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German Minister refuses to speak English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5812 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes  Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 17 of 128 12 October 2009 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I was stating a hypothetical, what I would do if I were in a similar situation.
"Lingua franca" literally translates as French language, but is now used figuratively to mean any language used as the means of communication between people with different linguistic backgrounds. The irony is that the global lingua franca of the modern world is in fact not French, but English. French West Africa, Belgian Congo, no real difference. My point was that accusing me and my countrymen of linguistic imperialism, as you did above, is silly as can be. We are no more responsible for the current state of English as the global business language than you are for the current state of affairs in Rwanda. In fact, we're probably considerably less responsible. Throwing around words like "imperialist" is something you probably shouldn't do so lightly. As far as the question having previously been answered in German, well, I don't speak German and the subtitles of the response in the video were quite confusing. But I don't think it changes matters much. Regardless, the reply was quite rude, impolitic, and just unnecessary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Jar-ptitsa Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5899 days ago 980 posts - 1006 votes Speaks: French*, Dutch, German | Message 18 of 128 12 October 2009 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
You're wrong: lingua franca hasn't nothing to see with French language, but Frankish, and the franks were Germanics.
The French make linguistic imperialism also, but with less success, although with complete success in Wallonie. Yes, I agree that the belgians in the Belgian Congo /Rwanda were extremely nasty.
It does change matters, of course. Had not the BBC one journalist who can speak (or at least understand) German? 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5812 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 19 of 128 12 October 2009 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Well, I'll be damned. You learn something new every day. I didn't ever realize there was a difference. I would argue that there's still some (more?) irony in this context, since it refers to a Germanic language, but I definitely put my foot in my mouth. Sorry.
Edit: Someone else had their posts removed, apparently, rendering the above two of mine rather meaningless. Edited by Woodpecker on 12 October 2009 at 7:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6110 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 20 of 128 12 October 2009 at 1:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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A couple of Wikipedia quotes:
From Lingua franca:
From Mediterranean Lingua Franca
Regarding the topic at hand, in some press conferences the possible language(s) are restricted regardless of the speaker's/interviewer's wishes. This is mainly to be fair to all the gathered reporters (on the other hand... I have no idea of political press conferences, only... sports related). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5848 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 128 12 October 2009 at 2:01pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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May I add that Dr. Guido Westerwelle is not yet a minister. There has just been a national election in Germany and there are now the coalition negotiations taking place. I was one of his fellow law students at the University of Bonn - being in the same semester as he was. Later I changed universities, but Westerwelle stayed in Bonn, graduated there and became a lawyer. At university he didn`t know me personally, there were too many law students sitting in one room. I was just an anonymous law student, while Westerwelle was well-known by the professors. Since I know I him as a very young man, it`s interesting for me to follow his professional developments. So thanks for the video showing his language level of English.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 12 October 2009 at 2:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5999 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 22 of 128 12 October 2009 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It's hilarious Americans and Brits get slack for the so-called linguistic imperialism. The most brutal and unrelenting imperialists for the English language are undoubtedly the Chinese, who believe by mere virtue of their birth into this world every American, European, or OTHER with a greater command of English than theirs ought to bow down before them and teach them with all his might. I've never seen people with such an entitlement complex -- not even the bums lining up to collect their welfare checks
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| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5812 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 23 of 128 12 October 2009 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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...bets on how long until this thread gets locked? I've got my money on three hours.
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| Rhian Moderator France Joined 6498 days ago 265 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 128 12 October 2009 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Woodpecker you won't be far off if things don't calm down. It caught my attention earlier, especially when
accusations of imperialism were made, and I decided to keep an eye on the thread. Keep it on languages and language learning and keep it civil please. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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