• Assignment 7: Multilingualism in the workplace: trends & expectations

    Multilingualism at work – hardly working?

    Thanks to the emergence of new technologies and intensified connectivity of distant regions, it has become much easier for companies, irrespective of their size, to operate globally. While global players like Adidas and General Motors have quite some experience with that already, even small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) now have the possibilities to do so. But as the local has become global and geographic distances have become increasingly irrelevant, language barriers continue to exist. Feely and Harzing (2003) state that “[i]t is difficult to see how any company can contemplate going multinational without going multilingual at the same time” (p.50). The process that globalisation has on languages at the…

  • Assignment 6: Language and Gender

    SXTN – Frauen im Deutschrap

    In der Musik gibt es viele Vorurteile und Stereotypen und eines davon lautet, dass Rap etwas für Männer sei. Seit der Entstehung des Rap Genres haben vor allem männliche Künstler wie 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre und Eminem die Szene prägen können. Damit haben sie auch die Sprache des Raps bestimmt. Gewaltverherrlichende Aussagen und Beschimpfungen sind im Rap genauso präsent wie sexuelle Anspielungen. Generell geht die Sprache im Rap mit Eigenschaften einher, die generell eher als männlich angesehen werden. Allerdings konnten sich in Amerika in den letzten Jahren auch mehrere Frauen in der Welt des Raps etablieren. Neben Cardie B wird vor allem Nicki Minaj als Queen of Rap…

  • Assignment 4: The Use of Regional and Immigrant Minority Languages in Music and its Potential for Language Maintanance or Revitalization

    Joik to the world

    I bet that you have never heard about ‘joik’. I haven´t either until I watched the Eurovision Song Contest that took place last week. The band KEiiNO that represented Norway in the annual competition had incorporated the music style ‘joik’ in their entry song called “Spirit in the sky”. But what is joik, what values and identities are connected to it and why and when is it used? I will tell you more here in this blogpost but first let´s have a look at the performance: Clearly, the song mixes two music styles that are very different from each other. Modern beats with a catchy hook are featured, before the…

  • Assignment 3: English in a Post-Brexit European Union

    Bye Britain, bye English?

    “United in diversity” is the official motto of the European Union and it is enshrined in its Treaties that the Union “shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity” (Art. 3(3) TEU). Based on such vision, a complex system of language policies has been arranged to cater to the multitude of interests every member states brings to the table. Accordingly, the EU at the moment has 24 official working languages whereas only German, English and French serve as working languages, for instance inside the European Commission. Phillipson (2012), however, makes clear that in “[p]olitical reality, […] English is now at the pinnacle of an EU system”. On June 23, 2016,…

  • Assignment 2: Bad Language

    Bad language – A bad joke?

    When talking about bad language, I am mostly thinking of the education of babies and teaching them how to speak properly and not allowing them to use swear words. But speaking of bad language also requires one to look at good language. But what do these terms mean? What is a pure language? And who speaks those different forms of languages and what impact does it have on the speakers? These are questions that I am digging into in my second blog post. I have always considered my mum to be a pure German speaker. She studied German language when she went to university, she is a teacher and works…

  • Assignment 1 - English Medium Instruction: why? why not? how?

    EMI: choice or necessity?

    One cannot deny the predominance of English language in an academic context. Most academic research is published in English journals and not in journals of other languages. In addition, many universities in non-English native countries have started to teach in English as well. Teaching content in English is what the concept of EMI (English Medium Instruction) refers to. It is particularly interesting to analyse the use of EMI in areas where English is not the dominant language or in institutions in which the majority of people has another L1. This approach is exemplified by Maastricht University which is one of the forerunners in Europe regarding the provision of Bachelor and…