80 posts
Euroblogs facing Babel: Inclusive and exclusive approaches
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If the European Union is the common theme, even our shared destiny, should discussions be confined to separate national or linguistic forums? A short while ago I decided to experiment with a multilingual comment policy on Grahnlaw. After a few day...
E-blogs by Wikio: the best European blogposts now available in 5 languages
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Thanks to the European blog search engine Wikio, there is now no need anymore to speak 5 languages to discover the best European blogs. Each day on e-blogs, blogposts from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are selected and translated into 5 la...
Opening Up My Euroblogging: Language and Linking
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I've been inspired by Mathew Lowry and Ralf Grahn to open up my Euroblogging and to try and reach out a bit more across the blogosphere(s).The debate on the French Euroblogosphere (see Europasionaria) prompted Grahnlaw to introduce a policy on langua...
Euroblogs: Languages and interaction
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We see a continuing lively debate on Euroblogs and Twitter (for instance #euroblog #EU #bkaeb #bbs10) regarding blogging about the European Union. Bloggingportal.eu has grown to aggregate the posts of 630 EU oriented blogs, and it already forms a com...
EU Draft Council Regulation On The Translation Arrangements For The EU Patent Published
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On December 04, 2009, a (partial) political breakthrough had been achieved by the EU Council: A number of conclusions on an enhanced patent system in Europe were fixed on that day. EU Council Document 16113/09 ADD 1 served as a basis for the politic...
BHV: Not just a French department store
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One of Paris’ largest department stores is the Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville or ‘BHV’. Women’s fashion, decoration, furniture and DIY material…you can all find it at BHV. The slogan of the Paris BHV is ‘Tout pour trouver son bonheur.’ Tr...
the rise of English (book review_
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The rise and rise of English Top dogMay 27th 2010 From The Economist print editionGlobish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language. By Robert McCrum. W.W. Norton; 310 pages; $26.95. Viking; £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.ukENGLIS...
On the Improvement of EU Language Rights at ECJBlog.com
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On the Improvement of EU Language Rights at ECJBlog.com...
Medlemskap i EU vil gje målrørsla eit unikt høve til å påverke språkpolitikken i EU
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(for my English readers: one off article in Norwegian (nynorsk) on the issue of language and the EU, previously published in the periodical Dag og Tid) Målsaka har alltid vore inspirert av internasjonale og spesielt europeiske impulsar. Fleire av de...
My Europe Week: EU lingua franca?
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If we applied the first past the post system, German would be the sole language of the European Union, being the mother tongue of the greatest proportion of the EU population (18 per cent), although far from an absolute majority (source: Wikipedia).
My Europe Week: Dumbing down films by dubbing
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In the previous Grahnlaw blog post My Europe Week: Why language rights and multilingualism?, we found good reasons for both linguistic rights for EU citizens and for learning foreign languages (multilingualism). The EU’s language policy has commen...
My Europe Week: Why language rights and multilingualism?
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If you are an English nationalist, you might want the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union, but the EU to cut administrative waste by adopting English as its sole language. If your first wish came true, after UK secession English would...
English invasion of French: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense!
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The invasion of the langue de Molière by English words is intolerable… Or should we laissez-faire? Actually, France had a lien on phrases lent to the alleged lingua franca. Many words in English are née françois: they have French roots, plenty...
Stockholm Programme Action Plan now in 21 EU languages
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Earlier we have noted the publication in three languages ─ English, French and German ─ of the proposed Action Plan implementing the European Union’s Stockholm Programme in justice and home affairs (JHA): EN - English Delivering an area of free...
EU JHA: Stockholm Programme Action Plan in English, French and German
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Earlier we linked to the English version of the Communication, which had been published. We have now been able to locate French and German language versions of the European Union’s Stockholm Programme Action Plan for justice and home affairs (JHA)...
Min dit: First Kurdish movie with Turkish subtitles
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I haven’t seen it yet. Min Dit: The Children of Diyarbakir On an empty road near Diyarbakir, life of ten year old Gülistan and her brother Firat takes an abrupt change. Their Father, a political journalist, and their mother are being killed...
Do you speak Européen ?
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J’avais déjà abordé ce sujet (en anglais) et un hasard de circonstance m’y ramène : Jean Quatremer se désole de l’emprise de la langue de Shakespeare sur les institutions Européennes… Et justement, Le Guardian Weekly pub...
