addition to status updates, the RAE used to create online event invitations frequently since 2016, inviting interested parties by using the Facebook event calendar. However, these have not been updated since September 2019. But overall, participation in RAE’s past event invitations is steady, as can be seen by clicking on the events. For example, the last event on September 24, 2019, titled Presentación SIDI en Madrid, had 32 people respond.

  • 11 English: The house of words. Second edition, 2017.
  • 12 As the Spanish population represents only about 10% of the worldwide 460 million native Spanish spe (...)

11Besides event invitations, the RAE also uploaded an 8‑minute video on April 21, 2017. The video has generated over 23,000 views as well as 491 likes and 64 comments (as of January 5, 2023). In the video, titled «La casa de las palabras». Segunda edición, 2017,11 viewers are given a tour of the RAE building. The video also explains the history of the RAE, highlighting historically relevant events, and demonstrates the newly conceptualized dictionary. Further, the composition of the Academy is briefly stated, emphasizing the value of cooperation within the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Españolas12 (ASALE). The most important jointly produced works are presented, and reference is made to other gems of Spanish literary history. Lastly, the RAE’s recent and ambitious work is explained: the Nuevo diccionario histórico del español (NDHE), which systematically breaks down the Spanish language development. However, the most significant task for the RAE is, and will always be, the Spanish-speaking community and the communication with them. Thus, as stated in the video, the main focus for future communication are social networks so that users from all around the world can contact the RAE directly. Other videos uploaded include, in particular, citations of literary works such as poems or sonnets.

12In addition to videos and events, the RAE mainly uses the status function while attaching photos at the same time. These uploaded photos record impressions of events, honors, or even lexicographic progress. Usually, the accompanying written status provides an introductory description offering further information in an external link, which forwards the user to the RAE’s homepage and the article uploaded there. In short, the RAE presents itself in a good light on Facebook and actively shapes its account.

4.2. The RAE on Instagram

13The RAE joined the social network Instagram with the profile name laraeinforma in April 2015. Since then, the account has generated 435,000 subscribers. The profile has contributed to a comprehensive representation of the Academy with over 2,522 posts (as of January 5, 2023). The uploaded posts mainly feature members and which congresses, conferences, or other events they have participated in, or which awards they have received. In addition, the RAE advertises new publications, commemorates historical events of the Academy, and presents Spanish alternatives to prevalent Anglicisms.

14Looking at the profile, it becomes clear that the RAE mainly wants to present itself and its members on its Instagram account through appealing pictures and informative descriptions. Despite the classic question at the end of the image description, which aims to encourage user activity in social networks (Pahrmann, Kupka & Schwenke, 2022: 385), thus stimulating further comments and ultimately achieving an increasing outreach, the RAE eventually does not address the comments.

15In summary, the RAE has found in Instagram a medium that provides the opportunity to give more insights into the Academy itself, presenting its decorated members and their work in a positive light.

4.3. The RAE on Twitter

  • 13 According to Statista, the three most followed Twitter accounts in April 2022 were, first, Barack O (...)

16The RAE’s Twitter account, reachable at @RAEinforma, is the main communication account with the general public. With over 482,000 tweets and over 2.1 million followers, the language academy shows a very high activity (as of January 5, 2023). The number of followers and especially the number of tweets sent is very remarkable, considering that among the top profiles are mainly public figures such as the US singer Katy Perry, the Canadian singer Justin Bieber as well as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.13 Compared to those profiles, the RAE’s reach and activity as a linguistic institution that responds almost exclusively to questions about the correctness of Spanish are remarkable. In addition to answering linguistic questions, the RAE posts on Twitter, similar to Instagram, photos with references to new publications, and technical services, to introduce members of the RAE or on the occasion of socially important events such as Christmas or New Year.

  • 14 The English meaning is #questionRAE or #RAEconsultation.
  • 15 “#RAEconsultas: La palabra ‘emoji’ se pronuncia [emóji]. Se escribe sin tilde porque es llana termi (...)
  • 16 The DPD is used to answer linguistic questions that 22 of ASALE’s current 23 language academies hav (...)

