Managing World-Communication: the GNI example

Not a very modest title, I must admit. But someone has to think about that, at least. Why? You could ask, until know there was no real management of the world communication. The reason for the new exigency lies in one concept: Anthropocene! (Wp) It means that the mankind is now responsible for the well-being of its own planet. The assumption is that the basis of this concept is older and part of the ideas of Modernity. For example the famous "Operation Manual for Spaceship Earth", by Buckminster Fuller (Wp, the text can be downloaded from the URL). Fuller and cyberneticists are showing the technical conditions how a Green New Deal could indeed be implemented. However, it seems to be that central aspects of a Great Transformation of (World-)Society are disregarded: The political and the linguistic dimensions of the Great Transformation. One example is the Global Energy Network, which is which is supported by the GENI (Global Energy Network Institute), The Wikipedia-page of the GENI gives an overview about the history of the project. Looking at the GENI-Homepage covering the World Energy Congress 2013, the problem of merely technical solutions is getting obvious: Although it could be a good idea to connect the world with an Global Energy Network, networking some countries (here mentioned Japan, South & Nord Korea, China and Russia) is politically naïve. The new idea of improving the American Power Grid System with chinese technology (a very recent idea) seems to be a bit more straightforward, because it involves only American Territories, especially the USA. But of course with the Trump administration in the US also this national project is nonconvertible. The other problem seems to be that GENI is not linking to already existing projects. There are already existing Energy Networks worldwide the biggest of which is the (formerly) UCTE grid (Wp) in Europe. The Energy transition (Wp) especially in Europe (and there Germany and Switzerland) are showing that this transitions has to managed nationally and even locally. And here is the linguistic dimension of the World-Society is an important feature. But how could a World communication Management looks like that is really dealing with the climate crisis and other ecological problems? There has to be a mixture of top-down and bottom up approaches, just like in case of strengthening resilience (this blog, older post) And international organizations has to be involved. The UN has done an important contribution with the SDGs and helping young people with fight for future. But UNO can't go alone for various reasons. Especially the western countries are responsible for most of the climate change throughout history,  therefore a "Western" organizations should coordinating the actions of the National Governments: the OECD (Wp) should coordinate the efforts of the Western Governments for establishing a new Green Economy.               

Utopia & Communication in English

Language is needed for the fulfilling of (personal and collective) dreams. The human being is a social animal and therefore we have to rely on language.

One very helpful illustration for this is Maslow's hierarchy of needs (see picture & credits). On every level of the pyramid language is playing an important role. In our world-society, based on the division of labor, language is already an important factor, starting from the beginning.  However, in the OECD-countries language means normally the language of the national society. These "language containers" are got more penetrable lately, but they are still very much in place. Therefore "language" means first the particular language of this country. In my case, living in Japan it is Japanese. But of course as a German living in Japan, German is still in use for me. But there is also a reason to use English: In my case it is because I care about international politics. And as Greta Thunberg (Wp) reminds us (international politic public): The climate crisis (Wp) and its disastrous consequences is the urgent (international) political issue in our time. The effects of the climate crisis are already noticeable, but is going to be worse and worse in the years to come. Therefore I would like to ask the young people, what they think about that? Are they angry like Greta? And also related to this: How are the language choice(s) affected? For younger people language-learning can be seen as an investment in the future. Are the political relations of the English language effecting the language choice? Or is English more seen as a language, which is helping to forward the own career? Can there be a combination of both?          

Nagoya climate Demo

Impressions from the Nagoya climate strike demonstration (20/9/2019)

 The Nagoya climate strike, wasn't a strike at all. It was a small size demonstration, which saw a few people protesting.
The slogan was: "気候が危ない。今すぐ変えろう。
子供の未来。Climate justice. When do we want it? Now!" The first Japanese part has the following meaning: "The climate is in danger. We have to change something. Future for the children."
This language mix is quite characteristic for the international atmosphere of the demonstration in Nagoya. Looking at the signs, the language mix is also obvious. Why are so few Japanese nationals joining the demonstration? Because the mainstream media in Japan don't cover the international protests only as marginalia. I also saw in Internet (350.org)　      

The atmosphere was very relaxed and I also met some colleagues at the demonstration. There were a lot of English speaking persons there and the use of English (as Lingua franca) was quite widespread.

