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Литература
1. Жиже к С. Интерпассивность. Желание: влечение. Мультикультурализм. СПб.: Алетейя, 2005. 156 с.
2. CDU streitet über Fingerabdrücke für Bulgaren und Rumänen // Süddeutsche Zeitung. 03.01.2014 [Электронный ресурс]. Режим доступа: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ politik/armutseinwanderung-cdu-streitet-ueber-fingerabdruecke-fuer-bulgaren-und-rumaenen-1.1855119 (дата обращения: 08.02.2014).
3. Eurobarometer, Teil I: Was die Europäer über ihre Sprachen denken [Электронный ресурс]. Режим доступа: http://language-diversity.eu/blog/2013/07/21/eurobarometer-teil-1-was-die-europaer-uber-ihre-sprachen-denken (дата обращения: 08.02.2014).
4. Giersberg D. Europas Reichtum beruht ganz wesentlich auf seiner sprachlichen Vielfalt //Mehrsprachigkeit und Politik [Электронныйресурс]. Режим доступа: http://www.goethe.de/ges/spa/prj/sog/mup/de1399909.htm(дата обращения: 08.02.2014).
5. Lagune 1. Deutsch als Fremdsprache// Kursbuch mit Audio-CD. Max Hueber Verlag: 2005. 192 s.
6. Lüscher J. Frühling der Barbaren. München: Verlag C.H. Beck, 2013. 125 S.
7. «Sozialtourismus» ist Unwort des Jahres // Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 14.01.2014 [Электронный ресурс]. Режим доступа: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/ sprachbewusstsein-sozialtourismus-ist-unwort-des-jahres-12751032.html (дата обращения: 08.02.2014).
8. StaeckK. Nichts ist erledigt. Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2004. 180 S.
9. Studio dA1. Deutsch als Fremdsprache. // Kurs- und Übungsbuch. Berlin: Cornelsen, 2011.255 S.
10. Themenaktuell 1 // Kursbuch. Ismaning: Max Hueber Verlag, 2003. 160 S. УДК 81'246(045)
Krajina, Anto
Zurich, Switzerland
LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES
The paper discusses the language as the most delicate means of communication possessed only by human beings. Some differences in language structures and lexical units are illustrated and analyzed to reveal mistakes in understanding and translation. The author brings home the idea that well-trained language teachers should first of all know some Latin, classical Greek and some Hebrew to be able to explain many language phenomena. That would help to learn foreign languages faster and more profoundly, for the more you know about the origin of the word the richer becomes its meaning. Learning several languages at a time opens new ways of thinking, helps to discover new worlds, facilitates effective teaching and communication, makes the study of other languages and their application much easier. On the other hand, lacking the knowledge of foreign languages may have very unpleasant or even grave consequences because people who speak only one language have a one-sided picture of the world.
Key words: communication, Latin, English, French, Hebrew, Slavonic languages, translation.
In the so-called Old Testament, we read «and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name» [3, Genesis, 2/19]. This sounds a rather naïve and simple
assertion; however, the more we consider it the more astonishing it appears. Once we have understood the deep meaning of these words, an abyss opens.
The assertion quoted above seems to mean that no other living creatures besides human beings do name each other. And if they do not use names for each other, then they certainly do not use names for anything else and cannot possibly have words for abstract ideas. In other words: only human creatures have a language. At this point, the question arises what the language, in fact, is.
The simplest definition of what the language is would probably be: «The chief and the most delicate means of communication». The word «communication» is also very interesting. It is derived from the Latin word «communis» (=common). The suffix «-ate» is used for verb formation. Thus the verb «communicate» would mean: «share and exchange something in common». But what is that «something» when it comes to human beings?
That «something» shared by organisms who call themselves people is the system of ideas, in the mind of all creatures endowed with consciousness - the imperceptible world, the basis of the language. The way and manner in which the members of a group with more or less the same system of ideas in mind express the elements of that imperceptible world, of that something, and make them perceptible (in spoken or written form) is what is usually called language. And what is the consciousness?
The word is derived from the Latin «cum = with» and «scientia = knowledge». An explanatory translation could be perhaps «being aware of one's knowledge of the common knowledge» or «being aware of one's own thinking about one's own existing».
To illustrate how different the ways of expressing the imperceptible stratum of the language can be, let us consider the grammatical term called «genitive». The members of a group speaking the language called English have a certain feeling - without necessarily knowing any grammatical rule - that you are supposed to put «of» when you want to say «the nuance of the colour of the roof of the house» or add an «s» when you speak of «Peter's uncle». Those who speak the language called German are supposed to put the corresponding genitive form of the article and add the corresponding genitive ending to the noun: «die Nuance der Farbe des Hausdaches» or add an «s» when they speak of «Peters Onkel».