English is great. J'adore le français. Deutsch ist toll. So what?
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This is an answer to Jean Quatremer who titled "L'Union dont "l'espéranto" est l'anglais" ('The Union whose Esperanto is English'). First: Take a look at Germany's song for the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo. We don't have a problem sending someon...
German as EU working language: Beschwerungen, Verteidigung oder wirkliche Förderung?
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A post by Günter K.V. Vetter about German as working language of the new EU External Action Service triggers my writing down some opinion that I kept relatively private so far. Here is the original post, in German of course… and I also react...
Language moves
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It was the ‘Kiss&Ride’ that did it. The vacuous English-language sign that broke the camel’s back. Clearly, it means a short term carpark. But who could have known that the locals (in Bavaria) would think it has seedier connotations? A flu...
Paris applies 'friendly pressure' on French language use
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With the Lisbon Treaty in place and recruitment ready to start for the European diplomatic service, France is on a mission to strengthen its "francophone exigency," said former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, special envoy on francophony to Pr...
Why I am Euroblogging in English
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I started to write a blog post in German, and then I erased everything because it didn't sound right. The reason I even though about blogging in German was this request by Europaeum yesterday:Außerdem wünsche ich mir von den vielen Euroblogs noch...
Öttinger vs. English as a working language
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Günther Öttinger famously declared a few years ago that English will become the global working language (“Englisch wird die Arbeitssprache”).So, his job as the EU commissioner for energy is certainly a great opportunity for him to use h...
A Date for the Esperanto Challenge
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I thought I should finally set a date for my Esperanto challenge: 10th February 2010.
More thoughts on the EU's linguistic issue and the EU at home and in the world
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More thoughts on the EU's linguistic issue and the EU at home and in the world, prompted by exchanges of views today with 2 fellow European tweeters.IMO, people can speak whatever language they want at home but unless a single one (English of course,...
English in the EU
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English is the most commonly used language in the EU25 (*)51% speak it either as mother tongue (13%) or as a foreign language (38%) according to the "Special Eurobarometer 243" of the European Commission with the title "Europeans and their Languages"...
Is Simple English Simply Annoying?
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Should I write using simple English to accomodate my non-English speaking readers?Score: 0 (0 votes cast)...
Chasing Brussels #9: Language and the Euroblogosphere
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Chasing Brussels #9 is out now, and this week we're taking a closer look at the direction of the Euroblogosphere (which is every Euroblogger's favourite topic). The podcast follows a Euroblogger's virtual meet-up on Skype and Google Wave, where we di...
Chasing Brussels Podcast Episode 009: Language & The Euroblogosphere
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Right after our recent Eurobloggers' meet-up - see the report by Joe Litobarski - we recorded the next episode of the Chasing Brussels Podcast.This week, Joe Litobarski is joined by Conor Slowey, Julien Frisch, Jon Worth,&nbs...
Language and Euroblogs
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This week, I'm joined by a panel of eurobloggers to talk about the problem of the language barrier in European blogging.
Episode 009 – Language & The Euroblogosphere
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This week, Joe Litobarski is joined by Conor Slowey, Julien Frisch, Jon Worth, Matthew Lowry and Frank Schnittger to talk about the problem of the language barrier in European blogging.
Buying Middle-Eastern Lemons in Italian
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I bought some lemons today from a Middle Eastern food store. The shopkeeper and I spoke entirely in Italian.Score: 0 (0 votes cast)...
Lucky English speaking friends
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Dear English speaking friends: you are lucky! One of the best French Comics’ blogger is now providing his blog in English. His name’s Boulet and he’s arguably one of the most talented BD Blogger we have (BD stands for bande dessiné...
Euroblog Meet-up: Practical Details
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Here are some practical details about the euroblog online meet-up at 20:00 GMT on December 3rd, 2009.Score: 0 (0 votes cast)...
I Will Take the Esperanto Challenge
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In 2010 - I will spend one month of my life learning Esperanto and blogging about my challenge.Score: 0 (0 votes cast)...
Five reasons why Italian should be Europe's lingua franca
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There are various solutions to fortifying Europe and creating mutual understanding. As far as I am concerned, Dante’s language is perfect for the common good of all Europeans...
