English in Berlin

English in Berlin, by مشترى هلال (Moshtari Hilal)
& சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah)

THE AUTHORS

In 2022, the political geographer சிந்துஜன் வரதராஜா (Sinthujan Varatharajah) and the artist and researcher مشتري هلال (Moshtari Hilal) published their book English in Berlin – Exclusions in a Cosmopolitan Society in both English and German. Hilal (born in Kabul) studied Islamic Studies with a focus on gender, decolonial and cultural studies in Hamburg, Berlin, and London. Her artistic and discursive work focuses on social norms of beauty and ugliness, shame, and power dynamics. Varatharajah (born in Jaffna) is an independent researcher and essayist, who studied Political Geography in London. Their work is centered around the subjects of statelessness, mobilities and geographies of power(lessness).

THE BOOK

English in Berlin is a book of an extraordinary format, which is based on a direct discussion that the two authors held on Instagram Live during the pandemic in 2021. It is part of a series that aims at exchanging knowledge in a horizontal rather than vertical manner. Later, it was extended and edited into a written format, while keeping the shape of a conversation. As the book is a transcription of a direct conversation, it is not organized in chapters, but follows the flow of naturally emerging topics. The following review is thereby restructured in themes, which include inputs of different parts of the original book.

The topic can be placed within the framework of a global critique of elites. The book analyses double standards and criticizes inequalities, based on the authors’ own experiences of living in Germany, and the systematic barriers they faced during their life courses. The authors analyze for whom English-only structures are inclusive or rather exclusive, as well as which languages (and people) are accepted by the German public, and which are not. Furthermore, they discuss how through English infrastructures the city attracts a certain, cosmopolitan group of people and thus generates capital.

Double Standards

The authors critically examine the emergence of an English-speaking infrastructure in Germany’s capital, which allows some people to live their daily lives, including their professional lives, without any knowledge of the German language. The emphasis here is on ‘some’, as this is by far not the case for everyone. For people who went through the asylum system or who do not enjoy visa privileges, German skills are indispensable and an essential criterion for residency, family reunions and much more. The authors share some of their own experiences as non-native German speakers: “‘Here you speak German!!’ […] Many of us were attacked when speaking a language in public that was neither German nor another European colonial language.” (p.116). The acquisition of the German language and willingness to integrate, however, does not seem to be expected from English-speaking expats.

This critique should not be misunderstood, the authors are not concerned with imposing German as the only language. As both German and English are imperialist languages “it’s not about speaking German, but about why English is accepted as the legitimate alternative […] and why an anglophone infrastructure can exist so self-evidently, without being seen as a parallel society” (p.82). These double standards lead Hilal and Varatharajah to raising the question who is included by English in Berlin, and who is excluded. The largest shares of the non-ethnically German population in Berlin are Polish-, Turkish-, Arabic- and Russian-speaking people. However, bilingually communicated information is mostly provided in German and English only. Even the Berliner Zeitung (Berlin Newspaper) offers information in English, French and Italian – but not in in languages spoken by most immigrants.

Cosmopolitanism & Capitalist Interests

Whereas most of the foreign-born population would benefit much more from the institutionalization of other languages into the public sphere, the question is who benefits from English in Berlin? In search of an answer, the authors zoom into the concept of cosmopolitanism, which they define as an “ideology of so-called world citizenship; a view on the world that people take up who can move geographically without restrictions” (p.111). English infrastructures in Berlin help to attract people who live a cosmopolitan lifestyle, “belonging to a mobile class that moves beyond the regime of borders and linguistic barriers but is able to settle” (p.111). As mobility is related to class, these people are moreover often financially privileged, and consume in a certain way. Thus, English infrastructures in Berlin serve capitalist interests and the generation of profit for businesses and the state.

As a result of these exclusively English-speaking infrastructures, (public) spaces often do not meet the linguistic needs of the local or majority population, but rather those of capital intense people who might be there only for a limited amount of time. According to the authors, businesses and cultural spaces that provide their services exclusively in English can mostly be found in gentrified areas, which includes seemingly progressive businesses and events. However, these often completely exclude the local population, which is “alienating, excluding and classist, and has racist connotations” because those who are excluded often belong to the lower classes and / or are of specific ethnic origins. Controversially, especially cultural institutions that offer for instance exhibitions are mainly funded by taxes and public money. Hilal and Varatharajah question that financial resources benefitting public spaces benefit the local public.

Representation & Competition

Another issue connected to language and migration is the topic of representation and competition. Most internationals with advanced English skills in Berlin grew up rather privileged within the higher social classes. The authors point out that these ‘mobile classes’ of the Global South are often invited to represent a world that they are most likely not representative for. And even though these people might belong to racialized groups, they experience a different reality than racialized working-class people do.

There is a limited amount of progressive and anti-racist spaces, however, the presented perspectives on topics as racism or classism from are often provided by expats with a certain linguistic and economic capital. “Competition arises from the artificial scarcity of representation of non-white people in Germany” (p.86), and the represented perspectives are often very far away from the realities in Berlin and the rest of Germany. The authors conclude that these debates reproduce linguistically excluding hegemonies in which “English is used as a shortcut to inclusivity, […] an illusion of inclusivity” (p. 117).

PERSONAL COMMENT

The book addresses an important issue that many people who consider themselves as progressive (including me) were not yet familiar with. The authors critically point out a colonial, hegemonic hierarchy of languages and its connections to social class and capitalism in the context of Berlin. The format of the book makes a supposedly complicated topic very accessible, and it is extremely interesting and inspiring to follow Hilal and Varatharajahs’ lines of thought throughout the book.

Seeing the English infrastructures of Berlin as a branding strategy that promotes the generation of capital and generates a false sense of inclusivity highlights and explains problematic double standards in Germany. I am impressed by the sharp reasoning and critical approaches of the authors, and I am looking forward for more content of both.