Interview with Goethe Institute president Jutta Limbach on the maintenance of the German language: "Wir müssen unsere Sprache pflegen"

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Goethe-Institut in Prag.

Newsclick.de has an interview with Jutta Limbach, a German politician and president of the Goethe Institute, on the role of German in the European Union and the maintenance of the language. I've included a few parts below but you can also see it automatically translated here.

"Wir müssen unsere Sprache pflegen"
"We must maintain our language"

In der Europäischen Union sprechen rund 83 Millionen Menschen Deutsch als Muttersprache. Und dennoch spielt es im Brüsseler Alltag kaum eine Rolle.
In the European Union around 83 million people speak German as their mother tongue. And yet it plays almost no role in the daily life of those in Brussels.
Warum ist es so wichtig, das Deutsche in der EU zu stärken, wenn doch alle gut mit Englisch zurechtkommen?
Why is it so important for German to strengthen itself in the EU if everyone can already cope with English quite well?
Jeder Beruf, der als Arbeitssprache exklusiv Englisch spricht und schreibt, trägt zum Verkümmern der jeweiligen Muttersprache bei. Wenn etwa in wichtigen Tätigkeitsfeldern Englisch ausschließlich benutzt wird, dann sinken alle anderen Sprachen zu einer Provinzsprache ab, die mangels einer fortgebildeten Terminologie modernen Ansprüchen nicht mehr genügen kann.
Each profession, when its working language is exclusively spoken and written English, contributes to atrophy in the native language. If for example only English is used in key areas of activity, then all other languages sink into becoming a provincial language, where the need for a modern terminology can no longer be met.
Was raten Sie zu tun?
What do you think should be done?
Wir müssen unsere Sprache pflegen. Die Europäer müssen in jeder Veranstaltung darauf bestehen, dass Simultandolmetscher in andere Sprachen übersetzen. Gleichzeitig müssen wir auch die Mehrsprachigkeit fördern. Deutschland ist mit seinen 14 Sprachnachbarn ein Transit- und Austauschgebiet par excellence.
We must maintain our language. Europeans must insist in any event that simultaneous interpretation be conducted into other languages. At the same time we also need to promote multilingualism. Germany is a transit and exchange area par excellence with its 14 linguistic neighbors.


The article also mentions that French usually does a better job of having a certain linguistic pride and insisting that it be included as well in organizations like the EU, but in terms of resources for those learning the language (online that is), there's no language that does this better than German. With Deutsche Welle, those from just about any linguistic background can start out with Deutsch - Warum Nicht? and Radio D, then progress to other online courses (all free of course) conducted entirely in German, and go from scratch to full fluency given enough determination.

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