Arguing against the prejudice of the Dutch in the lecture theaters


"With the clerical staff we spoke Flemish," says the Brussels elite who have experienced. Clerical Staff slept under the cam and worked in the basement. Ladies and gentlemen lived between attic and cellar, and spoke French to each other.

Flemings who wanted to count in that good Belgium could study, in French. Dutch was not suitable for higher education or science.

 

Dutch education was only admitted in 1932 in the faculty of law of the Gent university.

Result was that the elites in Belgium, also the Flemings among them, until after the Second World War were or were speaking. The consequences of this now unimaginable language discrimination will still feel, in social relations and in the policy.

The Dutch language rights that the Flemings over half a century ago have acquired after great struggle, they are not soon decrease.

 

The Dutch universities was half a century ago remains an industry the Dutch.

Everyone spoke Dutch, also teachers and students from abroad, that there were already low. Dutch counted international in the academic disciplines and business, they knew three other modern languages and were appreciated. After 5 centuries step-by-step development of the Dutch to culture and wetenschapstaal which could measure with other European languages, was suddenly free end of last century a different path. Do not go back to the Latin, but forward to the English.

What were the motives of those who worked and this envelope which they borrowed their insights? It was the managers, often old-farmers or businessmen, the university colleges of governance went manning, and the traditional authority of the professors supplanted? The tijdgeesten groups welcomed globalisation and privatisation, also of education. Liberals spoke of it in the market position of the university, which the product engineers, doctors, lawyers, and doctorandussen did for the world market.

The majority of the political class tolerated this policy, even though it was contrary to the law and had to loosen the ties with the Dutch society.

An extreme example is the Maastricht university. Maastricht uses the slogan 'English, unless ... ' and belittles the report 'Dutch, unless ... ' of the KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences). The university writes "on the road to a international academy" are: administration and management speak English and also teachers and students are supposed to speak English.


We shall not ask for the quality of the education that is under pressure and almost all interested parties with a language which is not theirs. For what market this university prepares the mainly Dutch students, is not clear. In The Netherlands The majority will find work, and that is hard to have to adjust the language.


More and more Dutch and Flemish cultural and scientific organizations are worried and wish that the Dutch fully returning in the lecture halls.


It is not desirable that Dutch universities the future intellectuals training in English, in the Netherlands in broken English or broken English to function. Help! ... the doctor, the right or even the minister speak a kind of English, want the Dutch yet not experience?


Students must therefore in their own country in their own language can study and tests do, even if it is anno 2008 not more the case for most courses in The Netherlands.


'Europe' should also be concerned about the diligence in The Netherlands the academic Dutch is aborted. That development leads to cultural uniformity and monolingual and stands in contradiction to the political project 'Europe', and the socio-cultural model that Europe with the emphasis on cultural and linguistic diversity and multilingualism. If the Dutch example in more European countries would be followed, that would lead to ongoing political onlust and unrest.

(Author: Jan Roukens)

 

Jan Roukens is board member of the foundation for Dutch. He is coordinator of the congress on 'Dutch in higher education and in the science', that the foundation for Dutch and the associations NL-Term and General Dutch Alliance (ANV)) on 10 October in the Flemish Parliament in Brussels.


This opiniebijdrage was previously published in Transfer (www.transfermagazine.nl), the journal on the internationalisation of higher education and research in the Netherlands.


From a inventariserend research that Albert Oosterhof (UGent) last year in job exported Cultural Convention of the Commission shows that in The Netherlands, in the Grensregio Vlaanderen-Nederland masterfase half or more of the education in the English language. On the Flemish universities, the share of the English (typically) more limited and it is also the most recent years (relatively) limited increased.


More info about the congress (program and tenders): WWW.stichtingnederlands.nl/aanmelding2.html

 

 


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Author: Jan Roukens

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