Bulgaria:

[Harold Schiffman]

Interview: 'Taking languages too seriously kills
them'[fr<http://www.euractiv.com/fr/culture/entretien-prend-langues-serieux-tue/article-171195>
][de<http://www.euractiv.com/de/kultur/interview-sprachen-ernst-nehmen-vernichtet/article-171196>
]  Published: Friday 28 March 2008

Defending the multiplicity of languages in the EU is the best way of
protecting them as taking a single language too seriously will only succeed
in killing it, argues Catherine Suard of the French Institute in Sofia in an
interview with EurActiv Bulgaria.  Describing how French views on EU
language policy have evolved in the last few decades, Suard, who is the
director of the cultural centre at the French Institute[image: external]
<http://www.institutfrance.bg/>in Sofia, said France was now reflecting
"much more openly" on the issue. "In defending one language, we are
defending every language," she maintains.

EU language policy is under particular scrutiny this year as the European
Commission is set to propose a new multilingualism strategy in September
2008 (EurActiv 19/02/08<http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/eu-multilingualism-strategy-focus-language-learning/article-170364>).
Moreover,
multilingualism is seen as a means of promoting inter-religious dialogue and
cultural understanding among EU citizens in the context of the European Year
of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID[image: external]
<http://www.interculturaldialogue2008.eu/>) 2008. "Language has become
closely linked to national identity" in Europe, remarked Suard, primarily as
a result of recent EU enlargements, notably to include central and eastern
European countries. Thus the French Institute has identified Europe as
"issue number one" and aims to ensure that officials in the member states
and EU institutions continue to use French, she said. But Suard concedes
that "we have the right to play with languages," stressing that enriching
the vocabulary of a language is "the idea of multilingualism" and
contributes to the diversity which is "the goal of a united Europe".

What's more, far from being concerned that the tendency to use universal
words and mix English, French and German phrases in EU circles is a threat,
Suard argues that "ideas and emotions can sometimes be "better expressed"
using foreign phrases. She goes on to warn that taking languages too
seriously "kills them". Encouraging European citizens to learn two
'adoptive' languages is set to form the basis of the EU executive's
September proposals, building on the conclusions of an independent
report[image:
Pdf] [image: external]
<http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/multireport_en.pdf> by a
high-level group of intellectuals presented by Multilingualism Commissioner
Leonard Orban in January (EurActiv
31/01/08<http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/eu-promote-language-learning-leisure/article-169978>).
But
it is important to realise that "learning an adoptive language is not the
same as learning a foreign language," stresses Suard. Instead, an adoptive
language allows the user to "better understand the culture of others". Users
identify with the culture of their adoptive language and use it to have fun
and gather information, she adds

-- 
http://www.euractiv.com/en/culture/interview-languages-seriously-kills/article-171185
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree
with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20080328/1a5b9cd9/attachment.htm>