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Changing Horizons in Geography Education - HERODOT Network ...

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Do you speak European? or: Why even Geographers shouldknow more than English…Olivier MentzUniversity of <strong>Education</strong> Freiburg, Department of French StudiesKunzenweg 21, D-79117 Freiburge-mail: mentz@ph-freiburg.deAbstractThe European Union consists of 25 member states <strong>in</strong> which 20 official languages are spokenand written. Additionally there are a lot of regional languages which are not seen as officiallanguages by the European Union. But what do we about the competences of European citizens<strong>in</strong> speak<strong>in</strong>g one or more of these European languages? Several discussions dur<strong>in</strong>g <strong>HERODOT</strong>conferences <strong>in</strong> the last years made a po<strong>in</strong>t on the fact that all over Europe the English languageis becom<strong>in</strong>g more and more important and that the other European languages are decreas<strong>in</strong>g.On the first sight this seems not to be a problem. Isn’t it only important to understand eachother? And wouldn’t English be the best language for this, the ‘l<strong>in</strong>gua franca’?This paper tries to open new horizons especially for geographers <strong>in</strong> learn<strong>in</strong>g more thanEnglish for work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> a European and <strong>in</strong>ternational and <strong>in</strong>tercultural context.IntroductionAre you a European? What a question – of course you call yourselves Europeans;otherwise you would not try to be <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> the discussion, <strong>in</strong> the discourse and <strong>in</strong>the arguments associated with Europe. But do you also speak European? Probablyyou will answer this question <strong>in</strong> the negative, because you cannot really imag<strong>in</strong>ewhat this means – contrary to the idea of be<strong>in</strong>g a European. Therefore this paperasks you to th<strong>in</strong>k about the idea of speak<strong>in</strong>g “European”.Be<strong>in</strong>g EuropeanIn 1994 the Council of Europe noted <strong>in</strong> its recommendation 1247 that only thosestates whose national territory is completely or at least partly located on the Europeancont<strong>in</strong>ent and whose culture also is closely connected with the European culture canbecome members of the Council of Europe. Here we are faced with the first difficulty– on two different levels:• What exactly is accordant to the European cont<strong>in</strong>ent?, especially because thethird article of the mentioned recommendation states that until today the bordersof Europe are not def<strong>in</strong>ed by <strong>in</strong>ternational law; and• What <strong>in</strong> fact is meant by the European culture?What is Europe?There are a lot of approaches to def<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g Europe. And the shape of “Europe” dependson the person or the association who def<strong>in</strong>es it. Historically the conventional border-252

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