Posted on 07/07/2020 9:57:53 AM PDT by Olog-hai
German is coming.
English may be the European Union’s lingua franca, but listen carefully in the corridors of power and you’ll find the language of Goethe and Schiller is on the rise.
German is gaining ground among the EU’s three official working languages as Berlin prepares to take on the bloc’s presidency next month. That’s not least because native speakers occupy top positions, including Ursula von der Leyen at the Spitze of the European Commission.
Those in the Brussels bubble are taking note.
The Goethe Institute, Germany’s state-funded cultural outpost, told POLITICO it saw a five-fold increase in demand for its free language tuition service for diplomats and journalists in Brussels between 2012 and 2019.
That’s part of Europanetzwerk Deutsch, a state-funded, soft power initiative to lift those with some knowledge of German into working proficiency.
Worldwide, some 15.4 million people are now learning the language, according to a five-year review published this month by the German government. Compared with the last survey in 2015, there’s a 62 percent rise in Denmark, 16 percent in France and 30 percent in the Netherlands, while 2 million Poles are now practicing their der, die and das.
Any lingering historical sensitivity around promoting German as an international language has been replaced by the gravitational pull of Europe’s largest economy, helped by the country’s modern image as a bulwark of liberal values. …
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.eu ...
If they keep cucking out like they have been for the past 30 or so years, German will be a minor tongue. They’ll be speaking Arabic.
They are moving at a faster pace.
That could I not with deal. Up their grammar is screwed.
I wonder what it will do to euroweenie ATC and radio communications?
This is where we dance.
I’m a graduate of the Goethe Institute. When I attended, my classmates came from Korea, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Trinidad, Poland, France and a few other countries.
Arabic, not German.
Achtung Baby!
Der Krieg ist verloren.
So weird grammar is our future? And here I thought that overpriced overengineered moneypit cars were bad enough already.
“the language of Goethe and Schiller”
They mis-spelled Marx and Himmler
I thought it would be Arabic.
The Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese in general want to speak English, and English is the official language of India. The French, Spanish, and Italians are never going to want to speak German, and the Russians are never going to want to speak German as their second language, considering their history going back to Catharine the Great. Let the Germans have their illusions.
Or not
Does France have an opinion on this?
Es stimmt!
I have always heard that France consider’s ‘her’ language as vastly superior and more beautiful than all others.
Meanwhile, I’ll be listening to a favorite old ditty;
99 Luftballons by Nena. Heard of it?
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