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linguistic identity. Since intercultural communication is an ability which is acquired and can
be developed, each individual must have a basic insight into his/her own culture and language.
Knowledge about these identities is the main prerequisite for adopting a constructive attitude
toward other languages and cultures and/or for starting an intercultural dialogue on equal
footing, not burdened by stereotypes, prejudice, deep-rooted beliefs, etc.
However, there is not a single society in the Balkans, regardless of how democratic and
open it claims to be, which managed to incorporate these qualities in its essence. One of
drawbacks in strengthening intercultural communication and co-operation between Balkan
nations is the still prevailing ethnocentrism. According to Sumner it refers to „the technical
name for the view of things in which one’s own group is in the centre of everything, and all
others are scaled and rated with reference to it” (Sumner 1907: 13). Unfortunately, it is obvious
that this kind of behavior of peoples and groups living in the Balkans is still not a matter of
the past; it persists primarily due to historical, religious, and political reasons, and there is
still rivalry between nations, cultures and civilizations between people in the Balkans, which
leads to excessive glorification of one nation and downplaying another. The best example
could be the following: according to all available statistical data, before Romania joined the
European Union in 2004, Romanian was not among ‘favorite’ or ‘popular’ languages at the
Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. Furthermore, it had been among the ‘unpopular’
languages, along with Russian, Slovak or Albanian. However, there has been significantly
more freshmen at the Romanian Department since that year, as well as those who took
Romanian as an elective 2 . These data tell us that the attitude toward Romanian has slightly
changed in Serbian collective cultural awareness, which means that Romanian is no longer
seen as a ‘second-class’ or ‘unnecessary’ language, but rather as a language which slowly but
surely gains linguistic equality with all other ‘popular’ languages, such as English, Italian,
Spanish or modern Greek.
All peoples in the Balkans are prone to excessive ethnocentrism, which lead (and still
leads) to numerous disagreements between them. According to Togeby, until a few decades
ago, many European nations often used to describe ‘the other ones’ simply on the basis of
their specific national characters, i.e. by way of generalized (i.e. deep-rooted) beliefs 3 (Togeby
1997: 136). On the other hand, it would be a mistake to think that such opinions have already
disappeared from the united Europe. On the contrary, they are still present, especially while
interacting with foreigners, as stated in a recent Gudykunst’s study (Gudykunst 2005: 285ff). It
2 By 2004 the average number of students at the Romanian Department was six (statistical data for the
period 1996–2003). Up to ten students used to take Romanian as their optional foreign language on the
first year, whereas there were slightly fewer students in the second year. Since 2004 the average number of
students who enrolled was fifteen, whereas those who took Romanian as elective is about twenty, it means
that there has been a 40% increase. These information were provided by the Registration Office of the
Faculty of Philology, Belgrade University. The authors of this paper wish to thank the registration Office
for these information.
3 For example, Germans are aggressors, Italians are bons vivants, French are great lovers, Russians like to
drink, etc.
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