In the language called French, it suffices to put the preposition «de» plus the article «le», «la», «les» or «un», «une» before the noun. In some cases the two short words merge; in some other cases they remain separate, e.g. «la nuance de la couleur du toit de la maison». In some other cases only «de» without article suffices e.g. «l'oncle de Pierre».
In the Slavonic languages neither the article nor a preposition is necessary to express the genitive. The declension of the noun itself suffices completely. However, the declension of nouns in all Slavonic languages is extremely complicated. It is very much like the declension in Latin. No wonder that students in England who must learn Latin at school like to say:
«Latin is a hard language, as hard as it can be; I think it killed the Romans, and now it's killing me».
An example in Croatian may illustrate this: The nominative of «nuance» is in Croatian «nijansa», of «colour» it is «boja», of «roof» it is «krov» and of «a building» it is «zgrada». The Croatian translation of the English «the nuance of the colour of the roof of the building» would be «nijansa boje krova zgrade». It is obviously pretty complicated.
These few examples show that it is not at all easy to learn a foreign language because you must become acquainted with other people's feelings, thoughts and ideas - in short: with
the imperceptible world in the heads of the native speakers. What is that imperceptible world in the heads of the people if not their innermost, their soul? Once we understand that, we realise what it, in fact, means to learn a new language. It means nothing less than to discover a new world. It is indeed one of the most fascinating adventures one can have.
Of course, every intelligent person would like to discover these strange foreign worlds, the unknown shores, and enjoy that adventure. However, hundreds, possibly thousands of languages are spoken in the world, and each of them is a world of its own. Only a madman can intend to learn them all in order to understand all the tiny populations on our planet. But we are eager to get acquainted with other peoples' feelings, ideas and their way of thinking. What can we do in order to achieve that?
Well, there are only a few languages into which most of the scientific, philosophical, literary and all other sorts of written works of general importance have been already translated from other languages. They can be compared with the big rivers, which, in fact, contain all the waters of the numerous small tributaries. Thus, instead of trying to wade in all those tiny brooks, it is probably more advisable to learn how to swim in the big rivers.
As already mentioned, the ways of expressing the elements of the imperceptible world in the minds of the people mentioned above are always different. When we learn foreign languages, we must learn those different ways of expressing the imperceptible inner world. The more differences there are the more effort is required to learn another language. And yet it is very probable that the systems of ideas in the minds of people, the imperceptible worlds as the basis of the language, are probably quite similar.
That is, of course, a mere conjecture, however, a not completely unjustified one, for despite even the thickest jungle of differences the common origin of all languages shows through. That common origin is sometimes obvious, e. g. the Greek word «hodos» = way and the verb «hodit» = go in all Slavonic languages. Sometimes, it is not easy to see the similarity immediately, e.g. the English word «eye» has the same root as the Russian word «okno» (both enable us to see something), the Latin word «oculus», the German word «Auge», the French word «oeil», the Italian word «occhio», the Croatian word «oko»; even in the Hebrew word «ayin»= eye we could hear the echo of the same origin of all these words.
For that simple reason fully trained language teachers should know some Latin and some classical Greek and, if possible, some Hebrew in order to be able to point out and draw attention to the fact that all languages are but practical, perceptible realisations of the same imperceptible human language called by Goethe «der reine Himmelshauch» = «the pure breath of heaven» [1, Etymologie, 2/82]. That imperceptible language deep in our innermost is common to all creatures endowed with consciousness, despite all the differences in its perceptible realisations. That would undoubtedly help to learn foreign languages faster and more profoundly, for the more you know about the origin of the word the richer becomes its meaning. That would make teaching more interesting and create true experts when it comes to translating and interpreting.
Such people with their excellent knowledge of the most important world languages would be of enormous benefit for their countries because they would translate the greatest achievements of the human mind from other languages into their mother tongue and thus enrich the lives of all of us. The more people there are who - due to their profound knowledge of foreign languages - know and feel that we all are but members of the same family or the petals of the same flower, as it were, the less hatred and the more understanding and friendliness there will be in the world.
I can say from my personal experience that the most efficient - probably the only one - way of learning a foreign language so well as to bring one's knowledge close to the
standard of the mother tongue is never to try to memorize single words detached from the context but to learn suitable paradigms for each particular meaning instead. At the very beginning, paradigms are, of course, very simple though; however, they are not less important than those at a more advanced level later on. People who speak only one language are much more susceptible to being seduced and manipulated by extreme political and religious leaders and induced to committing a crime because their entire picture of the world is one-sided and they therefore can hardly conceive of a way of looking at things that is completely different from theirs, and yet as good as theirs. Once you know two foreign languages, you can much faster learn another one because you are much more open to different ways of thinking and you much easier discover the similarities. Lacking the knowledge of foreign languages may have very unpleasant or even grave consequences.
