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February 14, 2012
Swedish funding bodies: 'Apply in English'
Published: 23 Dec 09 09:23 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/24014/20091223/
A number of Swedish organizations that provide research funding have petitioned the Swedish government to require potential recipients to submit their applications in English, a practice that the Swedish Ombudsman of Justice (Justitieombudsmannen) has ruled to be in violation of Swedish language law.
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But the research funding bodies claim that applications in Swedish make it difficult to maintain the desired quality due to the international nature of the research community.
The petitioning organizations include the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (Formas) and the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA).
"Research is international and is becoming all that much more so. Research of the highest scientific quality within the majority of academic disciplines should be evaluated in an international perspective and by international experts - in other languages than Swedish," the organizations write in the petition.
They continue by stating that English is often the lingua franca of the scientific community.
"The background for this (English) language requirement is that the research funding bodies are of the opinion that they cannot achieve their quality requirements, which were established by the Swedish government, if applications are only evaluated by researchers who have mastered the Swedish language."
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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I fully agree with Sweden wanting to keep their language as the main one, as should any country, however as soon as you begin to work in an international arena (outside of Scandinavia) you are more than likely going to benefit from incorporating English to your working practise. I fail to understand why educated people cannot grasp this.
That is one of the main reasons nonswedish speakers have problems in swedish work environments.
English is the lingua franca of international business and education for the most part followed by Spanish......
Its better to face realistic problems with realistic solutions. No one is lining up to learn Swedish outside of Sweden because its going to give them a competitive advantage.
Language doesn't respect legislation or the opinions of experts. It just does develops in its own way regardless.
Think of language development as gravity. Like it, or dislike it, it's still there, and we're all just going to have to deal with it. If you want to avoid language development or gravity, you really have to leave the planet, which perhaps is a good idea for the legislators of the Swedish Language Law 2009.
Sweden exports its greatest commodity, intellectual expertise, all over the world. If at the same time they make it difficult for experts to come to Sweden, the "brain drain" will be catastrophic.
Does it mean that now nobody in Sweden supposes to use English in Swedish organizations? I suggest the authority to close that organization.
Similarly, the language spoken in SAAB Aerospace when I worked for them was English. Swedes who I employed in SAAB had to have excellent English to have any career prospects. All applications for employment by both Swedes and foreigners was in English.
This is not an insult to Sweden or to belittle the language but just recognition of the fact that to expand market penetration beyond Sweden and to attract people with the relevant skills and experience you have to look beyond national boundaries and language
Quebec seems to be the only place that refuses to acknowlege this reality.:-)
@Kevin - People CAN be forced to use a language. It's why we primarily speak English in America and not German. That also goes for Brazil if it wasn't for the government forcing the large German population to speak Portuguese.
However, whenever I speak to classmate in Iran or Pakistan I am forced to use English!
USA is the wealthiest and poweful country in the world (Obama killed a fly and it was an important fact), and English as a second language in all the world, as a by-product of this fact.
In my opinion, language is an instrument for communication and expression. As an instrument, Swedish language has very limited use, so limited that it has to accept English in its different organizations. When you take America and Brazil as an example, don't forget both countries were colonies and their laws imported by UK and Portugal. However, at present there are many states in west US, where Spanish is dominated because of the large number of Spanish speakers and not any organization can works just by English there. Sweden is not a colony; nobody enforced any language on it.
If you look carefully in history, there were always some languages dominated in the world for particular reasons, for example Latin in the whole Europe were the language of Science, church and Law similar to Arabic in east, which was the common language of Science and Law!
In the long run the benefits of speaking english can be imense. The majority of scientific papers are written in English. A good educational system and good command of the English language will put the Sweeds catch up with the fast developing new knowledge in basic science and technology.
Internationally, speaking fluent English could give educated Sweds a competitive advantage.