17To clarify linguistic issues, the RAE refers to the hashtag #dudaRAE. In addition to #dudaRAE, linguistic or grammatical questions can be found under the hashtag #RAEconsultas.14 These questions mainly concern the correct use of terms, the correct conjugation of a verb, and neologisms or establishing anglicisms such as emoji.15 In this way, the RAE allows worldwide Spanish speakers to contact RAE staff directly and ask about linguistic phenomena that are not yet included in the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas16 (DPD), for example.

18Besides lexicographical explanation and self-presentation, the RAE’s social media department answers questions about the evolution of Spanish as well. Sometimes, this results in small discussions.17 In the linked tweets, the RAE defends the linguistic progression of Spanish, the inclusion of new words to the Diccionario, and its approach in this regard.

19Also, the RAE uses all the features on Twitter and creates a network with other literary or linguistic accounts connecting itself with various universities or the journalistic sector. Thus, the Spanish linguistic institution Instituto Cervantes, the journalist and writer Mónica Carrillo, and the Madrid-based university Universidad Autónoma de Madrid are just some of the directly followed Twitter profiles of the RAE. Overall, the Twitter account @RAEinforma functions as a successful means of self-promotion, partly as an extended DPD, but above all as a platform that makes it possible to contact the academy directly and usually receive a response within a few hours.

4.4. The RAE on YouTube

20In March 2012, the RAE joined the YouTube video portal with its account @RAEInforma and has since generated a total of over 3.5 million views (as of January 6, 2023). The video «Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente» de Pablo Neruda por Carles Francino Navarro has been able to generate the most views (196,624 views as of January 6, 2023). In the video, Spanish actor Carles Francino Navarro quotes the mentioned poem by Chilean writer and poet Pablo Neruda. Under the hashtag #amamoslapoesía, the RAE has posted diverse and wide-reaching videos of well-known personalities reciting poems or sonnets likewise; among those featured is actor Jaime Lorente, known from the Spanish-produced and internationally successful series La Casa de Papel (English: Money Heist) (Poniewozik, Hale & Lyons, 2018). Somewhat surprising is the highly viewed presentation of the Ortografía básica, posted on May 26, 2012 (151,132 vies as of January 6, 2023). Apart from these videos, two videos, in particular, have presented the RAE’s guiding principles, including the history of the RAE (RAE, 2013, 2017). The 2017 video, La casa de las palabras, is linked to the RAE’s Facebook account, and I described it in more detail in the previous section. Nevertheless, the majority of videos have generated only a few thousand to five thousand views. Some have generated around ten thousand, and only a small portion has generated a higher double-digit number of visuals.

21Videos with different content focuses can be selected and viewed in the channel’s playlists. There, the RAE focuses primarily on presentations of new publications, inaugural speeches of new members, and conferences on, among other things, the future of dictionaries in the age of digitization.

22Except for the short poetry lectures, the long duration of most of the videos is particularly striking. These are strongly reminiscent of a live broadcast of the respective event and evoke little interest, as Pahrmann, Kupka, and Schwenke also confirm the short attention span of viewers (2022: 436). In addition to the long presentation or discourse videos, shorter interviews can also be found, such as a declaration by former director Darío Villanueva regarding Spanish and the media. In the video, Villanueva discusses the different means of communication and social media, such as Twitter, and how they influence the Spanish language, among others.

23Overall, the RAE uses its YouTube channel for a successful external presentation offering interested users the possibility of experiencing the presentation of newly published works or academic discourses. This way, the RAE allows the public to gain insight into the traditionally closed academy.