Thank to police, we had smooth walk for 90 minutes. Unfortunately the policemen declined to be photographed. 

Another expat I met the first time at the demonstration. We were speaking about the situation of environment protest in different countries. It would be very unusual to have such a conversation with a Japanese person. We were talking about the group extinction rebellion (Wp) and there sometimes very radical stance towards mainstream politics.    

One of the bilingual signs, which could be seen at the demonstration. I talked with the carrier of the sign about the usage of coal in Japan. I had to ask to the reading of the word (in Japanese), although I can understand the meaning, I often forget you to pronounce the word. I think my Japanese is good, especially for every day purpose, but when it comes to Politics, I have to prepare myself, otherwise even simple words don't recur as it they could be. Also in English my active vocabulary is smaller than of a native speaker, but I can discuss politics good enough to hold a normal conversation.      

Resilience needed (Languages & climate strike, 2)

The begin of the climate strike week (Wp) yesterday (20.9.) was without a strong signal. Guardian pages show the events from all over the world. Really? But this not possible, no single organisation (in this case a newspaper, with a strong web-presence) can cover the whole world. There a several (logical) reasons, why this not possible (complexity, space, time etc), but this blog focus on language and therefore I show from this angle. From Germany this page looks different, as a (German) live-blog shows (Stern). Germany was probably one of the countries with the strongest climate strike actions, which this page shows. The Wikipedia page cited above reports that 1,4 Million people took part. But it is way too early to speak from a unprecedented event: the 1990 saw similar big events, but the movement failed until now. One can speak of a failure in three aspects:

1. No instituional change (esp. in the USA) 
2. The figures are still pointing in the wrong direction
3. No international broad coalition 

After the growing influence of the environment movement in all Western countries did the election of Al Gore fail in the year 2000 (Wp). At this stage environment issues played only a minor role. This collection of the Guardian show the enormity of the problem (now): The very active environmental organisation 350.org (Wp) has its name from the scientific hypothesis that all above 350 ppm (parts per million) carbon dioxide is too high reach the climate tipping point. Therefore it can be said that mankind is now in "uncharted territory" in relation to the world climate (see this article of the Guardian from 2017!). And if, really (big) IF the western countries would find a way to deal with the climate crisis (climate change is indeed to euphemistic notion for the situation mankind is in now), there are still a lot of places, where the people are not taking part at the climate strike. The climate strike maps shows, where this spot are.  While Europe and the USA show a lot activity, other parts of the are less busy (at least with striking for the climate): the Arabian countries, Russia, China. I know not all events are covered here, the march I took part yesterday, in Nagoya (covered on a facebook page) is not linked on the map, so it could be more. Also the Kenya-facebook page is not linked, so they are more. But still a lot of people in a lot countries are not on strike (in some countries the people simply can't effort it to strike). But also in the Western (OECD) countries the situation looks bleak. So what to do? One possible way is building up Resilience in different ways. This needs a transformation of our (world-)society and therefore it is a way to build for the future.            

              

Language & Climate Strike (global environment movements,1)

