Modern Languages

It might seem as if globalization is making the whole world speak English. But spend time in any major city and you are likely to encounter a cornucopia of languages. Even monolingual people have different ways of speaking to their bosses or teachers, their intimate friends or their pets. And if you live in India or Nigeria, you might use five different languages during a typical day.

Katrin Kohl makes a passionate case for why we must embrace languages in all their diversity. When you study a language, you open a unique doorway into the world, immerse yourself in a different way of seeing, and discover new ways of communicating with people from different cultures on their terms. Kohl argues that language diversity is of vital importance to human societies, sustaining the complexity of human nature, culture and technology. We should care about preserving it as much as we care about preserving the diversity of our biological world.

Preface: Why Languages Matter

1 Understanding Identity

Divergence and Convergence in the World of Languages

Cultural Identities and Language Diversity

Preserving Linguistic Identities

Languages as a Political Minefield

Notes

2 Experimenting with a New Medium

Tapping into Creative Potential

Everyone’s a Linguist

Committing to a Language

The Infinite Potential of Transferable Skills

Notes

3 Exploring Difference

Untranslatable Words?

Translating Nuggets of Cultural History

The Past and Future of Translation

Notes

4 Training Cultural Intelligence

The Role of Languages in Cultural Intelligence

Does Language Influence How We Think?

Cultural Intelligence in Practice

Recognizing Limits

Notes

5 Developing the Imagination

Straight to the Heart

Creative Subversions

Stimulating the Imagination

Notes

6 Negotiating Globalization

National Identity and Globalization

Legacies of Colonialism

National or Transnational?

Empowering Language Diversity

Notes

Afterword: Sustaining a Multilingual Future

Notes

Further Reading

Index

‘Anyone who thinks “English is enough” should read this book! It is a well-grounded, elegant and passionate appeal to halt our descent into the fruitless desert of monolingualism.’
David Bellos, Princeton University

‘A powerful and timely explanation of the discipline of Modern Languages and why it is fundamentally important both to universities and society.’
Charles F. Burdett, Durham University

‘Modern Languages is a clear and engaging reminder to monolingual first-language English speakers of their responsibility to respect, embrace and promote linguistic diversity.’
Times Literary Supplement

Katrin Kohl is Professor of German Literature at the University of Oxford.