Libertas France can't speak French according to Libertas the pan european political party blog
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Alan Kennedy Libertas intern and Ganley acolyteThe amazing stupidity of Libertas HQ planners in Brussels is manifest in the fact that the Libertas France Twitter feed is being written in English according to Libertas the pan European political Party...
Languages again
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A graphic illustration of providing translation into and out of twenty two languages was provided by my colleagues in the Translation Directorate the other day. It speaks for itself, really.
“If they do speak our language, ’tis our will”*: ECJ backs Spanish requirement to invest in Spanish language films
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In its judgement of 5 March 2009 in the case C-222/07 UTECA, the European Court of Justice closely followed what advocate general Kokott had suggested in her opinion (more on that here). The Spanish law requiring television operators to earmark 5% of...
The European Court of Human rights tests online application in Swedish and Dutch
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Interesting experiment in Strasbourg: The European Court of Human Rights is testing an online application procedure in Swedish and Dutch.It will be interesting to see whether this experiment will work out and whether it will be extended to other coun...
What can your country do for the EU? [frankschnittger]
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John F Kennedy famously said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. I want to pose a similar but slightly larger question to all the bloggers here: “Ask not what the EU can do for your cou...
Multilingualism: a long term investment for EU
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The European Union has 23 official languages, and as the EU enlarges, the number will increase further”[1]. By: Nathalie Henri European institutions refer to the key term of multilingualism as not only the expression of the plurality of langua...
Parlez-vous Francais?
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The Commission held a briefing in Brussels yesterday entitled “Is English becoming a rare language?” It highlighted the lack of English-language interpreters and translators in the EU institutions. It might not seem logical, but as Englis...
Sarkozy does not speak English
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I just learned that the ex-President of the Council of the European Union and still-President of one of the major EU countries - Nicolas Sarkozy - does not speak (enough) English to talk to the newly elected US president Obama without translator - wh...
Clarity of language
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This rather delightful invitation just came through,"The European Institute of Public Administration is organising a workshop entitled “From Project Proposal to Final Report: Formal Writing in English for Public Officials”, Which everybody must a...
Cheeseburgery hamburgers and the problem of computerised translations
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This morning I found myself on a public platform in a Brussels hotel for my first ever European bloggers’ conference. As a representative of an “establishment” news organisation, I was half-expecting to be roasted alive. But i...
Languages and EU law: Case T-185/05
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There's nothing quite as sensitive as the law of languages in EU law. And the judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-185/05 Italy v. Commission shows just how sensitive and litigious the member States are about languages....
A European Story: Subtitling porn
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Guy La Roche from A Fistful of Euros has blogged an article about his life as a subtitler.The text is a pleasant mix of a personal story, information about cultural differences in Europe, and the difficulty to subtitle porn (and Shakespeare!).Please...
Sunday morning lifeblogging: adventures in European subtitling
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Shot taken from Samurai Champloo About a year ago there was this email exchange between me and some of my AFOE colleagues in which I talked a bit about my daily job as a subtitler. Actually, I was venting. During this exchange I was invited to write...
Vocab review (v.2)
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It’s that time again! New words are here for your hungered minds. I decided to settle on the number eight as the most words that can be presented in a given edition of Vocab Review (or five). Disclaimer: absolutely no particular reason why...
Welsh, Gaelic Languages and the United Kingdom Administrative Arrangement with the Council
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Remember that Council conclusion of June 13th 2005 on the official use of additional languages within the Council and possibly other Institutions and bodies of the European Union ? We mentioned it in this post back in September 2005. We...
Vocab review (v.1)
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Introducing a new blog category…[drum roll]…the vocabulary review. There is nothing like sharing the wealth of the English language: abstemious (adj.) - 1. eating and drinking in moderation; 2. characterized by abstinence or moderation...
The German Plot Against French!
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An interesting post at Language Log, about the position of minority languages/dialects in France. Traditionally, France before the Revolution was more of a geographical expression than a state in the modern sense, to adapt the famous phrase about pre...
The margins, the formal settings and the documents: the EU needs a better language hierarchy
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Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans has once more raised the issue of Welsh and its status as a language at EU level, and this has generated some follow-up debate. So rather than look at the issue of Welsh in itself, how about some principles of how EU multi-...
Welsh to become official EU language?
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Welsh might be used at EU level, according to this BBC news item.