For a political language activist the 20. September seems to be a promising day. Mankind can only solve the climate crisis globally, there is no other way. And here the two folded Janus-faced nature of language(s) is visible: Without language political communication and activation would not be possible, but the multitude of languages can prevent effective global action. At a first glance the situation in the year 2019 looks promising, because with Fridays for Future or 350.org (and others) there is a global movement. But global action for the environment is of course not a new phenomenon: the Earth Day (Wp) is one of the oldest events in connection with a (progressively) global environmental movement. However, looking at the urgency of the problems of global warming (Wp: Portal) or the massive loss of biodiversity (Wp), only to mention the most complex and urgent challenges. And a challenge it is and mankind is failing in spite of efforts of handling the crisis, which started in the 1990 with the Kyoto Protocol (Wp). But according to Naomi Klein, who published with "This change everything" a very substantial book about the shortcomings of the global environment movements, with includes Greenwashing (Wp) and a blind eye to extractivism (Wp). But her central hypothesis is that increasing (economic) Globalization is responsible for the increasing of the problems. Of course there are gains and measures successful in of environment protection, but it is not enough: The economic Globalization is eating up all the gains. And given the complexity of the problem, this comes not as a surprise. Niklas Luhmann was already warning 1986 (in an English translation 1989) of too easy solutions for the complex problems (the review of Klaus Krippendorf give an introduction into the problem). And language is a part of the problem too! How? In three ways:

1. The blocking English  countries
2. The difficulty to organize multiple political organizations (nations)
3. The different patterns of development 

 (1) It is not a coincidence that especially the central governments of the inner circle English countries (USA, UK and Australia, Canada is making an exception, for the concept Wp) are heavily blocking global environmental laws. The main reason is the Media in these countries. See W. Davies, Guardian to this problem also in relation to fake news  and the denial of climate change is one of the most influential fake news around.   
(2) Global states are still organized as if they were sovereign nations, which they are only to certain degree. Superpowers like the USA, Russia or China are of course more independent, but all countries are belonging to several international treaties and organizations. But decision-making process needs time, maybe too much time and they are organized for special political fields, there is no World parliament, which able to influence Global political issues.
(3) In a (almost) perfect world the Western countries, which are the main originators of the global warming, would enable a strong international Organization maybe the OECD ("climate change") to organize an effective international environment policy. But there are lots of other countries, partly very effected by the climate change, and the Western countries could be only the first countries, other have to follow and also here language policy is central.This is one of the reasons, why I am learning an African language now.

              

Using the new language afterwards (Düsseldorf experience, part 2)

Micropolitics of language is language acquisition, which means basically: using a language. Using a language means learning a language, and learning is ideally Using the language in a refined way. Of course it needs also efforts to acquire a language in the country, where the language is spoken. But in general it is much easier to acquire a language in the country, where the language is used: The Düsseldorf experience means for the students: lots of opportunities for using the language (see previous post). But after returning to your home country (in this case Japan) this is gone, it is no longer possible to use the (German-speaking) surrounding for language acquisition or at least for keeping the language level. After returning to ones home-country it needs additional efforts to maintain the language level. I know about what I am talking about, because I learnt Japanese for several years in Germany and it was a constant struggle not to forget too much words. That was in the 1990s and you will find a lot of people on the Internet arguing that the Internet changed this completely. I am not sure about that, at least for maintaining a intermediate (CEFR B-level) of a language some planning is required. I used different kind of movies to learn Japanese. One movie is called Tampopo (Wikipedia about the content) and learned a lot colloquial Japanese, the other was Tokyo story (Wp), which is still partly difficult to understand, because of dialect and old language. The important trick is watching the movie several times and hiding the subtitles. In a German cullture studies class at the Chukyo University I try to show the students how to learn German, using (among others) the movie Labyrinth of lies (Wp). But there are problems:

• Only a few students watch the film in advance (as homework)
• It is not a language class, the aim of the class is (German) culture
• Some basic background knowledge is missing 

But the last problem is actually an chance, because it gives the opportunity to learn something about (German and Austrian) history (we did also "Mahler on the couch", Wp). The students were surprised that German mainstream ignored the (then not named) "Holocaust" (Wp) in the 1950 years and it were the (Frankfurt) Auschwitz trials (Wp) and an American Television drama (called "Hollocaust"), which were responsible for contemporary German "Erinnerungskultur" (Wp). In this context "Using" the German language means expanding ones terminological (vocabulary) basis, by watching Films and reading about historical backgrounds. This helps expanding the vocubulary base for difficult word or concepts and therefore expanding (selectively) ones communication abilities and cultural awareness.      
 

