Is our foreign-language worry justified?

Using foreign languages must be a rewarding affair – financially, practically and personally. If we are not rewarded, we lose interest. Finding the incentives to learn a foreign language is the challenge. Let’s use our resources on that rather than worrying about it.

I was out last night to give a talk to a group of language professionals on whether our worries about the fate of foreign language mastery are justified.

I concluded that we have every reason to worry; for one reason: we keep worrying without actually doing anything about it. I believe very few of us will ever learn to conduct hardcore negotiations in French or Spanish, let alone Chinese. I also claim that this is irrelevant. What we must learn, though, is how to open mental and social doors with our business partners: opening and closing remarks at meetings; socialising and, not least, showing interest. For that purpose, learning foreign languages is absolutely vital.

Mastering the essentials of a local language is hard work and the expression of a constructive attitude: Interest in the other side. This paves the way for more in-depth communication – with most of our business partners, that would be in English. In other parts of the world it would be Spanish or French. We seem to be interested in discussing this matter and worry about it: why do languages other than English enjoy so little interest amongst upper-secondary students or at university level? I believe the keyword is “absence”: when a young person leaves school after, say, three years of Spanish or Italian, what happens? Nothing! There is hardly any Spanish or any other foreign language to be heard in Danish society. It’s basically all English – no wonder the skills acquired at school are bound to “vanish into thin air” and eventually disappear altogether.

We have every reason to worry if we believe that language learning is confined to the educational system. We must define the roles the various foreign languages play in our society and act accordingly – in the media, enterprises and society as a whole. For languages to be seen worth learning, they must be heard and spoken in contexts that are relevant and attractive.

What a pleasure it was to meet people who contributed with views and ideas during my talk. Not everybody agreed, which further added to the experience. And all contributors used the working language of the evening: English.

Skal vi være venner?

Jeg var for nylig inviteret til at gennemføre en 4-timers workshop for udenlandske studerende på Syddansk Universitet i Odense. Formålet var at sætte dem bedre i stand til at forstå ”den danske kode” i forbindelse med at søge arbejde: hvad skal man være særligt opmærksom på fx i forbindelse med en jobsamtale i en dansk virksomhed? Baggrunden for workshoppen er et politisk ønske om at fastholde udenlandske akademikere i regionerne uden for København.

På denne workshop var deltagerne relativt unge. Hvor jeg normalt arbejder med seniorforskere og Ph.d-studerende, bestod denne gruppe af ca. 30 kandidatstuderende, altså mennesker i midten af 20’erne, heraf mange fra Østeuropa og en del fra Centralasien.

Inden vi for alvor går i gang med en sådan workshop, spørger jeg rutinemæssigt deltagerne om de har emner eller problemstillinger, de gerne vil have særligt fokus på. Relevans og værdiskabelse er kodeordene! Det gjorde jeg også her. Jeg havde forventet noget om kultur, arbejdsmarked, virksomheder og karriere. Men nej; stort set alle bad om ideer og tips til hvordan man får danske venner. Danskere var generelt meget svære at komme ind på livet af, og selvom man gjorde ihærdige forsøg i det sociale samvær på kollegiet og i kantinen, viste det sig at være et altoverskyggende problem. Er der noget ved os danskere der gør det så svært?

I min bog ”Communicating across borders” kalder jeg begrebet ”hygge” social encapsulation, altså den form for intimitet der giver stor tryghed indadtil, og som holder andre ude. Vi vil nødig forstyrres. ”Arh, nu havde vi det lige så hyggeligt”. Er der noget om snakken?

Sproglige bekymringer: Old hat – Déjà vu?

I Berlingske Tidende den 3. juli kunne vi atter læse at danskerne ’er blevet dårligere til at mestre andre sprog end vores eget danske modersmål’. Jeg skriver ’atter’ for vi har set det mange gange før. Vi bliver trøstet med at vi fortsat er bedre end de fleste, men at det er ’stærkt bekymrende’. Interessant nok har vi også talrige gange set hvordan det danske sprog angiveligt bliver forurenet af andre sprog, især engelsk. Den stærke bekymring, som har eksisteret i årevis i den sproglige debat herhjemme, forekommer diffus. Det er på tide at få defineret lidt mere på præcist hvad Uddannelsesminister Morten Østergaard mener når han siger at vi ’har et behov for at kigge på, hvordan vi fremmer vores sprogkundskaber.’ Kigge på? Hvilke sprogkundskaber? Skal der prioriteres? Jeg er i gang med at skrive en bog om bl. a. dette emne. Den er planlagt til at udkomme i efteråret.  Læs forordet ’Why English?’ på denne blog.

Læs også min artikel ‘Ja til sprog – men glem ikke relevansbroen!’

New book this autumn

Communicating across borders: Why English?

In addition to my mother tongue, English is my language too. Having graduated in English in 1982 and planning to start my own communication consultancy firm, I was told by experts that in a world of globalisation, English would not be the only foreign language to be used by Danes when working outside their borders. Spanish, German and French would be as important and get the same attention as would English. The experts were wrong. While German, French and Spanish are undeniably representative of enormous cultural and demographic domains, these languages have become truly ‘foreign’ in Denmark. Sadly, one might say, languages other than English have been reduced to minor subjects at schools, or they have disappeared entirely. Efforts are made to remedy this language deficit: campaigns are arranged, language societies evolve and slogans are made: ‘We lose business opportunities in Germany if we don’t master German’; ‘French is the gate to understanding French culture’, and ‘Spanish represents an entire continent’. And yet, in spite of these powerful statements, English prevails as the Danes’ first foreign language.

“Communicating across borders using English as a second language” – book to be published this autumn.

Den stille sabotage

Manglende kendskab til eller interesse for virksomhedens kultur kan give anledning til “tacit sabotage”, altså det fænomen hvor aktørerne tilsyneladende er helt med og udadtil bakker op, og først sent i processen viser det sig at der på uforklarlig vis ikke bliver implementeret eller fulgt op som aftalt i begejstringens rus. Den “stille sabotage” kan være ødelæggende for en nok så gennemtænkt strategi og fortjener større opmærksomhed når strategien kommunikeres ud i virksomheden.