Goethe German language institute pushes for greater multilingualism in Europe

The Goethe Institute, Germany's language and culture institute, continues to boost awareness of the importance of multilingualism. Experts say a lack of knowledge of foreign languages in Europe is hurting the economy.

The latest involvement by the Goethe Institute in promoting the learning of foreign languages is an event called "Languages without Borders" which premiered in Berlin. It is one of around 30 projects around the world that the Goethe Institute has financed in the past two years in an effort to promote multilingualism.

"We believe that with such projects, we can put a spotlight on the issue of multilingualism, and then later we can pinpoint a strategy of how we're going to improve multilingualism next year or the year after that," said Matthias Makowski, head of the language department at the Goethe Institute.

"Languages without Borders" was established to raise awareness of the importance of multilingualism in modern times, according to Makowski.

Since 2007, the European Union has had a Commission for Multilingualism, to strengthen language diversity. In comparison to other continents - or even individual countries - Europe falls short. For example, India alone has 22 official languages. This makes it easy for people there to become multilingual, said Anil Bhatti, a German language professor in New Delhi.

"What you have in Europe is a situation where multilingualism is attained through the learning of foreign languages," Bhatti said. "In India, somebody from the north, who speaks Hindi, wouldn't consider Tamil a foreign language. This is just another Indian language. Learning a foreign language means learning a European language, for example. And for an Indian person, this could be their fourth or fifth language."

To speak four or five languages is now the exception in Europe. Today, as immigration to Europe grows, language plays a key role in the integration of new arrivals. In the EU, many countries require immigrants to submit to language testing.

However, Piet van Avermaet from the Association of Language Testing in Europe is skeptical about making such tests compulsory.

"When you take language as a condition for integration, it often does not work. It's often the other way around," van Avermaet said. "When you reduce the problems of discrimination when you improve the opportunities for people to find a job; when you improve your policy in relation to social integration then at the same time the process of language acquisition emerges."

A lack of knowledge of foreign languages can even affect the economy, according to a study led by the EU Commission. In 2006, it found that at least 945,000 small and medium-sized companies may be losing business due to a lack of language competence.