Ich habe über Deutsch gesiegt

Wochen und wochen der nicht allzuharten Arbeit.

Munich master courses

 Studenten am TUM Asia in Singapur. Source: Focus.de

Topical: the Technical University of München plans to swap to English for all its Master courses by 2020. I couldn't find much about it on their website though, maybe they want to keep it on the down-low after the negative publicity? Alternatively, maybe they just don't publish plans and visions on their news page.

If true this is a good example of the progress towards English as a world language, and equally of protest against it doing such. I do not think that English will replace the languages that people in Europe learn as children: even if all courses in German universities are taught in English, German will still remain the mother tongue. However, there is a real move towards English as the new Latin, as the language of all scientific publications. This seems to show that despite the pride of languages for the rights of which people fought one, two centuries ago, there is also simply a need for a language which everyone can communicate in easily.

I do not agree with the university's decision. I understand the need for good ability in English, but simultaneously there needs to be good backing to show that German students who are taught in English, in Germany, will still reach enough fluency that their learning of the subject at hand is not impeded, and that they will still reach enough fluency that they can write good-quality academic articles which can compete internationally (it is really hard to get to a level where you can't just write, but actually write well). Moreover, whether or not the English competency of the students at this university would be perfect, the German language will still be irreparably harmed. If a register is not practised, it dies. If people stop talking about a certain kind of chemical technology in German, the German terms for this technology are eventually forgotten and, more importantly, words for new developments within the technology are no longer created in the German language. This is very hard to reverse, as testified in the writings on language revival on this blog. (I would like to write a blog post sometime about the inkhorn revolution, where the English vocabulary was drastically extended to make it fit for use at universities. The one thing I never quite understood yet is what triggered them doing that.)

It could be a good alternative to encourage students EU-wide to study abroad, to gain experience with speaking different languages such as English and working in multilingual environments. Also, language courses should be strongly promoted if not an obligatory part of the course.