One of the most impressive and at the same time least known examples of misunderstanding caused by the insufficient knowledge of a foreign language is the translation of the prophecy made by Isaiah in the Bible: «Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el» [3, Isaiah 7/14]'. In the Hebrew language (the original language of the Bible) the word «btula» means a woman who has not yet had sexual intercourse, a virgin; the word «alma» means simply a woman at an age when she can get children, a younger woman, regardless how many times she has had sexual intercourse. The prophet Isaiah uses the word «alma», not «btula»!!! when he speaks of the mother of the child, the birth of which he announces. Later, theologians interpreted the birth of Christ as the realisation of the prophecy of Isaiah. The wrong translation enabled the creation of a completely absurd story that became one of the pillars of the Christian teaching.
Another - more amusing - wrong translation of the original biblical text was that horns grew out of the head of Moses. The translator did not know that in Hebrew the same word «ker» can mean «horn» and «ray of light», thus, Moses was described as «horned» and not as one whose head was radiating light. The wrong translation induced Michelangelo to make a statue of Moses with two little horns on the head.
Before you know a foreign language, it sounds quite inarticulate to your unaccustomed ear. Thus you get the impression that the 'savage' foreigners, in fact, cannot speak in an articulate human way but just produce a never ending blah-blah-blah. The Greeks described an inarticulate way of speaking onomatopoetically by «bar-bar-bar». To the unaccustomed Greek ears all peoples who could not speak Greek but just their own mother tongue produced something like bar-bar-bar. The Greeks called all such peoples barbarians.
The Germans are proud of their name although their national name is not their own original name but the name given to them by the Celts and the Romans. Ernest Klein suggests that the name «German» has been derived from the Indo European base «gar» = to cry, to shout, being noisy [2, 318].
Among several possible etymologies of the word «German», this one seems to be quite plausible, for war cry intended to frighten the enemy was an important part of the fighting strategy of the north European (probably also of all other) tribes against whom the Romans often had to fight.
The Slavonic nations could not speak the language of their Germanic neighbours and considered them - in the same manner as the Greeks did - to be, in fact, incapable of speaking. Thus, in all Slavonic languages, from Russian to Slovenian, the Germans are called (of course, with slight variations in pronunciation of the name) «N(ij)emci» = «the dumb ones».
Fortunately, today lots of young Slavs study German and know only too well that the Germans can speak very clearly and extremely precisely. On the other hand the Germans and the English and the Italians etc., being ignorant of the Slavonic languages, think that «Slavs»
are, in fact, «slaves» because they do not know that the name «Slav» has nothing to do with «slave» but is derived from the word «slaviti», which means: «praise God», being pious.
In order to help create a world in which there is more understanding and less misunderstanding, we should try hard to learn as many important languages as possible and thus get rid of all stupid prejudices, which can and very often do cause a lot of suffering, for «ignorantia est origo omnium malorum» = «ignorance is the source of all evils».
References
1. Goethe, J. W. Gedenkausgabe der Werke, Briefe und Gespräche. Artemis Verlag Zürich und Stuttgart, zweite Auflage, 1961.
2. Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company. Amsterdam, Oxford, New York, 1973.
3. The Revised Standard Version Common Bible. An Ecumenical Edition. Collins, 1973. УДК 378.4(430)(045)
Pez, Peter
Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany
Reuther, Hanna Goethe University, Francfort/Main, Germany
ERFAHRUNGEN MIT DER UMSTELLUNG AUF BACHELOR- UND MASTERPROGRAMME IN DEUTSCHLAND UND AN DER LEUPHANA UNIVERSITÄT LÜNEBURG IM ZUGE DER BOLOGNA-REFORM
The Bologna reform instigated the EU-wide implementation of bachelor's and master's degrees. This process is now well advanced and the bachelor's and master's system is also being adopted outside the European Union. Apart from a number of positive effects from this two-cycle system of study, other expected aims of the reform have not been achieved and there is no certainty that they will be achieved in future. For example, currently the introduction of the module system has actually made it more difficult for students to change their place of study and therefore reduced rather than promoted national and international student mobility. There has also been a significant increase in bureaucratization connected with the modular system, and this partly limits the transparency which is expected from this type of system in principal. Furthermore, many students as well as teaching staff complain about the increase in course assessments. Nevertheless, in Germany, and in particular in several aspects of the implementation of the reform process at Leuphana University Lueneburg, it can be shown that it is possible to compensate for some of the disadvantages resulting from the educational reform. To achieve this, one important goal must be to build into the study programs as much freedom as possible for students and teaching staff.
Keywords: Bologna reform, bachelor's program, master's program, Leuphana study model
Zusammenfassung
Die Bologna-Reform sah die EU-weite Implementierung von Bachelor- und Master-Abschluessen vor. Dieser Prozess ist weit vorangeschritten und wird auch ausserhalb der Europaeischen Union aufgegriffen. Neben etlichen positiven Wirkungen des zweistufigen Studiensystems wurden andere intendierte Ziele der Reform nicht erreicht und ihre