5. The RAE’s Social Media Campaign Lengua madre solo hay una

24One very interesting aspect of the RAE’s use of social networks is the successful online campaign Case campaña RAE – Lengua madre solo hay una (Grey Spain, 2016). The campaign was uploaded on various social networks on May 18, 2016, in order to mark the first-ever debate hosted by the RAE and the Academia de Publicidad (AP) on Spanish language use in advertising. The campaign was a collaboration with the advertising agency Grey Global Group. Grey Global Group is a global acting advertising and marketing agency. Established in 1917, it is one of the world’s most prestigious advertising and marketing organizations. On its YouTube account @greygroupspain, Grey Spain has uploaded various videos of online campaigns, including campaigns for globally known brands such as Domino’s Pizza, Volvo, and Real Madrid. In social media marketing, collaborating with influential partners is described as content seeding (Pahrmann, Kupka & Schwenke, 2022: 208) and aims to expand the reach of the product.

25The final product of the campaign was a video, Lengua madre solo hay una, which has generated 692,573 views on YouTube (as of January 6, 2023) and will be the essence of the following analysis. In addition to the video’s release on YouTube, it was also published on other accounts, such as Facebook, and was able to generate a large number of views there as well. Even though the official publisher of the campaign was Grey Spain and not the RAE, it can be seen as the flagship of the RAE’s social media activity. In addition to its large number of views, the campaign was shared multiple times on social media, including Spanish journalist and author Arturo Pérez-Reverte tweeting about the campaign on his Twitter account (Pérez-Reverte, 2016). Pérez-Reverte’s Tweet was retweeted 677 times (as of January 6, 2023). This example displays the efficiency of content seeding and explains the campaign’s great success. Finally, the creative campaign also received positive responses from the media (BBC Mundo, 2016; El Periódico, 2016; El Tiempo, 2016).

5.1. Description of the Video Campaign

  • 18 I will cite the written text in the video as shown in the video, meaning that most of the text is w (...)
  • 19 THANK GOODNESS FOR THE REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA.

26The video Case campaña RAE – Lengua madre solo hay una begins with a short thesis regarding the increasing use of Anglicisms in Spanish and specifically in Spanish advertising: “EL INGLÉS ESTÁ INVADIENDO LA PUBLICIDAD POR DENTRO Y POR FUERA Y TODO PORQUE NOS HAN HECHO CREER QUE SUENA MEJOR QUE EL ESPAÑOL18 (Grey Spain, 2016: 0:02–0:22). This statement is inserted in a tripartite form and the phases in between, various English terms are shown in different contexts, such as strategic planner, community manager, anti-age, sensitive experience and many more. Then, a second statement, the obvious solution, fades in “MENOS MAL QUE ESTÁ LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA19 (Grey Spain, 2016: 0:29–0:31). Following this, the RAE building in Madrid is shown, and a brief glimpse of the interior of the academy is given. After this, the following sentences are inserted and partially supported by appropriate images, such as a short insertion of the Diccionario de la lengua castellana:

  • 20 WHICH IS NOT A STARTUP, BUT IT HAS BEEN TAKING CARE OF THE GOOD USE OF OUR LANGUAGE FOR 3 CENTURIES (...)

Que no es una Startup, pero lleva 3 siglos cuidando EL BUEN USO DE NUESTRO IDIOMA.
Y ahora, ha decidido luchar
CONTRA LOS ANGLICISMOS de una manera original y atrevida.
La primera campaña invadida de inglés,
CONTRA LA INVASIÓN DEL INGLÉS.
Lanzamos al mercado dos
PRODUCTOS REALES con su código y su lenguaje habitual20 (Grey Spain, 2016: 0:31–0:56).

  • 21 Open your eyes to the fashion look.
  • 22 So cool, so trendy, so ridiculous.
  • 23 THOSE, HYPNOTIZED BY THE ANGLICISMS, ORDERED THE PRODUCTS FOR FREE ON THE WEBSITES.

