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In what languages are papers published? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Paco Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 4065 days ago 145 posts - 251 votes  Speaks: Cantonese* | Message 1 of 22 17 September 2013 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I refer to academic papers. In my city, Hong Kong, academic papers are published both
in Chinese and English. While the choice of language depends largely on intended audience, being our native language is not a strong enough reason to favour Chinese. I read from an article Germany is walking the same path as well (and again; last time it was French), which leads to considerable worry from scholars that the fundamentals of German-minded society (einer deutschgesinntenGesellschaft) will collapse in 5 to 10 years. In 2001, 37 scholars even initiated a signature campaign to demand the government to confront the downfall, where they did not expect German to shine once more, but only hoped she could preserve herself. (I should make clear that the shift of the language in which papers are published is not the sole reason, but also the teaching language of university and official language of conference, though they are not the subject of this thread.) What languages do your papers publish in, and why so? What do you, the people and the academia think about it? Edited by Paco on 17 September 2013 at 5:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4456 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 2 of 22 17 September 2013 at 5:55am | IP Logged | ||
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English is the language of scientific publishing in medicine.
Most people don't bother with PUBMED indexed summaries/articles which are not in English. Edited by Medulin on 17 September 2013 at 5:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5122 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 22 17 September 2013 at 7:17am | IP Logged | ||
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We are a small language community, so not only are scientific articles published in English so that they are
read, most of the literature used at the University will also be in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4321 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 22 17 September 2013 at 8:28am | IP Logged | ||
My wife is a German philosopher, who works in Germany, and she has never heard of that. She publishes in English and German, but mostly English. Basically you publish in German for political reasons, and English because you want to be read by the international community. It's important to keep in mind that the international community doesn't mean just native English speakers, but also Swedes, Spanish, Chinese etc. Whatever the disadvantages of publishing outside your native language, it is really important for academics to compete and be judged at the international level, which my wife's younger generation appreciates. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4410 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 5 of 22 17 September 2013 at 9:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think the widespread publishing of academic papers in English has much of an effect on individual languages. We are talking about the pinnacle of academia, which is a tiny fraction of the population and the papers themselves are read only within a small circle.
100 years ago, French was used as the lingua franca at European political conferences. Presumably most documents were drafted in French. It was just what people chose as a common language at the time. I can see that people in non-English speaking countries might be concerned if universities actually start teaching courses in English. I think this already happens in some of the smaller states. I mean courses aimed at the general intake from the native population, not a special stream for international students. But then again, there are always two sides to the equation. You could argue that courses in English attract students from different countries, the vast majority of whom will also become proficient in the national language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5353 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 22 17 September 2013 at 9:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I have taught courses (on English history) in English at a French university - - but I
was specifically told to teach in English as it was for higher level students. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 3961 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 7 of 22 17 September 2013 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
My experience is that if people can get by in English in their professional life and personal life (i.e. hanging out with other international students) then they won't learn the local language. Some will, obviously, but most won't. My industry is ESL teaching, so unsurprisingly, everything is published in English. I'd be interested to know whether other language-teaching communities publish in their native language or English though. I know that some of the most modern teaching techniques are German in origin, for example, but everything I've read is very specific to the English language, despite most of it being applicable to teaching/learning any language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 22 17 September 2013 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Sure, most things in medicine are published in English, especially as the papers put there will usually count more when it comes to funding. But I had found material in French that was unavailable in English until several years later. And I am sure Germans have some islands in the English sea as well. But I guess that will be all in Europe.
The czech scientists publish often both in English and in Czech. More important are the English papers, of course, but there are still some Czech periodics of local importance. And we have still got a lot of original Czech medical textbooks, some of which are better than the English ones (but most are average or worse of course) and the publishers still find it worth the trouble to translate some books. Because of unexpected stupidity of many students of course. Many classmates of mine are unable to use the original version despite the advantages. For example, I got a beautiful and awesomely writen biochemistry textbook today in original for 2/3 of the price of Czech translation. Why do people not learn? It's not that hard and it pays off a thousand times. Students of the English courses here don't really learn Czech and, from what I've heard, it is the same in all small countries (and it applies to professionals who can just use English at work as I'm With Stupid said too). After six years in Prague, they cannot buy a bottle of water even if they were dying of thirst. They have three years of obligatory classes but they are still 99% dependent on translations by their teachers during the clinical subjects and hospital internships. It is lamentable because a doctor should understand the patient and many Czechs (especially the older ones) are monoglots. And nothing is forcing them to leave their language bubble otherwise. We have very few natural opportunities to mix (and it is the same at all three Prague medical faculties), they are basically just a cash cow. As I found out by accident, we are perhaps not even allowed to go in their facultative subjects in English. All the speeches of integration and multicultural university are just a fairy tale, just like when it comes to Erasmus in most countries. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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