1 / 8

Culture in crisis: Babel or monolingualism?

Culture in crisis: Babel or monolingualism?. Marc Delbarge marc.delbarge@lessius.eu Lessius University College , Antwerp College of Europe, Bruges. I. Europe as a multilingual and multicultural macrocosm in crisis?.

premala
Download Presentation

Culture in crisis: Babel or monolingualism?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Culture in crisis:Babel or monolingualism? Marc Delbarge marc.delbarge@lessius.eu Lessius University College, Antwerp College of Europe, Bruges

  2. I. Europe as a multilingual and multiculturalmacrocosm in crisis? • If Belgium can’t survive, what hope for the European Union? Belgium is failing because there are no real Belgians, just as there are no real Europeans. Rather, there are different peoples, with their own languages, cultures, television stations and political parties. A democracy without a demos – the unit with which we identify when we use the word “we” – is left only with kratos: the power of a system that compels by force of law what it cannot ask in name of patriotism. And kratos alone cannot sustain a state. (Daniel Hannan, The Telegraph)

  3. II. Linguistic situation within the EU • Linguistic diversity and democracy • European identity and multicultural environment • Figures and data. The case of gaelic.

  4. III. Multilingualism and translation/interpretation • Official multilingualism • Gabriel de Fragnière: cultural functions of language • Translations/ interpretations • Network • Infrastructure • Financial costs

  5. IV. Babel, monolingualism or a multilingual communication system? • Dream and reality: English as lingua franca • European culture in crisis: efficiency >< democracy • Cases: Latin - Spanish and Portuguese – French • The case of English: intrinsic and extrinsic reasons

  6. ‘Globish’ • Challenged by Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish? • English and the danger of fragmentation • English and its old and / or new standard • ‘Eurospeak’ Figures and data within the European Union European institutions and the working language(s) French Government and its language policy

  7. English as the only lingua franca ? • Control of the language market • Translation/interpretation costs • Investments in Education system • Effort to learn foreign languages • Position of the non-native speakers • English as a type of Esperanto • Democratic deficit: Eurocrats • Monolithic way of thinking • Professional future of lecturers • Professional future of students

  8. Conclusions • ‘Globish’ and ‘eurospeak’ are reality! • The need of quality translations/interpretations! • Cf. Esperanza Bielsa • European culture in crisis = a challenge !

More Related