27Then two products and associated public advertising banners are shown. The first product is the advertised perfume Swine with the caption “New Fragrance, New Woman”. The second product is a pair of sunglasses with the caption “Quiet man great man – Abre tus ojos al look fashion”.21 Subsequently, both products are described as “tan cool, tan trendy, tan ridiculous”22 (Grey Spain, 2016: 0:56–1:05). Thereupon, the respective commercials are presented. Each commercial contains a mixture of Spanish and English terms. When advertising the perfume, the frequent repetition of the product’s name Swine is particularly noticeable. When promoting the pair of sunglasses, much emphasis is placed on the Blind Effect. The video goes on, and the Spanish-speaking off‑voice explains that people could order and would receive the actual products for free: “AQUELLOS QUE HIPNOTIZADOS POR LOS ANGLICISMOS PIDIERON GRATIS LOS PRODUCTOS EN LAS WEBS23 (Grey Spain, 2016: 1:38).

  • 24 UPON RECEIVING THEM, THEY DISCOVERED THAT SO MUCH ENGLISH WAS HIDING SOMETHING UNEXPECTED.

28The video shows a person during the process of ordering both products, followed by a short statement, aiming to point out the literal meaning of the used English terms: “AL RECIBIRLOS, DESCUBRIERON QUE TANTO INGLÉS ESCONDÍA ALGO INESPERADO24 (Grey Spain, 2016: 1:47). Swine, in Spanish means cerdo. Then, an actress receives and opens the packaging. The viewers can see the advertised perfume as well as the inside writing of the package. As it is only a brief glimpse of the inside writing, the video needs to be paused and looked at more closely:

  • 25 It sounds great, but it smells really bad. Congratulations on receiving your Swine, new woman fragr (...)

SWINE
by Rebecca Robinson
Suena muy bien, pero huele muy mal.

¿Enhorabuena por haber recibido tu fragancia Swine, new woman? No. Porque como su nombre lo dice, huele a cerdo. Un intenso aroma a granja de cerdos que perfumará tus dreams. Pero claro; estaba en inglés, y por eso te olía a Swine. Cada vez estamos viendo más términos ingleses en la publicidad, darling. ¿Qué podemos hacer?
Mucho, empezando por esta campaña para luchar contra ello.
DESCUBRE MÁS EN SWINEODOR.COM
¿SE HABLA ESPAÑOL EN LA PUBLICIDAD? 18 DE MAYO, JORNADA DE DEBATE25 (Grey Spain, 2016: 1:53).

  • 26 The perfume whose name in English tells you that it smells like pork, but because it was in English (...)

29After that, the perfume commercial seems to be repeated. Though, the spoken text is different. Also, the actress and her acting partner react to the perfume’s smell with a facial expression of disgust because the fragrance—as the English name suggests—seems to smell like pig. The off‑voice again points out the discrepancy between the expected smell of the seemingly nice-sounding English name Swine, the literal meaning in English as well as in the Spanish translation, and thus, its actual smell: “El perfume cuyo nombre en inglés te dice que huele a cerdo, pero como estaba en ingles te olía a Swine. […] Swine. Suena muy bien, pero huele muy mal26 (Grey Spain, 2016: 1:58–2:12).

  • 27 The only glasses that don’t let you see anything. Dark like all those English words put there just (...)
  • 28 Did you see it clearly, great man? Okay, no more.
  • 29 It sounds great, but it lets you see really badly.

30Then follows the second product in the same scheme. An actor opens the package with the new sunglasses. Inside of it is a written text. The writing is recognizable, though not readable. For this product, the literal meaning and Spanish translation of the words Blind Effect are essential. In Spanish, Blind Effect means efecto ciego, i.e., blind-making effect. Again, an actor replays the introduction commercial. Nonetheless, the actor acts according to the literal slogan meaning, pointed out by the off‑voice: the blind-making effect. As in the first commercial, the actor tries to play chess with the sunglasses and tries to juggle a balloon, which flies away in the end. The scene is commented as follows: “Las únicas gafas que no te dejan ver nada. Oscuras como todas esas palabras en inglés puestas allí solo porque se escuchan en inglés27 (Grey Spain, 2016: 2:24–2:31). Finally, the actor runs into a room divider, and afterwards throws away the glasses accompanied by the off‑voice saying “¿Lo veías claro, great man? Okay, ya no28 (Grey Spain, 2016: 2:31–2:35). Then the slogan, Sunset Style with Blind Effect, is read out again and, as in the original commercial, the discrepancy between the English slogan and the translated meaning is pointed out: “Suena muy bien, pero se ve muy mal29 (Grey Spain, 2016: 2:35–2:38).

