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More Denglish
Another article about “Denglish” this one from the Berlin Journal which has a Copyright of 1998, of The New York Times Company and was written on December 6, 1998. Sent in by Douglas B. in Berlin.
The same article also appeared in the International Herald Tribune, on December 7, 1998, with the title, “Germany
Debates ‘Denglisch’ ”
Some parts of the article from the Journal include the following (partly edited to make it shorter):
“Berlin Has a Word for Its Ambitions: English” by Roger Cohen.
The fight to be the leading newspaper of the city with ambitions to be Europe’s new
capital is a ferocious one, so when executives at the Berliner Morgenpost sat down recently to dream up a new advertising slogan, they thought long and hard. What they came up with was:“Simply the Best.”
Not “Einfach besser,” German for the same idea, but “Simply the Best,” as in Tina Turner’s popular song. “ Our target group was young people,” said Rolf Buer, the paper’s marketing manager, “and this slogan was young, fresh, simple and sure to get people talking. German words are just too long.”
That may seem an unjust accusation to level at “Einfach besser,” but it is true that if precision is a hallmark of the German vocabulary, brevity is not. In any event, the issue is clearly a broader one, for the English encroachment on Deutsch has assumed epic proportions, giving rise to a form of speech widely known as “Denglisch.”
Consider this city, whose passion for reinventing itself is very much of the New World. As you drive past posters advertising Volkswagen’s “New Beetle” (not “Der neue Kafer”), you may hear a radio advertisement for an Audi that gives you “die power,” only to see a newspaper headline about Germany’s lack of “jobs” (forget “arbeit”), as the radio turns to a discussion of Berliners’ growing attraction for “the American way of life.”
English, of course, is advancing everywhere, propelled by the Internet and the dominance of American popular culture. It is the most widely studied foreign language in German schools, where most children start learning it at age 11. Its advance appears particularly marked here, strong enough to set off a debate on what it is to be a German.
“I don’t like to think in terms of national borders,” said Ulrich Veigel, head of the Bates advertising agency in Germany. “I live in Germany, and was born here, but I’m a citizen of the world, and that is the way we should all think. In the medium-term, nationalities have no chance.”
English, Veigel continued, is a wonderful language precisely because it is the most cosmopolitan. “I look forward to the day,” he said, “when I go to France and do not have to speak French.”
Until that day -- some way off if the Academie Francaise has anything to do with it -- Veigel will be pushing his message in Germany, where the Bates agency is responsible for the current campaign of the cargo division of the national airline, Lufthansa. Slogan: “Thinking in new directions.” It is also promoting a new German telephone company called “First Telecom” with the jingle “You can’t beat the First.”
Such catchwords clearly reflect a perception that Germans see English as more contemporary or modish. “New Beetle sounds more hip than neue Kafer,” said Sabina Metzner of Volkswagen. “We wanted to make clear that the Beetle might have some resemblances to the old Kafer, but it is very much a modern car.”
The Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, devoted much of a recent summit meeting with French leaders to the issue of defending “Franco-German culture” against the cultural pull of America through the establishment of a new Franco-German university in Saarbrucken and other measures.
Of course, France and Germany have a basic problem: the unfettered, dynamic, creative culture of California is more attractive to many young people than European societies often identified with high unemployment and rigidity.
“The young want to hear English,“ said Buer of the Berliner Morgenpost. “It’s seen as free and flexible.”
Besides, he noted, if the Berliner Morgenpost had chosen “Einfach besser” instead of “Simply the Best” as a slogan, it might have violated the German law known as the “Unzulassige Alleinstellung,” which forbids sweeping assertions of superiority in advertising.
“We would have had to answer a lot of questions,” Buer said. “Better than who? Better than what? Why better? Better in what precise respect? It was just too much bother, whereas in English we could do what we wanted.”
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
