In this article, Joël Jamet from Culture et Liberte in France, critically examines the issue of language in the context of international education programmes. He poses several challenges for IFWEA, including the need to promote language training.

World cultural systems have gone, broadly speaking, through four main stages: a first period of community-based cultures (prehistorical), a second phase of royal and imperial cultures, a third of national and trade-based cultures and the last, the one we are now entering, an internet-based world culture. (1)

We are still in the phase of national and trade-based cultures, but because of globalisation, these are in crisis and we are taking the first steps into the internet-based world culture. Each of these cultural phases has been characterised not only by economical and military expansion but also by cultural and linguistic expression.

The rise of English as a common language

In Europe, certain languages became dominant in different periods. For example, Latin which shaped the Romance languages and dominated for centuries during the Empire, or French which dominated in Europe (2) until the First World War, or English which became the dominant language in Europe after the Second World War. In this latter case, the influence of the United States is decisive: through its music, its technology, the myth it represents and the strong images it projects. Due to a mixture of all these elements a strong attraction has developed in Europe to the English language, especially among the young.

Little by little, it has become indispensable as a common language, a "lingua franca". Paradoxically, this is neither the language of the country with the largest population, nor the economically most successful country in Europe. That country, today, is Germany, despite a high rate of unemployment largely due to the conditions of reunification. But German is also the language spoken by the largest number, if Austria and two thirds of the Swiss population are added, as well as Luxemburg and German-speaking minorities in other countries. So far as French and English are concerned, the colonial history of France and Britain has played an important role in the dissemination of the language and the culture attached to it. French persons arriving in Tunis will naturally speak to people in French and an Anglo-Saxon would address people in English anywhere in the world. It would not occur to a Greek or a Norwegian, for example, to address people in their own language in Berlin or in Glasgow.

Today's Europe is plurilingual but Europeans are generally monolingual. The teaching of languages is evidently not yet a priority in the countries that make up Europe, although the European Union includes 15 countries and 11 official languages, which lead to over 120 linguistic combinations supported by an army of interpreters and translators. Yet, a text is often translated first into English and from English into other languages, with all the risks of error that this implies.

Language and culture

The temptation is great to conclude that it would be simpler to adopt a single language such as English and to strengthen it in its role of "koiné" (3) - but Europe has its past, its linguistic diversity, which represents intellectual wealth. One does not easily throw away wealth. Each language is a system of representation: people organise their thoughts, apprehend their world and their surroundings in terms of their mother tongue. Learning another language therefore represents the unique opportunity to enter into another culture, and to understand its patterns of thought.

In fact, millions of people speak English, meaning that they can speak the kind of "Basic English" that is adequate in everyday life situations and in professional situations where the vocabulary is limited and focused. Even if one may derive some satisfaction from the fact that many people have taken the trouble to learn another language, the record is not so clear. The Luxemburgers come first with 2.7 foreign languages learned per capita, followed by the Danes with 1.8, the Dutch with 1.6, the French with 0.9 and the English with 0.5. Actually, it appears that 66 percent of young Europeans are learning English, far more than French (50 %), German (20 %) or Spanish (14 %).

So far as French people are concerned, many have learned English in school. After 5 to 7 years all that is left is a "pidgin" language, a superficial base which nonetheless makes it possible to get by in simple situations. Their vocabulary is often limited, the syntax vague and the pronunciation hesitant - it very quickly becomes apparent that this is not sufficient knowledge to engage in a deeper conversation. The situation is further complicated by the fact that any language carries with it implicit values which it is important to be aware of if one wants to understand or be understood in conversation. Certain languages are more or less implicit, others more or less explicit; certain cultures are rather monochronic, others rather polychronic (4). Nevertheless, these apparent difficulties do not prevent a certain level of communication and of understanding among individuals.

The implications for IFWEA and Euro-WEA

Where we have to be more careful is in situations such as we experience in the IFWEA or the Euro-WEA. Our mandate is to represent workers all over the world and we are members of governing bodies that make policy. In these meetings, for all the reasons stated above, the natural working language is English. It is clear that the exchanges will involve implicit information which, unless one has a full command of the language, will leave you adrift unless one immediately requests explicitness. Such clarification is not necessarily time lost: it obliges the speaker to express himself or herself more precisely and might even clarify the speaker's own thoughts. The members of the governing bodies come from different countries of Europe and of the world and, in my view, this has to be taken into account. For example, would it not be helpful to establish a common glossary with agreed definitions? Does everyone understand the same thing when we refer, in English, to "civil society", "adult education" or even "association"?

Further, through our programmes and with the support of public funding such as EU budget lines, we should actively promote language training for the young members of our organisations. An ever increasing number of people need to learn to defend the interests we represent in the context of globalisation and also, perhaps more importantly, to put in place a new generation of leadership.

Endnotes

1. see: Jacques Demorgon, "Complexité des cultures et de l'interculturel", Anthropos, Paris.
2. French was the court language and the elite language of Europe. As a language, it becomes structured as from 1539 (Edict of Villiers-Cotterêts) which makes it obligatory in courts of law and especially since 1635, with the creation of the French Academy.
3. Common spoken and written language in Greece during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
4. see: Edward T. Hall, the American anthropologist, in: "The Hidden Differences". Monochrony and polychrony are a sort of cultural time clock: they express our relationship to time as a function of our culture. Monochrony means that one does one thing at a time, polychrony that one can engage in several pursuits at any one time.