  • 30 AFTER BROADCASTING THESE ADS ON TV, THE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND FINALLY UNDERSTOOD, AND EVERY (...)

31After this last scene, reference is made to the primary-mentioned discussion on Spanish in advertising, followed by the following statement: “DESPUÉS DE EMITIR ESTOS ANUNCIOS EN TV, LA GENTE QUE NO ENTENDIÓ, AL FINAL ENTENDIÓ Y TODO EL MUNDO HAPPY, NO… LO SIGUIENTE: FELIZ30 (Grey Spain, 2016: 2:41–2:53).

5.2. Evaluation of the Campaign Madre lengua solo hay una

32The RAE openly criticizes the (excessive) use of English terms within the Spanish advertising industry with their online campaign Lengua madre solo hay una. In the video campaign, the RAE promotes their hosted discussion—jointly organized with the AP—concerning this topic as well as the correct and appropriate use of Spanish. Through the ironic rehashing of the video, it becomes clear that, first, not everything that seems to sound good in English makes (literal) sense in Spanish. Second, the adapted advertising scenes exaggeratedly show that if the product content were to match the English product slogan literally, potential consumers would face problems. In this regard, good use of the Spanish language would help and could avoid misunderstandings.

  • 31 Generally, conversion refers to the number of newly acquired customers who, for example, have seen (...)

33Additionally, besides promoting the aforementioned discussion, the campaign serves as a wake‑up call for Spanish speakers. Arguably, the goal was to reach as many Spanish speakers as possible. Since the video has had over 692,000 views as of January 6, 2023, this goal can be considered achieved. Thus, considering the RAE’s objectives of global connectedness with the Spanish-speaking community and language maintenance, this campaign was a success. It is impossible to say how high the absolute total reach and resulting conversions31 of the campaign were because the ordinary user cannot analyze the views of the video in terms of country, gender, or age distribution. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that the video’s conversion exceeded expectations, considering the high visualizations through Grey Spain’s official YouTube account and its multiple republications through other influential accounts, also including different social networks.

34The campaign was well received and served as a successful online presentation of the RAE. Though there were some critical comments in the YouTube comment section regarding the English language name of the advertising agency “Grey” and the video description of Case campaña, meaning a mixture of English and Spanish. With its campaign, the RAE calls for increasing Spanish use, especially in supposedly English-dominated work fields. The RAE also presents itself as a language savior of Spanish, underlining the necessity of its work and justifying traditional language academies in an era of increasing interconnectedness and cultural leveling.

6. Conclusion

35After reviewing the RAE’s online presence in various social networks, it is clear that the RAE is active in the most common ones, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and tries to keep its subscribers up to date. Apart from the declining social network Flickr, where the RAE has hardly any followers, its online presence is exemplary. On Facebook and Instagram, the RAE is active and maintains its accounts carefully. It tries to align and link its activities with those on its homepage. This way, the RAE allows its subscribers to learn more about the institution and its work. In addition to the social networks already mentioned, the RAE is particularly active on Twitter, where it offers direct and quick contact. The more than 428,100 tweets (as of January 6, 2023) reinforce the goal of constant and direct communication between the RAE and people interested in Spanish or the RAE’s work. Although the RAE often posts the same content (with pictures) on several social networks, the overall high number of followers on the mentioned social networks underlines the exemplary work that the RAE is doing in this digitized area of media communication.

