To be Bilingual..Whether to enter German or French..?
To be Bilingual..Whether to enter German or French..?- “If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”- by Dr Subhashinisrivatsa, Principal, University Evening College, Mangaluru
Mangaluru: Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had plenty to say on the topic of being bilingual back in the early 20th century. Today, nearly 100 years later, it’s safe to say the ‘ole wordsmith would be proud.
It’s estimated that more than half of the world’s population is bilingual, according to Psychology Today. That means about 3.5 billion people use more than one language to communicate every day. There are commonly held benefits attributed to these casual script swappers, most of them suggesting an increase in cognitive processing, focus and the ability to multi-task. But to people who identify as bilingual or multilingual, the benefits are usually more concrete and personal, where they can understand and appreciate cultural references and nuances. Bilingualism can create job opportunities and help you navigate the world.
“I did translation work for the government. I happened to be the only person in a 400-mile radius that spoke the language they wanted.” — Thera, of New York shared her pride working for British and Portuguese governments simultaneously. These lines often make one to feel lost in the globe who confine to his mother tongue alone. Because we live in an increasingly globalised world where many cultural subtleties can slip through the cracks as we’re trying to understand past each other’s different dialects. Allowing oneself to be immersed in another language means opening the door to an entirely new culture and way of viewing the world. When one speak someone’s native language, he can talk about a lot more than the weather and other daily fillers. Building deep and meaningful relationships with foreign communities usually involves speaking and understanding, partially at least, the same language.
Many businesses will rely on the help of translators, but it is found that investing in a dedicated service has led to stronger relationships with clients. Some companies, indeed, will only consider those who have it as a second language. Sylvia Laws, founder of specialist global PR agency Technical Publicity, says the growth of her business can be directly related to the multilingual skills of the team. Many of their clients are multinationals. Learning a language is hard work, so the motivation and desire to undertake a language course really needs to come from the individual
In the process…I have created a completely different language hybrid that is easily accepted by friends, however not recognised academically.” –Érica, Los Angeles, English, Spanish & Portuguese.
What the companies provide at workplace a framework to make that as easy as possible. Translation services companies encourage staff to practice with one another. As the companies grew and started to export more, they translated their product’s name and ingredients list into French and could proofread the Italian and Spanish to a certain extent. As for which languages we should invest in, we learn German or French more frequently as a foreign language compared to Chinese or Japanese because we were colonised by European powers – The Brits, small parts by the French the Portuguese. Therefore historically we have a ‘closer connection’ with Europe rather than the Eastern Asia. French and German…..the major reason being our closeness to English. French is a romance language and has different grammar than English, but they share an astounding share of vocabulary. For e.g finir- to finish, demander- to demand, orange- orange.
France and German have been super powers since long. That means, they are well-settled countries whose population doesn’t have to struggle for “roti, kapda aur makaan”. They readily invest A LOT of money in this exercise of language learning. They have astonishing research on how to learn and teach French and German as a foreign language. They pay for other countries’ teachers training courses and offer interesting scholarships.
Often Advice is sought for the question of choosing a foreign language to learn,,,,,whether it is German or French? Both languages can be really useful, but it really depends on why one wishes to learn those languages. In general terms, French is more useful for travel purposes, as many countries formerly in the French Empire still use French. With German, you can travel to 4 countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein). However career-wise, German or French could both be useful. French would be very useful to get NGO work, and it still is a world language. German is very useful in scientific and engineering fields, as German is the 2nd most important language of scientific journals (after English).
While French is much more common than German in terms of a second language, it is spoken in more countries and over a broader region of the world. French shares a lot of the same vocabulary as English, as the progression of English has a language has drawn greatly upon French and other Romance Languages. German, on the other hand, shares much more grammar with English than French does. In terms of which language is the “best,” it all depends on how one qualify languages. English is a Germanic language (as Anglo-Saxons were from Germany, tracing the same roots as Bohemians, Bavarians, Prussians, etc), so the German grammar is more similar to English. Furthermore, even quite a few words are same eg. Volkswagen(pronounced as Folkswagen) – people’s car in German. Let’s analyse
GERMAN: Volks (pronounced as folks) = people
ENGLISH: Folks = people
GERMAN: wagen (pronounced as wagon) =car
ENGLISH: wagon = a four-wheeled cart which is pulled by something – a man, horse or steam engine (pretty much same as a car)
The dilemma is also there that Is it a good idea to learn French and German at the same time? Of course, both languages are completely different. So there is no point of getting confused. Moreover, one can learn both but only after he is good with at least one. With this intention of spreading the knowledge of Foreign Languages, Mangalore University has initiated the Certificate and Diploma Courses in German and French Languages in its constituent college during evening hours between 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the University College campus since 2016-17.
Besides this “OPEN HOUSE – 2017” is organised in the college campus during the “Information Week” regarding the various courses available in different centers of Mangalore University. This programme is intended to give a detailed information regarding the courses, its career opportunities, terms and conditions, fee, teaching staff, computing facilities and other infrastructure availing in this college campus. The programme is going to be held in University College Campus on 20th June 2017 at 10:00 a.m. The public is cordially invited to attend the programme and make use of it. They may contact the college office at 0824-2424608/9449333919
Submitted by: Dr Subhashinisrivatsa, Principal, University Evening College, Mangaluru
