“Ethno-nonsense”? Language and citizenship
In a refreshingly vivacious interview (“You’ve got to swing your hips!”), German author Feridun Zaimoglu, pioneer of the “Kanak” school of fiction, talks about language as the key to political participation (the interview is available in Eurozine in English and German):
Ali Fathollah-Nejad: But politics is only possible through participation. Yet in our society there aren’t that many people with a non-German background who take part in public discourse.
Feridun Zaimoglu: That’s changing.
Ali Fathollah-Nejad: But it can only be changed through education?
Feridun Zaimoglu: It can be changed above all by means of the German language. For the sake of the children’s future we shouldn’t moan about German being compulsory. That’s yet another piece of ethno-nonsense. (more…)