36In addition to the mainly informative posts on social networks, the RAE also shows a considerable presence on YouTube. There, the RAE has uploaded recordings of inaugural speeches of new members or the launching of new works. The RAE has also published various interviews and has attracted increased interest with its recent campaign #amamoslapoesía, which includes short videos of celebrities citing poetry. However, the flagship of the RAE’s social network activity was the online campaign Lengua madre solo hay una mainly launched on YouTube. The campaign was a product of cooperation with the Grey Globe Group marketing agency and was produced as a result of the debate on Spanish in the advertising industry that took place for the first time on May 18, 2016. The debate was a collaborative event between the RAE and the AP. As of January 6, 2023, the campaign Lengua madre solo hay una has generated 692,573 views. Such an online campaign by a language academy is unprecedented and demonstrates the RAE’s exceptional position and pioneering role on an international level.

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Notes

1 English translation: Clean, fix and give splendor. All translations are made by the author.

2 The most all-encompassing that could be made.

3 Wishing to make it easier to use, and that the public could have it for a comfortable price, they decided to reduce the six volumes to only one.

4 The Academy wants to communicate more frequently and directly with the public interested in our work.

5 “Web 2.0 is a term that was first used in 2004 to describe a new way in which software developers and end-users started to utilize the World Wide Web; that is, as a platform whereby content and applications are no longer created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010: 60f; see also Lackes & Siepermann, 2018).

6 With 2.9 billion monthly active members, Facebook is the world’s largest social network (We Are Social, Hootsuite & DataReportal, 2022). The consulting agency iLifebelt estimates the total number of Spanish-speaking Facebook users at 350 million, making up 18% of the international Facebook community (iLifebelt, 2020).

7 Instagram has an entirely mobile design and is geared toward visual posts, mainly photos. Due to recent competition, the Instagram feed lately includes an increasing number of videos as well. By 2021, nearly 1.2 billion users were active monthly (Insider Intelligence, 2022).

8 On Twitter, users upload—or tweet—a status message of up to 280 characters. Individual images or videos can be attached. Communication on Twitter works through linking usernames with an @‑sign, and hashtags—indicated via #—are often used to refer to specific topics. In 2021, Twitter counted 362.6 million users monthly (eMarketer, 2022). 34.33 million of these were Spanish-speaking (The Social Media Family, 2022; We Are Social, Hootsuite & DataReportal, 2021).

9 YouTube exclusively distributes videos and reaches an immense number of users. In January 2022, YouTube counted more than 2.5 billion monthly active users (We Are Social, Hootsuite & DataReportal, 2022). The diversity on YouTube makes it the largest social network and arguably the most important one of video portals.

10 Flickr is a photo service similar to Instagram. Despite RAE’s high activity with 5,109 photos posted, the low reach of 194 total followers on Flickr cannot be considered relevant (as of January 5, 2023). Moreover, the demise of Flickr seems to be sealed by the ever-growing popularity of Instagram, and restrictions on the cost-free use of social networks confirm the trend (Campbell, 2022; Notopoulos, 2019).

11 English: The house of words. Second edition, 2017.

12 As the Spanish population represents only about 10% of the worldwide 460 million native Spanish speakers (Eurostat, 2022; Ethnologue, 2022), transatlantic subsidiary academies were established, resulting in the foundation of ASALE in 1951, in Mexico. Today, the ASALE comprises a total of 23 languages academies, mainly based in Latin America but also North America, the Philippines, and Equatorial Guinea (ASALE, 2019).

13 According to Statista, the three most followed Twitter accounts in April 2022 were, first, Barack Obama with 131.67 million, second, Justin Bieber with 114.36 million, and third, Katy Perry with 108.9 million followers (Socialtracker, 2022). Obama sent out 16,700 tweets, Bieber 31,300, and Perry 11,800 (as of January 6, 2023). The data is based on the respective Twitter profiles and the number of tweets officially stated by Twitter. Ultimately, these figures are estimates.

