LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Chetana Nagavajara*
Preamble
Please allow me to preface my talk with a few explanatory and precautionary
remarks. I know that I am addressing an assembly of English- language teachers,
and my credentials may not quite fit in with the occasion: I served as Professor of
German at Silpakorn University until my retirement, (although I may have taught
English at certain points of my professional career.) But to seek leave to resort to an
autobiographical approach is not necessarily a kind of self-indulgence, and you will
soon find out how this relates to the topic of my address. Although I took a Ph.D. from
a German University, it was the British who first taught me German. Most of the
professors and lecturers in German at Cambridge University, where I studied for my
first degree in Modern Languages, had served in the Second World War. They had
fought the Germans. But I never heard a single nasty word about the Germans. On
the contrary they were doing their best to convince their students of the value of
studying German language, culture and literature. For me, I was convinced, and did
not take long to make up my mind to cross over to Germany for my graduate studies.
Conviction is the key word, and I consider it worthwhile to share that conviction with
my colleagues in the field of English-language teaching in the hope that crosscultural
experiences of this kind are transferable. The present speech is an extension
* Professor Dr.Chetana Nagavajara
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ปที่ 1 ฉบับที่ 1 เดือนกรกฎาคม-ธันวาคม 2552
2
and an elaboration of an earlier paper in German, which I delivered at the GoetheInstitut
in Munich on 9 May 2006, of which an English version is also available under
the title 4On the Power, Powerlessness and Omnipotence of Language: From Oral
Culture through Written Culture to Media Domination5.1
The paper has been
distributed to the members of the audience, and I shall refer to it occasionally. It
contains memorable quotations which I have found convincing and which I would like
to share with you.