The death of Danish: the fading of the language of Kierkegaard, Andersen, Blixen, Kaaberbøl, and others. From the article:

The Danish National Centre for Foreign Languages (NCFF) estimates that 32 language degree programmes in Denmark have closed over the past five years.

Mette Skovgaard Andersen, director of the NCFF’s unit at the University of Copenhagen, said she was “not certain that we have seen the last programmes to close”.

Denmark “used to be a highly competent country with regard to foreign languages”, she continued, but for many years there has been “a discourse about ‘useless humanities’ and, at the same time, a very explicit national focus on the STEM competences”.

In addition, Danish politicians have been “very focused on promoting English”, which has led to a misconception among young people that other foreign languages were unimportant, Dr Andersen said.…

Anne Holmen, director of the Centre for Internationalisation and Parallel Language Use at the University of Copenhagen, said “a general trend of bashing humanities” because of its perceived low social impact was a factor for the decline of languages, as was a 15-year-old reform of upper secondary school education, which has left ”very little room in students’ schedules for second and third foreign languages”.

“Finally, there is a very strong ideology in Denmark that English is enough [for a person] to be a global player,” Dr Holmen added.

h/t Rob Townsend

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