languages in Europe and how to overcome

[Artur Ferreira da Silva]

John and Erich

Thanks for your support.

I think Erich made a good description of the language situation in Europe
(and yes, Portugal is the only monolingual country in Europe, and the
oldest too as it has been independent since 1143).

This gives a tremendous difficulty to all negotiations in the EU, as every
paper has to be translated in many languages (that will be more very soon).

This is further complicated by the problems you reported about Italy (they
frequently don't speak French or English, even at high levels of
management) and France (they have an official French translation for every
foreign word; in many cases they understand English, but they don't
understand "unequal relations" - in a negotiation, if the other part speaks
in English (or Germany, or...), they will insist in speaking in French and
have a translator; what they don't understand - and I think they are right
- is the "arrogance" of the English speakers that impose their language to
the others and don't even try to speak other's languages and treat the
others as "equals" in something so fundamental as its own language. (The
some is true about Russia by the way).

So the only people that are really open to English are Germany, the Nordic
countries and Portugal (as we accept every language and normally try to
speak (very badly) in the other's language - that is almost the only
Portuguese quality to compensate our many incapacities.... In fact, in high
school Portuguese students have to learn two foreign languages - the first
one was French until 1975 and is now normally - but not always - English.
And if they study humanities they will normally have to learn more
languages (including Latin, but normally no longer Greek).

But, as you have so correctly put, Erich, that European disadvantage is
also an advantage. The majority of the Europeans speak at least two
different languages, many speak three, and a lot speak 4 or more. Not to
speak about the Pope that speaks almost 20.

This is an advantage now, but I think will be a much greater and
competitive advantage in the years to come. The point is that, IMHO, one is
indoctrinated in a language and a culture and our views are always limited,
as other peoples have other habitudes and ways of looking at the world.
This will not be corrected "visiting many countries on holidays". This can
only be corrected through "equal relations" and "intimate relations" with
people from many other nationalities. And this implies that one speaks the
other's languages. For two reasons - there is no intimacy if there is
inequality; only understanding the language can we see the differences, as
there are words and expressions that cannot even be translated. The reason
why this will be a competitive advantage should be very easy to understand
to the OST community - it gives more "mental diversity" that is fundamental
for innovation and creativity.

So I think that natives of English have a tremendous disadvantage that will
aggravate in the next years. During 20 years, in the 70's and 80's, I
followed almost one hundred courses and seminars in the IBM European
Education Center, in la Hulpe, Belgium. The students would came from every
country in Europe and some from other countries, and the teachers would
come from anywhere in the world. The official language was English but with
many different pronunciations - oh, SO different!!!. And, you wouldn't
believe, but the two groups of people that would less understand the others
and would be less understood by the others would be people from the UK and
- a bit less - from USA. Interesting, isn't it?

Of course, the group discussions in class would be in many languages and
out of class (it was residential) people would ALWAYS join other with the
same native language - not necessarily from the same country...And the
employees in the restaurant some times would speak French but not English...

So, I think that today no one can claim to be an "intercultural specialist"
if one doesn't speak at least two foreign languages and, in some years, no
one will understand anything that really matters in the world without
speaking at least 3 languages and having the experience of being in those
countries and living "in" the language - and not only "using" the language.

So, Erich, the point is not "how will we, Europeans, overcome the
situation". We will overcome. The problem is how will the others overcome
the much greater monolingual limitation.

I think that this will be a very big challenge to the English speaking
countries on how they will educate their younger people - but never mind,
we will be here to help...

Best regards

Artur

PS: Erich, in Portugal "Artur" does not have the "h". As the Spanish "Arturo".

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