Should German become the sole official language of the EU?
"German “itself” certainly has nothing to do with Nazi or Hitler, apart from English, German even has more prestige than other European languages."
Well it does carry that baggage whether people like it or not. Languages can become associated with the actions of the country that speak it. I'm not anti-German by the way, that's just my opinion. I'm guessing that a lot of European countries would be very opposed to German being made the official language of the EU.
There will never be an official european language. Would be it so, it will be the death of Europe.
Non vuol dire ''se fosse così''?
Avevo già chiesto scusa per il mio inglese maccheronico :-)))
<<Well it does carry that baggage whether people like it or not. Languages can become associated with the actions of the country that speak it.>>
English is associated to racial segregation, the invasion of Irak, Vietnam, Hiroshima genocide, etc, so it can't be the lingua franca of Europe. It has too bad press due to the actions of the countries that speak it, specially USA.
<<I'm guessing that a lot of European countries would be very opposed to German being made the official language of the EU.
>>
So these European countries want another bloody war? I would think twice before being against the adoption of German as the official language of Europe.
There will never be an official european language. Would be it so, it will be the death of Europe.
Did Europe die when Latin was the official language of most of Europe and later the lingua franca during the Medieval Ages?
I mean, today we have common institutions, the press, book and tv: a sole official tongue for all europe would mean that everyone should be exposed with these tools in this language. And in fact it would be fantascience and unaccepted everywhere. You mention the middle ages: latin was never official (except for church matters) and was used as a common tool of communication only among cultured elites: imagine for instance a dane and a german trying to communicate in, let's say, 1500: do you think they used latin?and after all, if such a thing would occur today, france would make another revolution and the uk would call the US to invade europe again unless the supposed imposed tongue would be theirs.
I don't recall Medieval ages to be that great. Totalitarian Catholic regime was pretty nasty.
That's another question, guest 2.
<<And in fact it would be fantascience and unaccepted everywhere.>>
The mere existence of the European Union as we know it nowadays was be unconceivable 100 years ago . Maybe in the next decades one official language only for all the Europeans will be a reality too.
<<You mention the middle ages: latin was never official (except for church matters) and was used as a common tool of communication only among cultured elites
>>
Latin also was the means of instruction in universities across Europe.
<<france would make another revolution and the uk would call the US to invade europe again unless the supposed imposed tongue would be theirs. >>
Ok, so the French will not be part of the European union if they don't accept the new official language. As for USa they don't give a damn the domestic European affairs. Europe already has a common currency , did USA invade Europe because of that? And if she did, are you afraid of them?. Then we don't need that kind of Europeans.
Well, the official languages of the European Union are 27. That's too much.
So, the official languages should be English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
I think that 6 languages can be better than only one. It shows that Europe is multicultural.
I think that sooner or later the two Americas, Australia, Europe and Russia will join together and form a big Western Union and English will be the official language.
I don't want Central/South America in that Western Union. Neither Mexico.
And the official language should be Russian.
Who cares what you want. In which sense is Russia more Western than let's say Argentina and Uruguay? Until 1989 Russia wasn't even considered a Western country, and it isn't yet in many aspects. Not to mention that racially aside from the European part Russia is populated by Asiatic people.
Some facts from wikipedia showing that Russia is mostly Western (just like South and North America):
Ethnic composition (2002)[122]
European Russians 79.8%
Tatars 3.8%
Ukrainians 2.0%
Bashkirs 1.2%
Chuvash 1.1%
Chechen 0.9%
Armenians 0.8%
Other/unspecified 10.4%
European Russia refers to the western areas of Russia that lie within Europe, comprising roughly 3,960,000 km², and spanning across 40% of Europe. Its eastern border is defined by the Ural mountains and in the South it is defined by the border with Kazakhstan. This area includes Moscow and St. Petersburg, the two largest cities of Russia.
Roughly 78% of the entire Russian population lives in European Russia, at an average of 27 persons per square kilometre (10.5 per square mile).[1] However, 75% of Russia's territory lies within Asia and accommodates only 22% of its population at 2.5 persons per square kilometre (0.95 per square mile).[1] The term "European Russia" was used in the Russian Empire to refer to traditional East Slavic territories under Russian control, including modern Belarus and most of Ukraine (Dnieper Ukraine).