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.
Showing posts with label german culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label german culture. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Hitler teaching safe sex??
A German AIDS awareness group has come under fire for posting an online video that starts off with a young couple having sex in an apartment before revealing the male to be a grinning Adolf Hitler.
Its closing message: "AIDS is a mass murderer."
On Tuesday, a prominent German Jewish group and AIDS prevention advocates demanded the ad be withdrawn.
"It is disgusting and we're asking the producers of the campaign to pull it back," said Joerg Litwinschuh of German AIDS Assistance, an awareness group.
He said the ad, commissioned by Regenbogen, German for rainbow, seemed designed for little more than shock value and was offensive to people who have HIV.
"We denounce this ad. I can say that absolutely," said Volker Mertens, a spokesman for another group, the German AIDS Foundation.
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, issued a statement calling the ad "a defamation and mockery" of Holocaust victims.
On Monday, Regenbogen deputy head Heiko Schoessling said the ad would run on German TV and in movie theaters. He said the "mass murder" campaign would also include radio spots, music videos, print ads and posters featuring former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and former Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
The next day, as criticism mounted, Regenbogen spokesman Jan Schwertner said plans for the video and the broader campaign were not final. Talks with TV stations and theaters are continuing, he said, but would not disclose when and where the ads would appear.
Until recently, Germans resisted taking creative liberties with Hitler as they reckoned with the horrors of the Nazi past. But as the World War II generation dwindles, that resistance is fading.
Two years ago, when a Swiss Jewish director portrayed Hitler as a comical dolt in "Mein Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler," many reviewers dismissed the movie as bad cinema but didn't recoil at the treatment of the Fuehrer as comedy. This spring, a German-language version of the Broadway hit musical "The Producers" — replete with swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers — had a moderately successful run in Berlin.
Its closing message: "AIDS is a mass murderer."
On Tuesday, a prominent German Jewish group and AIDS prevention advocates demanded the ad be withdrawn.
"It is disgusting and we're asking the producers of the campaign to pull it back," said Joerg Litwinschuh of German AIDS Assistance, an awareness group.
He said the ad, commissioned by Regenbogen, German for rainbow, seemed designed for little more than shock value and was offensive to people who have HIV.
"We denounce this ad. I can say that absolutely," said Volker Mertens, a spokesman for another group, the German AIDS Foundation.
Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, issued a statement calling the ad "a defamation and mockery" of Holocaust victims.
On Monday, Regenbogen deputy head Heiko Schoessling said the ad would run on German TV and in movie theaters. He said the "mass murder" campaign would also include radio spots, music videos, print ads and posters featuring former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and former Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
The next day, as criticism mounted, Regenbogen spokesman Jan Schwertner said plans for the video and the broader campaign were not final. Talks with TV stations and theaters are continuing, he said, but would not disclose when and where the ads would appear.
Until recently, Germans resisted taking creative liberties with Hitler as they reckoned with the horrors of the Nazi past. But as the World War II generation dwindles, that resistance is fading.
Two years ago, when a Swiss Jewish director portrayed Hitler as a comical dolt in "Mein Fuehrer: The Truly Truest Truth about Adolf Hitler," many reviewers dismissed the movie as bad cinema but didn't recoil at the treatment of the Fuehrer as comedy. This spring, a German-language version of the Broadway hit musical "The Producers" — replete with swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers — had a moderately successful run in Berlin.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Festival adds evening air show to rich menu of fun
Here’s a culinary quiz: What recipe calls for 10,000 pounds of potatoes, 20,000 bratwurst, 15,000 pieces of pastry and torte and 8,000 pounds of onions? The recipe for Milwaukee’s German Fest, natürlich!
From strudel to spanferkel and lederhosen to dirndls, German culture, music, food and drink will fill the Maier Festival Park.
German music and dance will fill the various stages across the grounds, featuring German performers such as vocalist Styrina and the Munich-based band Chikeria and the Austrian Widderstein-Buaba band.
No Milwaukee celebration of all things German would be complete without a few hands of sheepshead (schafkopf), a card game introduced by German immigrants and took on a local life of its own.
Among new attractions at the festival this year, Fromme listed the Porsche Club of America’s Car Display, which will feature a selection of Porsches that will change each day. On the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, an East German Trabant will be on display in the culture area.
No matter what else you do at German Fest, you really must eat and drink. Highlights of the festival’s menu include kartoffel (potato pancakes) with pfannkuchen (applesauce) or spanferkel (pig, roasted whole). Rollbraten, schnitzel and Kasseler Rippchen, all succulent pork dishes, go well with a noedel (dumpling) or two.
From strudel to spanferkel and lederhosen to dirndls, German culture, music, food and drink will fill the Maier Festival Park.
German music and dance will fill the various stages across the grounds, featuring German performers such as vocalist Styrina and the Munich-based band Chikeria and the Austrian Widderstein-Buaba band.
No Milwaukee celebration of all things German would be complete without a few hands of sheepshead (schafkopf), a card game introduced by German immigrants and took on a local life of its own.
Among new attractions at the festival this year, Fromme listed the Porsche Club of America’s Car Display, which will feature a selection of Porsches that will change each day. On the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, an East German Trabant will be on display in the culture area.
No matter what else you do at German Fest, you really must eat and drink. Highlights of the festival’s menu include kartoffel (potato pancakes) with pfannkuchen (applesauce) or spanferkel (pig, roasted whole). Rollbraten, schnitzel and Kasseler Rippchen, all succulent pork dishes, go well with a noedel (dumpling) or two.
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