This is according to Association of the German Language’s Professor Walter Kraemer, as Bishops in Berlin were scolded for using too much English in Church Sermons, & there’s a new law forcing DJs to play an equal number of German and English records.
“English puts itself forward as a progressive language, but we should see the words as hollow as they really are,” said Klaus Boeger, a social democratic education senator.
Anyway… cultural ministries shouldn’t be worried about the expanding use of English (which is actually American, because the british don’t affect crap here), but rather they should focus on the fact that there’s not that much of an export of their culture. If everything cool and new (like movies) comes from the US, pretty much everyone’s going to be speaking english soon.
*Originally posted by lava *
**Anyway… cultural ministries shouldn’t be worried about the expanding use of English (which is actually American, because the british don’t affect crap here), but rather they should focus on the fact that there’s not that much of an export of their culture. If everything cool and new (like movies) comes from the US, pretty much everyone’s going to be speaking english soon.
Just leave it to americans to sell culture… **
yeah, it’s a shame everyone will be talking with an american accent and spelling everything incorrectly
hmmm surprized to see germany acting this way. From france i would expect this, especially in IT terms, they got a french word or abbreviation for everything i heard during a lecture at school.
They are speaking of a similar law here in belgium too. Luckaly it’s only ment to promote belgian bands, and much of those sing in english (luckaly).
I think it’s a whole fuss for nothing, keeping your language is good, but if you got words to express something even if they are english, why bother inventing a (most of the time much longer/complicated) german word for it.
United states of europe will never work… the difference in language and etnic backgrounds is just to different. While on one side europe is trying to unite, every minority is trying to get independence… the basks in france/spain, the corsicans in france, even here in belgium, we got a french speaking part and a dutch speaking part and some ppl want the two halves to be independent.
I dont mind what the germans are doing (apart from forcing Dj’s to play equal number of songs) And I dont mind the french using the word courier electronique not email. A language that dosent evolve to include new words in its own tongue wil not survive, and I for one do not want to see French or German go away, ever.
I disagree about what lava said “Everything cool comes out of the USA” ummm… no. Thats not true.
But its true that USA has ALOT of influence on the world. Tons and manytimes before America has swallowed cultures whole. So I see why they are worried.
Just because Thomas Jeferson said it, dosent meant its true. They are not THAT devided; there will never(as in within 100 years) be a nation of eurpean states like america, but they can be a state with diffrent nations.