[lg policy] EU & Languages: Policies and your view?

Tue Jul 6 14:29:02 UTC 2010

EU & Languages: Policies and your view?
  Tags: Europe | Multilingual
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion
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Sennin wrote:
cordelia0507 wrote:
What actual language policies does it have that are recommended or
stipulated across the area? Does anyone know?

The official "target" is that every European citizen should speak 3 EU
languages fluently. There is a deadline for achieving this, 2020 or
something. I can't remember exactly.

Thanks for bringing us up to speed on this! Did not know that this was
the goal.
If that's the goal, then most of my friends have to up the game a bit
if they want to "stick with the programme".

I think the EU entrance criteria (to work at the Commmission) is
fluency in two European languages apart from ones own. But somehow
really don't think that's true for many of the people who work there -
or maybe the tests are very simple?

A friend of mine works at the commission and she took a fluency test
in English and French.

Volte wrote:

Why is 'Europe' the key issue here, really?

1) Because it's the topic of the thread.

2) Because I care about Europe and its' future -- it concerns me much
more than India or Singapore that you mention. Not that I don't care
about them, but they are different cultures and have no shared history
with me.

3) Because whether or not you like certain aspects of the EU or its
political direction, it has actually been successful: The peace is
going on 65 years now; between the countries involved. I think that's
unprecedented on this continent. We can do so much better if we don't
create chaos and destruction on the continent every 30 years or
whatever the average count used to be. The EU has helped us avoid
that.

I think that the question about the EUs language policy and linguistic
future is important enough to discuss separately, without considering
the Far East etc.

There are >500 million citizens of the EU and it will go up as more
central European countries (or Turkey or Ukraine) join. To operate
efficiently there should be a shared language, that is our own. The
less hassle involved in learning that language the better. Most people
do not enjoy language studies, particularly not when its forced on
them.

Additionally the language situation for India which you mention does
not seem particularly enviable to me - I have no personal problem with
it, but basically they are using a heavily localised (politely put)
version of the language of the former colonial power as their business
language... I have more respect for China's policy in this respect;
trying to unite everyone with one local language while largely
respecting peoples dialects/local languages.

EDIT: No double posts please.

Edited by patuco on 05 July 2010 at 1:16am
1 person has voted this message useful

    Message 26 of 4304 July 2010 at 8:56pm | IP Logged
cordelia0507 wrote:
johntm93 wrote:
If you are so mad that English is so widespread in Europe, stay away
from American media and American things.

That would be VERY hard ;-) I'd have to get a different job, change my
eating habits and stop watching TV, listening to radio. And that's
just the beginning... However fortunately I have no desire to do that

Alright then, it just seemed like from this (and a couple other of
your posts) that you were a little hostile towards it.

Maybe the next lingua franca will be Mandarin? I'd be curious to see
how the EU dealt with that.

Sennin
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 779 days ago
1229 posts - 110 votes
5 sounds

    Message 27 of 4304 July 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged
cordelia0507 wrote:
Sennin wrote:
cordelia0507 wrote:
What actual language policies does it have that are recommended or
stipulated across the area? Does anyone know?

The official "target" is that every European citizen should speak 3 EU
languages fluently. There is a deadline for achieving this, 2020 or
something. I can't remember exactly.

Thanks for bringing us up to speed on this! Did not know that this was
the goal.
If that's the goal, then most of my friends have to up the game a bit
if they want to "stick with the programme".

For the UK I don't think it is a realistic goal ;-). Anyway, it's good
to know there is some funding going towards languages. It's unlikely
they'll cut that even with the current economic trouble, because
languages are a priority. And besides, some places in Europe are
already trilingual.

cordelia0507 wrote:
I think the EU entrance criteria (to work at the Commmission) is
fluency in two European languages apart from ones own. But somehow
really don't think that's true for many of the people who work there -
or maybe the tests are very simple?

A friend of mine works at the commission and she took a fluency test
in English and French.

For people who are from a small country it is effectively 3 languages.
Basically, you have to know 2 out of {English, French, German,
Spanish, Italian}.

Edited by Sennin on 04 July 2010 at 11:15pm
1 person has voted this message useful

cordelia0507
Pro Member
England
Joined 583 days ago
1392 posts - 480 votes
Speaks: Swedish*
Studies: German, Russian
Personal Language Map

    Message 28 of 4304 July 2010 at 11:29pm | IP Logged
johntm93 wrote:
Maybe the next lingua franca will be Mandarin? I'd be curious to see
how the EU dealt with that.

If China had military bases scattered across Europe, if Chinese
culture and values were the norm that you saw everywhere around you
and Chinese language was a mandatory school subject without which you
could not expect to go to university or have a decent career

...and anyone who didn't support this was labelled/stigmatised
"anti-Chinese..."
Dong ma?

....then I'd feel quite bad about it and seriously consider
emigarating to America ;-)

As for what the EU would do; Well I think one of the EUs secret (or
not so secret) objectives is to prevent that type of scenario!

Volte
Triglot
Pro Member
Switzerland
Joined 1184 days ago
3364 posts - 475 votes
Speaks: English*, Italian, Esperanto
Studies: German, Japanese, Polish
Personal Language Map

    Message 29 of 4305 July 2010 at 1:14am | IP Logged
John Smith wrote:
French and German? Do you know that English is a mix of the two
languages? It's roughly 30% Germanic 60% Romance. 10% various/unknown.

As a result it is quite neutral. A native German speaker and a native
French speaker meet each other half way when they speak English!

I personally hate Esperanto because it claims to be something that
it's not. Neutral? Please. As a slavic speaker I feel offended when I
hear anyone make this claim. A monolingual Czech/Polish/Russian
speaker will have a hard time trying to find familiar words. A French
speaker on the other hand will understand Esperanto within a few
months. A neutral European language should be 30% Germanic 30% Romance
30% Slavic and 10% Greek/Hungarian/Finish/Basque/any other small
European language.

This ist whatt Esperanto appears like. No Neutrale at alles. Juste a
mixe of Germaine and Francais.

Esperanto and English both have primarily Germanic and Romance roots.
A higher percentage of Esperanto ones are Slavic - Esperanto is full
of words like 'klopodi'.

Language neutrality is not purely a matter of word roots, either.

You can think whatever you want about Esperanto, but why make up total
nonsense about what it looks like? What you wrote doesn't look
anything like Esperanto.

1 person has voted this message useful

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