An introduction to the course and to the various topics we will be covering.

Week 2 - A brief introduction to Europe

Where did the alphabet come from and why is English the lingua franca today? How did people communicate before English? Why do tribes in the Pacific speak some Spanish? Why does Brazil speak Portuguese? This week we will cover these and many more issues in a very brief introduction to the history of Europe.

Week 3 - Introduction to the various languages spoken in Europe today

Now that we have looked at the history of Europe it should be much easier to trace back where all the various languages come from. We will look at languages from various countries and you will be finding out what languages might be related and how. We will talk about English in particular, as a lingua franca and as global language. But we will also talk about other languages that were also, once upon a time, as key as English is today. We will also look at the importance of languages, how they have helped to spread key movements in Europe (mostly religion) and how they can be controlled by those ruling to ensure that certain policies are successful. We will also look at odd languages, those that no-one knows where they come from, such as Basque.

Week 4 - Cross-cultural comunication

What is the link between a language and a culture? Is there a link? Do we all think the same way? These are some of the issues we will be exploring this week. We will focus on cultures and on theories that try to deconstruct aspects of cultures to understand what exactly differentiates a French person from a Swede. In particular we will talk about Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. You will explore various European cultures and find examples of how Europeans are indeed different. We will come back to these during the last four weeks of the semester.

From week 5 we will be talking about a different country (or group of countries) every week, this will include an introduction to their languages.