European multilingualism
This issue 14/2025 contains only contributions by the editor.
This unusual circumstance can be explained by the fact that, unplanned, a new topic became topical for me, for which I was not sufficiently prepared due to my previous education: European multilingualism. Extensive reading, some of which opened up new perspectives, was essential.
In addition, two essays intended for publication in specialist journals were not approved by the reviewers. One of the two essays was incorporated in part into the first essay on "European multilingualism". The other essay, "The growth of European students into an unknown European language", appears here in unchanged form. Readers may judge for themselves whether it is perhaps of interest after all.
FIRST PART
Is multilingualism a linguistic topic? Yes and no! Yes, insofar as it has to do with language(s). No, insofar as it also has to do with phenomena of human life - with atmospheres, situations, affective evidence - about which linguistics can say nothing. The reason for this ambivalence can be seen in the fact that, in addition to the functional multilingualism that we use for certain purposes, there is also affective multilingualism. This does not (only) refer to colloquial expressions of power, but to the subjectively affecting encounter with a language that takes hold of me atmospherically and makes me suddenly realize: This belongs to me!
Making affective multilingualism plausible as a way of becoming European presupposes a different way of acquiring a language. Both the attitude of the learners and the way they deal with the respective language must be clearly differentiated from the situation in normal school lessons. Accordingly, the expectations and the methodological approach of how and which skills are aimed for must be redefined.
As in previous issues of impEct, I am also documenting occasional texts in issue 14. These include two essays that I wrote at the invitation of Togliatti / Tolyatti State University (RUS). In response to the proposal aimed at European students to become a "global market personality", I argue that in order to develop a personality within the framework of higher education, it is necessary to find oneself within a culturally oriented situational framework. For Europeans, these are different styles of Europeanization that relate to the European type of civilization.
Europe is an integral part of the curriculum in German schools. But what is meant by the term "Europe"? How are pupils and students supposed to gain their own experience of the term beyond narratives (today often called 'discourses')? Even educators cannot answer this question convincingly because it is approached from an abstract conceptual level. For this reason, a suggestion is made as to how so-called implanting situations can enable subjectively affecting experiences.
SECOND PART
Messages
The reflections on how three sayings of ancient Greek wisdom that I have referred to on various occasions can be made fruitful for the present intersected with the news (which for some inexplicable reason did not come to my attention) of the death of Julitta Münch in 2020. In the essay on "European multilingualism", I refer to this extraordinary woman of enlightenment. I also dedicate the following obituary to her:
My texts, which are not occasional papers, will in future receive the DOI identifier and - with a certain time delay - be stored at ORCID. It is also intended to transfer these texts to "Hyper Articles en Ligne", in short: HAL Archive ouverte / HAL Open Science.
The publisher
Werner Müller-Pelzer
Dortmund, September 2025