Quo Vadis Altertumswissenschaft? The Command of Foreign Languages and the Future of Classical Studies

This paper discusses the question of whether the “internationalization” of science means that students of Classics in the broadest sense, who have long been multilingual, must now in the twenty-first century are obligated to write in English, even if not all of us can adequately express our thoughts in the language of Shakespeare. In order to be noticed at all in the Anglo-American world, scientific publications increasingly have to appear in English, regardless of the language skills of the authors. Native English speakers, on the other hand, no longer consider it necessary to read in other languages and they thus run the risk of reinventing the wheel. In addition, criticism is levelled at national research policies in European countries that carelessly abandon their own languages in favor of the dominant tongue (not always used with complete accuracy). This paper argues in favor of multilingualism.