The education system in Germany currently tries to teach young children British English. While I thought that B.E. is not so popular at all, the main problem is that not everybody will work for an IT company in his forthcoming life, so basically he should be taught to speak good German when talking to other Germans.
I just can't stand my fellow men talking Denglish all day. It is, surely, a culture loss.
Tuxman, Deutsch should absolutely be taught as the primary language of Deutschland! Any other should only be taught as a secondary. I can completely understand your frustration that your language is being mongrel-ized with English. We have similar, though not identical, problems in the U.S.
Standards are alright, but the language I communicate in is not standardized, it is chosen individually. The new German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, forced a scandal when a British journalist wanted to ask him in English during a German press conference and he just said "we're in Germany here". Now try to imagine the other way: A German journalist trying to talk German to an English politician in England (or, let's say, the States). What would you say?
A media company should not send a correspondent to any country if they can not communicate in that country's native language. It is appalling to me that such a thing would happen.
Standards are absolutely necessary. That is the best way for a product be made accessible to the most people.
Still talking about arrogance? Oh, come on!
Sorry about that. Don't know what you've heard, but there are a great, great many of us here who absolutely despise that man.
Crush and all, thanks for ignoring my rant.
