Comments on: What did Angela Merkel really say?

By: sunchris1979

sunchris1979 — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 21:27:00 +0000

Thanks for this article. I grew suspicious about the reports on this speech when I tried to Youtube her speech and could only find this small part. Is there any chance you could post a full English translated version of this speech and put it on Youtube? I think it would be very important for people to see how the press and our leaders are misleading us.

By: Has Multiculturalism failed Canada too? | You are messing with my Zen

Has Multiculturalism failed Canada too? | You are messing with my Zen — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 03:50:11 +0000

[…] October, where she says “Multikulti ist absolut gescheitert” (according to this blog it has been misinterpreted by the English-speaking media), ”Multiculturalism has […]

By: Nationalism vs. multiculturalism | languageforthought

Nationalism vs. multiculturalism | languageforthought — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:47:46 +0000

[…] (On Multikulti vs. multiculturalism, see: http://languageonthemove.com/language-globalization/what-did-angela-merkel-really-say.) […]

By: Agi Bodis

Agi Bodis — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 06:28:23 +0000

Hi Ingrid, thanks for the link. I must admit, I followed this on AlJazeera, which didn’t elaborate on multikulti either but had a person from Germany comment on the events – it didn’t help though, I remember he carried on Merkel’s comment on guest workers overstaying when in fact they were supposed to leave and in English it did come across as quite blunt. I looked up the report in Hungarian too (only one version) and it uses both the terms multikulti and multiculturalism, I assume interchangeably but explains it as “Germans and immigrants can live side by side but completely isolated”. Still a weak translation, I’m afraid – if the German version was used at all.
In any case, this mistaken translation got picked up by David Cameron too a couple of months later, I assume.

By: Xiaoxiao Chen

Xiaoxiao Chen — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:16:32 +0000

Once taken out of the context where the utterance occurs, it can become something totally different from what it is meant to be. Ingrid’s post points to a problem that persists in international news reporting but hasn’t not taken seriously by journalists, who tend to make a fuss about some remarks by excluding its context or circumstances, either to make up some news stuff or to serve a certain purpose (i.e. to fit it into their framework of news reporting that cannot be averted).

By: C L O S E R raquo; Blog Archive raquo; Closing the week 42 #8211; Featuring the dying of the multicultural light

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:49:27 +0000

[…] What did Angela Merkel really say?Language on the Move | Language on the Move If you read English-language news, you could be forgiven for thinking that Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel recently came out strongly against multiculturalism and immigration. You could be forgiven, but you’d be wrong! […]

By: Soren

Soren — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 06:37:48 +0000

“Multikulti” was the dream of the German Greens. However, “Multikulti” has served the German right well as a bogeyman. Helmut Kohl used it to mobilize the far right vote. His minister of internal affair Kanther would have rather committed suicide in a bunker than face Germany’s multicultural reality. Some of Angela Merkel’s colleagues in the smaller allied Christian Social Party have used “multikulti” as a synonym for international crime (e.g., former Bavarian minister for internal affairs Beckstein). The Social Democrats have rarely or never used the term “multikulti” even if their policy was to create a more realistic approach to migration. If Angela Merkel says that “multikulti has failed” you have to ask how something that never existed can fail. The only existence that “multikulti” has is as her party’s bogeyman. Of course, the multikulti bogeyman has failed. Now if someone in Australia translates the German MultiKulti with multiculturalism, they lack imagination and knowledge.

By: Multikulti in context – Society for Linguistic Anthropology

Multikulti in context – Society for Linguistic Anthropology — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:26:49 +0000

[…] Piller at Language on the Move looks and English-medium news coverage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent […]

By: Peter Ives

Peter Ives — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 03:42:04 +0000

Thanks Ingrid, great point. Canada’s Globe and Mail did try to contextualize it a bit noting that ‘multikulti’ does not mean Canadian style official multiculturalism, but at least this editorial also ignored her statement that Islam is part of Germany (although that was reported in the main news story but only after the more ‘news worthy’ focus on multiculturalism having failed. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/germanys-multikulti-straw-man/article1766085/

By: vahid

vahid — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:48:16 +0000

Thank you, Ingrid!

Your post is a tangible piece of evidence against Hegel’s characterisation of reading the morning newspaper as the prayer of the realist. Today reading a newspaper is anything but a neutral exercise; rather, people hole up in their private spheres, into which meaning is constantly injected by the omnipresent media that simulate reality.

Health Peace,
vahid

By: Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江

Kimie Takahashi 高橋君江 — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:28:37 +0000

Thanks, Ingrid, for this. When I first read the SMH article, I was really puzzled. Not that I am following that closely to German politics, but the report just didn’t fit my image of Chancellor Merkel that I had formed in the past year. One commenter on Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies Facebook group says the damage to her image that has been done by this type of international article cannot be undone. Meanwhile I googled the topic in Japanese and found that it’s been widely reported as well. For example, MSN Sankei News on Merkel’s comment does include German President Christian Wulff’s comment as pretext and concludes with the objection from the UK Financial Times that “multiculturalism is not dead but needs more effort”, opposing “誤ったメッセージになりかねないメルケル発言 (Merkel’s message that could be misunderstood). http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/europe/101019/erp1010192125014-n2.htm

By: Jenny Zhang

Jenny Zhang — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:39:14 +0000

This blog post reminds me of an old Chinese proverb: 差之毫厘，谬以千里（A mininal error results in weld divergence ） I cant help thinking how present international politics and world opinions are influenced by intentional and unintentional language errors.