Correspondents' Correspondence Common Culture
LAND, THOMAS
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Common Culture London-the European Community (EC) has...
...The opening day ceremony at Culham included a song composed especially for the occasion and performed by the choir and orchestra of the new school: It was sung in several European languages.-Thomas Land...
...establishing a Pen Club to promote equal rights and protection for authors...
...The final development inspiring hopes for a common culture is the inauguration of the European Foundation...
...If the European Commission in Brussels has its way, such schools will become much more common...
...Instructors are to be drawn from the various member nations...
...Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS Common Culture London-the European Community (EC) has never had a common cultural policy...
...Eventually, it intends to make every primary and secondary school in the Community employ at least one teacher whose mother tongue is being taught as a foreign language and who can reflect the society and culture of the people who speak it...
...But several recent developments-particularly in the field of multi-lingual teaching-which would form the core of any such policy-Suggest the day may not be far off...
...The practical issue is of even greater importance, for the free movement of Europeans and their right to work in any member country is in fact largely limited by their linguistic breadth...
...The EC currently struggles with six official languages-english, French, German, Italian, Danish, and Gaelic...
...In all, there will be no less than 72 possible combinations for translation...
...and having newspapers not only share the services of foreign correspondents, but publish joint "European" supplements...
...The brainchild of Leo Tindemans, the former Belgian Prime Minister, the Foundation's task will be "to further mutual understanding between the peoples of the Community...
...The ninth of these has just been opened at Cul-ham, England...
...The options he has set out to remedy this situation are likely to provoke a heated and prolonged debate...
...This veritable Tower of Babel poses both political and practical problems...
...Meanwhile, the Commission is encouraging existing institutions of learning (mainly through financial support) to broaden their language curricula...
...In addition, he recommends training language teachers more imaginatively...
...It will be based in Paris and seek to increase the exchange of individuals and ideas within the Community, to encourage language teaching, and to foster an awareness of Europe's shared cultural heritage...
...If these various projects take off, they could affect all of the arts...
...However, according to Henri Burg-mans, the former rector of the College of Europe at Burges, these measures are hardly enough...
...The EC executive body also wants to help language teachers to travel more...
...Intended for children of top EC technologists-who are engaged in a collective project exploring the possibility of nuclear fusion-the school will teach four languages...
...the students, ranging in age from 4-19, will eventually take the European baccalaureat...
...In his recently published discussion paper, Towards a European Cultural Policy, Burgmans has scornfully written that the EC remains "One of the few international institutions to have considered itself . . . exempt from the need to take any action in the sphere of cultural affairs...
...Specifically, he would like to see West Europeans either restrict themselves to using English, French or German for official business, or learn each other's languages...
...it employs twice as many interpreters as the United Nations...
...Of the steps being taken in this direction, perhaps the most promising are the "European schools" being pioneered by the Community...
...And the forthcoming enlargement of the Community will complicate matters further by adding Spanish, Greek and Portuguese to the list...
...Although he considers and rejects the possibility of a common European language, the author proposes that the Community can save itself by distinguishing between "major" and "minor" languages...
...Hence the importance of developing a common European language or languages...
...Since political life in the EC involves a constant balancing of conflicting regional interests, culminating in international legislation, citizens must have adequate linguistic access to the bargaining process...
Vol. 62 • November 1979 • No. 21
