Thread: Germany to Promote 'Language of Ideas'

Germany to promote `language of ideas"

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle delivers his speech during the parliament debate on social welfare benefits dubbed Hartz IV in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. Germany's foreign minister Guido Westerwelle drew remarks when he insisted on speaking German to a British reporter just after his election four months ago. Guido Westerwelle is launching a worldwide campaign to promote his mother tongue as "the language at the heart of Europe." Westerwelle said Thursday that the campaign, called "Language of Ideas," is meant to inspire young people to learn German. (AP Photo/dapd/Herbert Knosowski) (Herbert Knosowski - AP)

VERENA SCHMITT-ROSCHMANN
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 25, 2010; 11:20 AM

BERLIN -- Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Well, you should, at least according to Germany's foreign minister.

Guido Westerwelle drew plenty of sarcastic remarks when he insisted on speaking German to a British reporter just after his election to parliament four months ago. Now, he's making it his official mission to promote his mother tongue.

"German is the language at the heart of Europe," Westerwelle said in a somewhat poetic statement Thursday at the outset of his new global campaign for the so-called "Language of Ideas," and he came up with reasons to learn German.

"It is the key to more than 350 German universities and colleges, to Europe's largest economy," Westerwelle said. "It grants access to German literature, music, philosophy, and science, to the wealth of great European cultural traditions and, not least, it is the key to realizing one's own goals and ideas."

Europe counts about 101 million native German speakers, according to the Foreign Ministry, and some 14.5 million people outside the country are studying the language.

That number is down, however, from about 17 million only three years ago, and Berlin is noting, with some alarm, the increasing importance of English as well as efforts by Spain and China to promote their respective languages.

The new campaign aims to combine and highlight the multitude of existing language teaching and cultural projects - without actually spending more than the euro300 million ($406 million) provided by the government in 2009.

They want to inspire young people worldwide to take up German and "to motivate decision makers in politics, education, business, and the media within Germany and outside to promote German as a foreign language," the ministry said in a statement.

Westerwelle has stressed the beauty of German repeatedly ever since a somewhat notorious press conference in late September, when a BBC reporter asked him if, possibly, the foreign minister to be would answer a question in English.

Westerwelle, who can speak English, rebuffed the request saying: "Just like it goes without saying that English is spoken in Great Britain it is customary to speak German in Germany."

He offered to meet the reporter for tea and speak English there but added that "this is Germany."

A few days later he said only German should be used at official events in Germany as "the German language is very beautiful."

Germany, like France, has seen occasional efforts to ban English language imports such as "rent-a-bike," "ticket counter," or "coffee shop."

Earlier this month, Deutsche Bahn, the national railway - which routinely provides announcements in German and in a form of almost indecipherable English - pledged to weed out some of its borrowed vocabulary such as "kiss & ride" and "call-a-bike" after Ernst Hinsken, a Bavarian member of Germany's parliament, complained.

Deutsche Bahn told Hinsken in a letter quoted by German media that the company recognizes the need to cut down on the use of anglicisms.

While most Germans study English in school and often resort to the global language, some foreigners seem to go along with Westerwelle's take on German.

"I like German. It is amazing, it is so rational and it makes so much sense," said Inara Vaz from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who has been studying German in Berlin for a year.

She said she is still struggling, not so much with grammar, but with expanding her vocabulary. Nonetheless, it seems to be worth her while.

"It is a beautiful language, it is deeper than any other language I know," she said, a flattering declaration considering she speaks not only Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, but English, too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02449.html

I wish England, the former British Commonwealth nations, and the United States of America would begin working together to promote use of the English language as "the language both of Shakespeare and of modern global commerce"! I also wish Congress would make English the official language of the United States.

Westerwelle has stressed the beauty of German repeatedly ever since a somewhat notorious press conference in late September, when a BBC reporter asked him if, possibly, the foreign minister to be would answer a question in English.

Westerwelle, who can speak English, rebuffed the request saying: "Just like it goes without saying that English is spoken in Great Britain it is customary to speak German in Germany."

Good for Westerwelle! I wish we had leadership in this country that felt the same way about promoting our English language! English is the language of opportunity!

It's getting worse by the day in this country! My bank is now sending out information in both spanish and English in it's mailings. I'm seeing advertisement now in spanish, with no English in sight as I drive down local streets.

I live within 10 miles of the Blue Water Bridge. We have people who come over from Canada, as we have Americans going over there, to Canada. Yet you go in the stores here, and most everything is in english, and spanish.

I could see it if things were english and french since our northern neighbor has both languages to contend with, and the Canadian people I have met have been nice enough. I know there's one in every crowd, but they are respectful, and enjoyable to talk with.

I did have one fellow that was a jerk. He was from Quebec Province and must have been part of the French Seperatist Movement, but he made a comment when all I said was hello in passing, that when People go to Quebec, they expect him to speak english, but when he comes to the states nobody speaks french. My quick smart @$$ed responce was, hey, Napoleon lost at Waterloo, that's why. And I walked off leaving him fuming and picking his jaw up off the ground from shock.

If all I'm doing is being neighborly, and saying hello in a respectful jesture and someone cops an attitude, I give it back. I won't take it anymore. I did the same out west with the illegals. I just got in the habit of telling them, you lost the war, that's why!

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

My quick smart @$$ed responce was, hey, Napoleon lost at Waterloo, that's why. And I walked off leaving him fuming and picking his jaw up off the ground from shock.

If all I'm doing is being neighborly, and saying hello in a respectful jesture and someone cops an attitude, I give it back. I won't take it anymore. I did the same out west with the illegals. I just got in the habit of telling them, you lost the war, that's why!

Hey that's a great line, I will have to remember that! In fact the Mexican War is part of the Marine Corps hymn, "The Halls of Montezuma".