Lavengro

Language and science

As a linguist I am nominally an artist, but I often find that I have a lot in common with scientists; it comes down to an appreciation of accuracy in expression. I say that unlike many people I am aware that words have meanings, and scientists complain about scientific ignorance and say that factual accuracy is essential, but we are really saying the same thing; for example, when people go on about 'chemicals' in food we both point out from our different standpoints that all food consists 100% of chemicals, many of which are health-giving and tasty.

I saw a splendid example of this misunderstanding of science and misuse of language last weekend in Cambridge. On the market was a stall selling jars of fruit, with this notice on a blackboard:

NO PRESERVATIVES

(Preserved in genuine French cognac)

Language learning (again)

I described in a recent message how important language learning is. What I didn't mention was the considerable effort that many people in Europe are willing to put into doing so. Having spent much the last week doing the orals for the Cambridge examinations in English as a foreign language I am once again impressed by the way in which people will spend time and effort, and a considerable amount of money, on an activity that will take several years, typically five or six, to obtain the First Certificate in English, the qualification that states that someone can hold a reasonable conversation in English at an intermediate level but is some way below what would be required to work or study in the UK for example. Some money is available from the European Social Fund to subsidise language learning in companies for example, and employers sometimes pay for courses for employees to have English lessons fully or partly in company time. Some companies operate in English as a common language; I know of a German company (Bayer Pharmaceuticals) that had a factory in Barcelona and used English as the official language of the company for communications between that factory and the head office in Leverkusen so the managers had to learn English. Also, there are a lot of people who are willing to pay from their own pocket for language classes to advance their careers or simply for personal cultural benefit. I have had one student, 82 years old, who could read novels in bed at night in Catalan, Spanish and French, and her ambition was to be able to do so in English too. She never achieved this; her short-term memory was fading (and she knew that it was) but we still got through simplified versions of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Silver Blaze and The Woman in White before her sudden death a year ago.

Then there is the question of translation. A large amount of written text has to be translated into English, work and expense that British companies and other organisations are spared. When you go to a hotel in Spain and find that the notices, menus, brochures and so on are in several languages, they have been translated and the hotel has had to pay for the service. Very little public information in Britain is presented in other languages than English.