This class discusses the social, cultural, and historical background of European languages and English, (and comparing them with phenomena in Japan).
So far, the main topic was the historical background in European area considering their languages, nations, and industries.
Recent weeks, our discussion on European languages developed the topics into social institutions and multinational corporation.
We investigate how entities such as multinational companies manage to organize their communication in terms of languages amid personnel in their various locations.
The key might be the “English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)”. “ELF” means “English as a lingua franca (English used as a shared language of communication between people whose main languages are different)” according to Oxford Learners Dictionaries (https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/elf_2).
The introduction about different communication (styles) within Japanese companies located in Europe from my own experience added to the topic in this opportunity.
(Hoping that students can imagine working abroad or working in global companies by collaborating with personnel from diverse backgrounds all over the world.)
We will further explore the discussion from the aspect of the role of English in a multilingual as well as plurilingual socies in coming weeks.
