A globalized world: What languages?

What
understanding? What are we talking
about?
Professor Emerita Mariana NICOLAE
International Colloquium of Social Sciences and Communication ACUM
Challenges of Education and Research in the Social Sciences
Transilvania University of Brașov, 17 - 19 October 2019
 Briefly and from above

 Challenges of communication in the www/global village

 Voice and source credibility
 Conversations we have (or not) as humans
 Lingua francas and less spoken languages
 So, where to?
Challenges of communication in the www/global village

 We speak, but do we listen?

 We all speak English, but do we all understand the culture
behind the words?
 Climb the greasy pole –
 https://mariananicolae.wordpress.com/2019/09/28/politics-h
ere-and-there-everywhere-politica-peste-tot-la-fel-iii/
Romania is a francophone country!

We all speak “English”!

Voice and source credibility

Who am I? Why am I here?

Professor Emerita Mariana Nicolae

Ph.D. (Education & Economics)
Fulbright scholar (2005), Fulbright Ambassador (2013 -2018),
https://inaco.ro/ , www.adaf.ro – POCA
HoD (2011 – 2017) Modern Languages & Business Communication
Faculty of International Business & Economics
Bucharest University of Economic Studies (www.ase.ro)
Conversations we have (or not) as humans

 The world – complex & unpredictable

 The individual – some under threat + some reaching for immortality
 Will AI save us or enslave us? It seems it isolated us: loneliness, mental health problems, dementia and
social (im)mobility.
 https://demos.co.uk/project/society-of-readers/ UK: if these problems are unchecked – by 2030 the loneliness
epidemic will reach 7 million people in the over-60 age group alone. Two million may expect to see their lifespans
shortened by loneliness. Japan: hikikomori - are reclusive adolescents or adults.
 Dancing as therapy/empowerment - http://www.oportunidance.eu/ ; Raluca Crisan – dance therapist from Cluj

 The public memory of the European history is no longer alive for the young particularly the one written in
less widely spoken languages – (Lavinia Stan – SRS; Lorena Anton – UniBuc).
Conversations we have (or not) as humans
 In 2012 about 56 million people died throughout the world; 620,000 of them died due to human violence (war
killed 120,000 people, and crime killed another 500,000). In contrast, 800,000 committed suicide, and 1.5
million died of diabetes. “Sugar is now more dangerous than gunpowder.”
 Previously the main sources of wealth were material assets such as gold mines, wheat fields and oil wells.
Today the main source of wealth is knowledge. And whereas you can conquer oil fields through war, you
cannot acquire knowledge that way.
 Whereas in 2010 obesity and related illnesses killed about 3 million people, terrorists killed a total of 7,697
people across the globe, most of them in developing countries. For the average American or European, Coca-
Cola poses a far deadlier threat than Al-Qaeda.
Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
Conversations we have (or not) as humans

 We speak about the above issues mostly through acronyms:

 www, NATO, OTAN, USA, VUCA, UNO, NATO, ONU, EU, UE, ASEAN, 5G, OECD,
UTB, WEF, LSE, EMI, etc.
 Most of them are in English, but some can be in other languages as well!
 Exotic languages in Romania in 2019 -
 Depending on the city
 We read about Russia, China, the Middle East, Africa – in English. Whose world?
Lingua francas & less spoken languages

 Talking about language is one of the hottest issues in human conversations

 Each educated person feels the need to express ideas about the language/languages she speaks, has a feeling
of ownership on her mother tongue especially, but also on the languages she speaks – in various degrees
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321522440_IN-UTILITATEA_COMUNICARII_STIINTEI_IN_L
UMEA_GLOBALA_The_in-utility_of_science_communication_in_the_global_world
So, where to?

 Can we contribute to the forging of a common human identity? Only if we speak the same
language/s.
 Can we think in several languages? Yes, but creativity is at its best in our mother tongue.
There are people with several mother tongues!
 Romanian culture is fascinating, but its adaptation/translation into English (?) should be
our project
 An objective for us all –to work towards becoming a ‘society of readers’.
 Gaudeamus Book Fair, 24 November 2019 – launch of a “useless” book:
 Comunicare 4.0 - Tratat de comunicare în afaceri internaționale
 The way we talk/write/think
https://romania.europalibera.org/a/mizele-unui-no-deal-brexit-/29815096.html

 “…Jacob Rees-Mogg, un influent parlamentar Tory care întruchipează perfect valorile

conservatorismului britanic și care este un susținător determinat al unui „no-deal” Brexit.”

 “Purgatoriu care de altfel va înceta decât odată cu un „no-deal” Brexit pe care ei îl speră la
sfârșitul lunii martie 2019.”

 „Nici initatorii Brexitului nu au anticipat dificultatile incumbente operatiunii.”

 „Se anvizajeaza ca prin acorduri separate cu tarile UE sa obtina privilegii …”