2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

[Langoogler]

<http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/97/> for more information.


In the context of 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, the Commission
instructed a Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue with the task of
defining the contribution of multilingualism to intercultural dialogue. Famous
writers such as Amin Maalouf and Tahar Ben Jelloun took part in that group. In
its final report <http://ec.europa.
eu/education/policies/lang/doc/maalouf/report_en.pdf>, the Group warns against
a situation in which a single language, English, would be dominant in the work
of the European Institutions, in which two or three other languages would more
or less manage to hold their own for a little longer, while the vast majority
of our languages would have but a symbolic status and would hardly ever be used
in joint meetings. "A turn of events of this kind is not desirable." The group
asserts the universality of essential values and advocates respect for our
linguistic diversity as a powerful antidote against various types of fanaticism.
Nice words, but in practice? "The bilateral relations between the peoples of
the European Union should hinge by way of priority on the languages of the two
peoples involved rather than on another language. (…) In order to allow cohorts
of speakers to be formed, the European Union should advocate the idea of
personal adoptive language. The idea is that every European should be
encouraged to freely choose a distinctive language, different from his or her
language of identity, and also different from his or her language of
international communication (…), a sort of second mother tongue" which would
help to overcome the current rivalry between English and the other languages.
For immigrants, the personal adoptive language should in the normal run be that
of the country in which they have chosen to live. Eureka? Probably not, but
interesting food for thought…
The task of the High Level Group on Multilingualism, made up of independent
experts, was to assist the Commission in analysing the progress made by Member
States, and to provide support and advice in developping initiatives, as well
as a fresh impetus and ideas. The final report  <http://ec.europa.
eu/education/policies/lang/doc/multireport_en.pdf>of this group is of a more
practical nature, less "intellectual" than the abovementioned report, but it is
as worthwhile reading, with interesting chapters on, inter alia, new trends and
needs in interpretation and translation and on regional and minority languages.
The fact that the final report of this High Level Group is only available in
English, is criticized in an article "Bruxelles devrait être une vitrine" in
the interesting February-March issue of Le Monde Diplomatique on "La bataille
des langues". A few other tempting titles: "A Malte, l'expression est histoire";
"Des "métèques" dans le jardin français" (Tahar Ben Jelloun), "Entre le "tout
Coca-Cola" et le "tout ayatollah"", "La langue-dollar"... Click here
<http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/mav/97/> for more information.