Eurenglish

Lisa and I both work in organizations where English is the lingua franca but the mother tongue of very few.  While most speak English very well, much better than we speak German, they are unwitting participants in the development of an unofficial dialect, Eurenglish, a term I first heard from a friend, Rick Mowrer, a fellow American and professional English/German language instructor and translator.   During a recent visit from his home in Berlin, Rick brought to our attention an anthology written three years ago by Jeremy Gardner, a senior translator at the European Court of Auditors.   Mr. Gardner’s entertaining treatise, “A Brief List of Misused English Terms in E.U. Publications,” struck a chord with us because many of his examples are not just usages that we’ve read or heard first hand, we’ve experienced them so frequently that we’ve begun to question ourselves regarding the correct usage.  The line between English and Eurenglish has begun to blur.   If you’re not sure what I mean, consider the following paragraph in which I’ve used several of Mr. Gardner’s examples to illustrate my point.

“Eurenglish is not something we foresee, it is actual.  Concerning this, one should aim at deepening the language competences of non-native speakers.  A starting point would be to obtain seed corn money to develop a training course which would include testing though which the progress of the students could be controlled.  It is important to incite everyone to take this seriously as it will help to improve communication and planification.  In the frame of this goal it may even be possible to valorize the results.” 

If you live here, whether or not English is your native language, that probably made sense to you.  Otherwise, likely not.