Ahead of the expected onslaught against ‘EU English’ starting 1 January with the French presidency, I’d like to make a suggestion:

Continental European countries should stop teaching English as a ‘foreign’ language.

Hear me out (🧵1/8) languagemagazine.com/2021/06/09/fre…
Right now foreign languages are taught tied in with a country’s culture

So when I learned French in high school, textbook examples were all ‘Jean-François is buying a baguette in Paris’

When Europeans learn English it’s all ‘John Smith is preparing a cup of tea in London’ (2/8)
But why not teach English as something that isn’t ‘foreign’?

Why not teach it as a communication tool used to speak to people from the other countries in 🇪🇺 and beyond?

Dare I say it, why not teach it as a ‘federal’ communications tool? (3/8)
What would that look like?

Well, for an Italian in secondary school learning English, her textbook wouldn’t give the example of John Smith sipping tea in London, but of Francesco attending university in Athens speaking to his Latvian friend Kristaps. (4/8)
English doesn’t belong to 🇬🇧 or🇺🇸 like French belongs to 🇫🇷 or German belongs to 🇩🇪.

English now belongs to the 🌍. It’s the most widely-spoken language on Earth, and is spoken by about half of EU citizens, the vast majority speaking it as a 2nd language. (5/8) Image
I understand the European (most pronounced in 🇫🇷) discomfort with English being the EU’s lingua franca.

But what if we disconnected English from its cultural associations with 🇬🇧🇺🇸? What if young EU citizens learned English as a communications tool that they can own? (6/8)
Historically, languages evolve and can move from one culture to another.

Latin evolved from being a language of a tiny area around Rome to the language of almost all Western Europe, then diverging into different varieties. It was spoken well after the demise of the Roman Empire
Same with Greek for Eastern Med.

IMHO it’s a modern post-Westphalian nation-state preoccupation to innately connect language and culture.

Language is a tool. English is a tool already used by half of EU citizens. Europeans should see English as key to ever-closer Union. (🧵8/8)

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More from @DaveKeating

8 Aug
It's weird that the 3 countries that had a dramatic initial surge in #vaccinations now have, 6 months later, among the highest new #Covid19 infection rates in the world.

I honestly don't know what to make of that. Overconfidence leading to ending restrictions too early?
To be clear, it's not that 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇬🇧 currently have the highest #vaccination rates. Not by a long shot.

What sets these 3 apart is that their export bans and special pharma deals gave them an early surge.

But then they slowed, and are now seeing #Covid19 cases climb.
Do we need to be worried about countries with full vaccination rates of total population over 50% (US hit that threshold this week) seeing cases climb? It looks like we do.

It isn't just non-urgent cases. Figures are hard to come by, but this is current Covid hospitalisations:
Read 4 tweets
7 Aug
The world's oldest constitutional democracy

An archaic governing structure that is undemocratic by design is being used by one party to subvert elections & attempt to seize power not through force, but by using the country's broken & outdated constitution
"There are so many places in which someone can try to mess with our system"

"It's not just that we don't have a national popular vote, it's that the mechanics we use to send state votes to electoral college gives lots of room for" overturning the result. msnbc.com/all-in/watch/e…
"The principles that we claim as our national creed: self-determination, freedom, liberty and democracy" contradict "our founding document [that] has a complicated relationship to democracy and self-rule," says Chris Hayes. open.spotify.com/episode/3oaCRa…
Read 8 tweets
5 Aug
Republican governors are flailing, trying to deflect blame as their states see #Covid19 cases and hospitalisations skyrocket to new records.

Florida’s governor, eyeing a presidential run, is inexplicably blaming the surge in his state on immigrants.
Governor DeSantis has demonised masks and social distancing, scoffed at vaccination, completely opened his state and banned private companies from imposing vaccine mandates on employees.

Florida now has the highest hospitalisation rate of any time since the pandemic began.
The Republicans eyeing 2024 presidential runs are trying to outdo each other with sounding tough against vaccination mandates, masks & social distancing.

As DeSantis says, Democrats at federal & city level are fighting him, trying to save people’s’ lives.
apnews.com/article/health…
Read 4 tweets
22 Jul
Ludicrous. Johnson and his government were told how difficult enforcing a customs border within the UK would be, including by people in his own party.

It’s the reason Theresa May said this is something no UK leader could do. But Johnson pushed ahead anyway.
There were only bad solutions to the "Brexit trilemma" - a consequence of the UK government's choice for an extreme form of Brexit in which the country left the customs union in addition to the single market.

A customs border had to go somewhere. Johnson chose option A. Image
May chose option C, which would have eventually kept al UK in customs union with EU if no solution could be found.

Johnson rejected that and chose option A. It's far less disruptive than B, because a few ports and an airport are easier to police than 350 separate land crossings.
Read 4 tweets
18 Jul
The EU starting letting in Americans last month. But the US is still banning Europeans from entering, and providing no scientific justification for the continued restrictions.

The EU is now more vaccinated than the United States. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
"Diplomats say that the Biden administration has given no indication when it might reverse the [travel ban] on the Schengen zone...even as vaccination rates tick up and scientific evidence suggests little efficacy in the ban."
The culprit is apparently the Biden administration's fear of even introducing the concept of requiring vaccination for anything, including for travel into the US, Politico reports (h/t @CeliaBelin) politico.com/news/2021/07/1…
Read 5 tweets
18 Jul
Dominic Cummings, @BorisJohnson’s chief advisor until November, says the PM told him when it comes to #COVID19 restrictions he “doesn’t believe in any of this”.

“I wish I’d been the mayor in Jaws and kept the beaches open” Cummings claims Johnson said.
The revelation comes as Johnson is refusing to self-isolate after one of his ministers tested positive, as members of the public are required to do.

Tomorrow is “Freedom Day” in the UK, when Johnson has instructed the country to completely reopen.
news.sky.com/story/pm-and-s…
Well, that was quick.

After massive public backlash about one rule did the British elites and another foe the rest of society, they’ve u-turned and announced Johnson *will* self-isolate.
Read 4 tweets

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