Denmark is falling behind

Danish is at risk of becoming a second-rate language in the EU

Foreign language teaching in the Danish education system is still, to a great extent, dominated by English. This is not in itself a barrier to trade with countries such as Italy, France, and Germany, but in the end it risks weakening the Danish language.

This is the message of the conference that the Department of International Language Studies and Computational Linguistics (ISV) is hosting on 5th December with the title, Challenges of Language Politics in Denmark.

Lack of interpreters can threaten patient safety

The problem is that there will be a lack of interpreters for Denmark in the near future, for example, within the EU. This means that many negotiations with other countries about complex issues will continue to be conducted in poor English, instead of the parties being able to use their mother tongue. In this way, Danish is increasingly seen as a second-rate language in the EU.

- It is a widespread misunderstanding and Danes over-estimate themselves when they believe that they can work unhindered in English. Therefore, there is a need for interpreters, but those currently available are of such changeable quality that it can affect, for example, patient safety, explains one of the introductory speakers, Thomas Harder, adjunct professor at CBS.

A political responsibility

Professor Robert Phillipson from ISV is calling for political understanding and the will to secure the future of a broad range of foreign languages, including Danish.

- You might believe that it is solely because young people decide not to apply to language courses that the number of applications has fallen, but this doesn't mean that politicians cannot do anything about the distortion or that they do not have some responsibility for it. The fact that mother-tongue education for immigrants has been removed and that the method of upper-secondary school education favours English, as well as the fact that Denmark, as almost the only EU country, has chosen not to follow the concrete suggestions laid down by the commission in 2004-2006 to ensure a "language friendly" environment, do not make things easier, he says.

About the conference

The Challenges of Language Politics in Denmark conference comes in the wake of the debate in the Autumn about foreign languages in the Danish education system and the consequences of the domineering position of English.

Other than the weakening of the Danish language due to the lack of interpreters, the conference will also focus on: possible legislation initiatives to protect Danish terminology against a loss of domain, better use and protection of minorities' mother-tongue, and on seeing language as a key to cultural understanding, which is necessary when negotiating with other countries.

The conference will end with a panel debate with, amongst others, representatives from the Ministry for Culture and Education and from Danish Industry.

deltagelse af bl.a. repræsentanter fra Kultur- og Undervisningsministeriet og Dansk Industri.