Language web

Intercultural mediation,

The practice of  language weaving by means of linguistic hospitality (P.Ricoeur), by which the variety of individual expressions  is initiated and then connected  in complementarity within one linguistic landscape.

European linguistic landscape consisting of more than 200 languages 

has been recognized by the European Union as a shared cultural property of European peoples.

In 2001, the European Year of Languages the Council of Europe has proclaimed the annual celebration of the European Day of Languages (ETS) taking part on September 26th under the motto "United in Diversity".

The general objectives of the European Day of Languages are to draw attention to Europe's rich linguistic and cultural diversity in order to encourage multilingualism and support intercultural understanding, thus contributing to the appreciation of all languages and cultures, making people aware of the benefits of knowing multilingualism, to promote individual multilingualism and to motivate people in Europe to learn languages throughout their lives.

Languages are an essential medium of human life. Spoken, written, thought, sung,  danced, imagined ...

Encounters with various languages and people are much easier in digital/virtual landscape than in the real world. Using translation tools, the texts are translated into various languages in a matter of seconds, voice translation enables interpersonal communication without any language skills.

What happens at the moment of translation, how does the “shift” succeed from one language  into the other? And, how it works through the bodily movement?  What sounds foreign and what sounds familiar, what causes fear and displeasure, and how such experiences can be converted into sympathy, when thinking on phenomena such as the xenoglossophobie (fear, anger, mistrust caused by hearing of foreign language)?

Bodily movement by dance is one of the most illustrative example for symbolic interaction. One practical example from my research during the studies at the Martha Graham School in NYC (2004-2012) with colleagues from 19 countries who attended my seminars and workshops has been summarised and presented in the form of  performance lectures titled:

#Pioggia ~ Kiša ^ ~ Regen ....

Exercises created as a combination of bodily movement, guided imagination,thought experiments and  articulatory phonetics by use of one single term "rain" has been experienced as effective, to enable individual access to diverse linguistic landscapes, to stimulate individual reflexion on embodied knowledge, learn to re-imagine and to unfold the attachment consisting of the ´hidden figures´ in body and mind, thus to release and enable novel findings, connected with joyful experience, breath by breath, movement by movement,

drop by drop ...   

Norbert Elias thinks language in a plural context and describes languages as “prototypical models of social facts: they assume not only the existence of an actor, but a group of at least two or more acting people."

How can the transition from the subjective language world succeed in a multilingual landscape?

In encounters with different languages, the boundaries of thinking, open up.  The existing patterns, which are imprinted in a language world, are linked with new forms of expression, various structures, shapes, colours and sounds interweave and form new language landscapes. The connections with spaces, objects and cultures are initiated by means of sensual perception of languages

Landscape ~ Landschaft

The term 'landscape' is based on the concept of scapes, which can also be understood as "dimensions of global cultural flows". These landscapes are the building blocks of "imagined" or "presented" worlds: "... worlds that are constituted by the historically situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe".

I think of the imagined landscape in terms of the language landscape. The imaginary opens up a dimension of reality through sensual appearances.

 In his work "Landscape: The Free and Its Horizons" Prof. Dr. Hans Dieter Bahr speaks of the modes of being of landscape spaces: “(…) However, there is one thing that landscape phenomena always transcend those of countries and human concerns: they open up to changing horizons, which are reflected in the conflicting agreement of the modes of being of space: from proximity to distance , from low to high, from narrow to wide, from flat to deep, from 'home' to 'foreign' ... - in conflict with one another. This "disputed mutual agreement (...) constitutes the freedom of the landscape in its appearances. (...) However, this is not achieved by geography, but rather by its pictorial, musical and poetic representation as well as philosophical thinking."

Sources, web links for further informations:

Web link, info EDL: https://www.coe.int/de/web/portal/26-september-european-day-of-languages

 Cf. in: Elias, N. (1989a, b, c): The Symbol Theory: An Introduction Theory, Culture and Society 6 (2, 3, 4), b: 339-383, c: 499-53

 Baumgardt, Ralf / Eichener, Volker: Norbert Elias for an introduction. P. 108.