14 The English meaning is #questionRAE or #RAEconsultation.

15 “#RAEconsultas: La palabra ‘emoji’ se pronuncia [emóji]. Se escribe sin tilde porque es llana terminada en vocal. Está en estudio una propuesta para incluir esta voz en el Diccionario de la lengua española de la RAE y la ASALE” (RAE, 2018). English translation: The word “emoji” is pronounced [emoji]. It is written without an accent because it is flat, ending in a vowel. A proposal to include this word in the Diccionario de la lengua Española of the RAE and ASALE is under study.

16 The DPD is used to answer linguistic questions that 22 of ASALE’s current 23 language academies have participated in creating and has over 7.000 entries (RAE, 2005).

17 One such discussion can be found here: <https://twitter.com/RAEinforma/status/1034460281420832768> (May 8, 2023).

18 I will cite the written text in the video as shown in the video, meaning that most of the text is written in capital letters. I will also copy the text highlights, including italics, underlining, or bold print. English translation: ENGLISH IS INVADING ADVERTISING INSIDE AND OUTSIDE, AND ALL BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN LED TO BELIEVE THAT IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN SPANISH.

19 THANK GOODNESS FOR THE REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA.

20 WHICH IS NOT A STARTUP, BUT IT HAS BEEN TAKING CARE OF THE GOOD USE OF OUR LANGUAGE FOR 3 CENTURIES AND NOW, IT HAS DECIDED TO FIGHT AGAINST ANGLICISMS IN AN ORIGINAL AND DARING WAY. THE FIRST CAMPAIGN INVADED BY ENGLISH, AGAINST THE INVASION OF ENGLISH. WE LAUNCHED TWO REAL PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET WITH ITS USUAL LANGUAGE.

21 Open your eyes to the fashion look.

22 So cool, so trendy, so ridiculous.

23 THOSE, HYPNOTIZED BY THE ANGLICISMS, ORDERED THE PRODUCTS FOR FREE ON THE WEBSITES.

24 UPON RECEIVING THEM, THEY DISCOVERED THAT SO MUCH ENGLISH WAS HIDING SOMETHING UNEXPECTED.

25 It sounds great, but it smells really bad. Congratulations on receiving your Swine, new woman fragrance? No. Because as the name says, it smells like a pig. An intense pig farm scent that will perfume your dreams. But of course; it was in English, and that’s why it smelled like Swine. We are seeing more and more English terms in advertising, darling. What can we do? A lot, starting with this campaign to fight it. FIND OUT MORE AT SWINEODOR.COM; IS SPANISH SPOKEN IN ADVERTISING? MAY 18, DAY OF DEBATE.

26 The perfume whose name in English tells you that it smells like pork, but because it was in English, it smelled like Swine. […] Swine. It sounds very good, but it smells very bad.

27 The only glasses that don’t let you see anything. Dark like all those English words put there just because they are heard in English.

28 Did you see it clearly, great man? Okay, no more.

29 It sounds great, but it lets you see really badly.

30 AFTER BROADCASTING THESE ADS ON TV, THE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND FINALLY UNDERSTOOD, AND EVERYBODY WAS HAPPY, NO… THE FOLLOWING: HAPPY.

31 Generally, conversion refers to the number of newly acquired customers who, for example, have seen an advertising campaign and subsequently purchased the advertised product (Cambridge Dictionary, 2023). However, conversion does not necessarily have to be linked to sales figures (Pahrmann, Kupke & Schwenke, 2022: 70). In the case of the RAE, whose goal is the maintenance of the Spanish language, conversion can also mean creating awareness of Spanish or increasing the use of Spanish.

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Nick Kukuk, « The Real Academia Española in the Age of Social Networks »ILCEA [En ligne], 51 | 2023, mis en ligne le 12 juin 2023, consulté le 26 septembre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ilcea/17329 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ilcea.17329

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Nick Kukuk

Florida International University

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