How German companies adopted English as their lingua franca

Handelsblatt ^ | December 15, 2017 | Claudia Obmann

[GonzoII]

Many German firms are switching to English as the primary language for meetings and communiqués, to the chagrin of some linguists and executives. But they have no choice.

Snip....

Ergo represents a larger trend. In a Handelsblatt poll, 18 of the 30 top companies listed in the DAX index of blue chips said English was their “official” business language, meaning that key documents, announcements and guidelines are penned in it. Only three companies surveyed said their official language remains exclusively German (see table below).

Even German car icon VW last year announced that it would make English the corporate language for its 120 sites worldwide. No other German company employs more people abroad — 340,000 of the 626,000 total last year.

[kearnyirish2]

I’ve found that in Quebec everyone’s English improves a lot when they see American greenbacks. I’m not kidding; I love traveling there, and genuinely like the people (I have no complaints about rudeness as I’ve seen from others), but it seems money is a great motivator.

I do sympathize with them, as it is becoming more and more common here in NJ to have someone approach you and just start jabbering in Spanish...

[monocle]

Meanwhile the US is moving more and more to the Hispanic language.

[MeanWestTexan]

“English is also used universally by airline pilots.”

Theoretically. Air traffic control, anyway.

I suppose he-who-invents-names.

[Jewbacca]

I’m Israeli and a native Hebrew speaker.

I don’t know any Israelis that are not fluent in English.

In fact, it’s kind of funny, people talk in Russian, French, even Yiddish among family (depending on Diaspora origin). When doing something official, political, religious-related, or simply in a store, Hebrew.

When talking business, English.

I just left a conversation (in Arizonia, mind you) where Hebrew, Yiddish, and English were spoken by each Israeli participant, with the break down being what I just above.

[FreedomPoster]

We saw no rudeness and had a great time, other than the weather being unseasonably cool for late April.

One notable vignette: We had lunch at the restaurant at the Auberge La Goéliche on the L’Île-d’Orléans. Great view of the St. Lawrence, and I had the best duck confit I have ever had. The plate including braised baby carrots and a nice salad was only C$15! We had several notable meals on the trip, but that one was the quality+value winner.

[kearnyirish2]

I loved the exchange rate when I first started visiting up there; we’d order things we wouldn’t dream of ordering in restaurants in the US because of the price.

Even looking a few blocks from tourist areas got you a better rate; we’d change the money in banks used by Canadiens...

[Wonder Warthog]

"That is, it’s simply ASSUMED that an educated young person in Europe can handle English."

As was once true of Latin, and later French (the Russian aristocracy spoke French among themselves, and Russian to their serfs). I don't think, despite once widespread political power, Spanish ever had that position in Europe, nor German..although German "almost" became the language of science. When matriculating for a BS in chemistry, a German language elective was "strongly" suggested, although French could be substituted (this was in Louisiana).

[Wonder Warthog]

"We had several notable meals on the trip, but that one was the quality+value winner."

Bah! All the French Canadians who could cook moved to Louisiana. What you got was the dregs of what was left.

[fr_freak]

Yes, and besides its vast vocabulary, it is light compared to the Romance languages for conjugations and word declination.

I'm not a linguistic expert - I only know English and a couple of the Romance languages, but the comparison between the two types makes me think that part of the brilliance of the English language is its simplicity despite its complexity. Verb conjugation is extremely simple, and basic sentence structure is extremely simple. It is from those simple building blocks, though, that you can create some of the most complex thoughts possible.

If you look at language as being a game of Tetris, languages like the Latin-based ones have pieces falling that are more complicated all the time, like crosses and Z shapes, whereas English has simple squares and columns with the occasional odd shape. You can build much higher when you don't have to spend too much energy figuring out how to fit the next piece in.

Now, if we could just get our spelling issues under control...

[Dr. Sivana]

It is from those simple building blocks, though, that you can create some of the most complex thoughts possible.

Yes, but it has its own limitations. Unlike ancient Greek, English has no middle voice. So when a passage in Scripture clearly calls for middle voice, such as the Resurrection of Our Lord, ("He raised Himself from the Dead"/"He was raised from the Dead"), neither active nor passive voice conveys the exact right meaning.

Some of the Latin subjunctive moods are things to behold as well. English plows through most of it with a vast lexicon. The usage of word order to simplify grammmar was already creeping into Latin by the time of the Scholastics. That's bad for Latin poetry, but good for English speakers learning Latin.

[dfwgator]

The irony is that one of the reasons Germans are forced to switch to English is because the majority of refugees don’t speak German, they speak English.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

English growth at this point isn’t because there are more English or Anglosphere people on the Earth, but because it is widespread in India, Red China, etc.

It is the language of business; as I understand it (I may be wrong), English is also used universally by airline pilots.

The English language was initially spread by Great Britain, whose empire covered 2/3 of the earth’s surface, not even counting the US. India, for example, has a very large fraction of humanity.

Then WWII happened, and with US victory came US influence pretty much everywhere outside the Soviet Bloc and China. I’m sure that WWII is what made English the lingua franca of aviation radio communication. So many American pilots, on top of all the British ones. The French were out of business, China never had been in the aviation business, the Germans and Japanese lost, and the prior reach of the British Empire made English the logical worldwide choice - outside the Soviet sphere, of course.

[dfwgator]

I know a little German....he's sitting over there....

[dfwgator]

I’ve been to Paris several times expecting the typical rude Parisienne attitude towards English speakers, frankly I didn’t see it.

I speak enough French to get by, but it’s true, a little French will go a long way.

[kearnyirish2]

I think the real staying power of English around the world is that even today, it is the only unifying language in countries made up of various tribes. In India you have Hindi in the north and Tamil in the south; English lets them communicate, and allowed them both to communicate with Pakistanis prior to partition. Even Chinese has different dialects; English allows people from Hong Kong to speak to people anywhere else in China.

[kearnyirish2]

It certainly can’t hurt to make an effort; I wouldn’t be too thrilled if foreigners visited and expected me to speak their languages.

[dfwgator]

Think about computer programming, all the major computing languages use English class names and method names.

Like Java: String, Collection, Date, Integer, etc....

[BlueDragon]

but it’s true, a little French will go a long way.

he made it all the way to Russia, and back.

The taller ones, not so much.

[dfwgator]

And refugees who come already speaking English aren’t going to be too keen on learning Dutch. That’s just the way it is.

[dfwgator]

I want to go visit Quebec City, ironically I got the desire from watching the Korean series "Goblin: The Lonely and Great God". I'd love to stay at the Chateau Fronteac hotel...