The Brexit Theatre and its linguistic relations

Brexit is about dominance in the public sphere and in this game “language” plays also an important role. For people in other countries, especially in the EU the reactions of the UK government and also of (parts of) the population has been met with puzzlement and total incomprehension: Boris Johnson a campaigner for Brexit is characterized as mad or as a gambler (Spiegel online, international) using (Trumpish) game tactis (Larry Elliot@Guardian, with special consideration to economics). But the tactics of Johnson is not without reasonable calculation, because (important) parts of the public sphere is supporting Johnson: blaming Jeremy Corbyn to be "a chicken" or "a coward" (The Sun) is of course supporting the Brexit stance of Johnson. This picture (Spiegel online) shows headlines of British press, after announcing the suspension of parliament (end of August), subtitling (in German): "The British Press is criticizing PM B. Johnson, which is indeed not entirely the case, reading carefully the (Guardian) comments on the same matter. Important parts of the British press are not hostile to political tactics of B. Johnson fueling Euroscepticism in the UK (Wikipedia) and using (partly) fake news about the EU (Polly Toynbee@Guardian) for his political agenda. How the UK and EU relations will develop in the end, is not the topic of this blog post rather the vital role for English (as lingua franca) for building "European Public Spheres" (book-link). The topic (English) language is not included in the book and plays (almost) no role in the discourse about the Brexit. One telling example about the issue language and Brexit can be found in Politico and shows how language is very often perceived as part of the culture of a nation and the allusion to "Waterloo" in post above isn't subtle at all. These nationalistic patterns leading in it unreflecting parts to stereotypes and in its more agressive parts (Boris Johnson on Youtube) to situations like the Brexit. And the real stunning aspects of the Video above is not the role B. Johnson is playing, his career shows (Wp) that (partly) agressive behaviour is part of his tactics, to orchestrate himself as a alpha-male (Wp).  Real stunning are the reactions to Video framing his behaviour as something laudable. Of course it could be said: Politics is about power. But in dangerous times Politics should be also about framing power and the language of power is playing a crucial in this.                              

Why learning German? (1) The Düsseldorf experience (overview)

There are a lot of reasons to learn German and because of my personal experience as a German teacher or better as a language teacher of German, these reasons will fill several blog posts. But let's start with Düsseldorf, also known as Dusseldorf or also as Duesseldorf. Why do I start with Düsseldorf? Not only because I am there right now, but also because I think I owe the city an article/post. The Chukyo, where I work as an Associate Professor has a study-abroad for four month and this program is carried out, yes, in Düsseldorf! For various reasons the Chukyo is sending the students to the IIK (Institut fuer Internationale Kommunikation):

• Homestay 
• experienced teaching stuff 
• reasonable course fees & a good standard.
• the location Dusseldorf 
• (potential further cooperation) 

  Other languages in our Department (for second language) had home stay (French and Spanish) and especially for a bit shy students the opportunity to have interactions in a familiar atmosphere proved to helpful for language acquisition. The IIK also provides teacher training courses for German as a foreign language. Because I did courses for using online tools at the IIK and after ending the study abroad program in Marburg, we were looking for a new place and decided to (2013) to do it in Dusseldorf at the IIK. While the IIK was more expansive than our Marburg language school, it is definitely cheaper than the Goethe-Institut. OK, the Goethe-Institut is famous, also for German-language education, but the IIK is much cheaper and provides the same standards. The follow the CEFR and have a sophisticated program using CEFR in place. How to describe the location Dusseldorf in brief? Dusseldorf is one of the most international oriented places in Germany, being a traditional trade hub in Germany. That is why Dusseldorf is about to face losses, because of the (possible no deal) brexit. Because I have established strong ties to the IIK in the last years, I always tried to expand our cooperation, one possible project in mind were internship programs for students in Dusseldorf. Until now this did not work out, but the IIK was not responsible for this and I still hope that in the future multilingual programs with the IIK could start.