Lithuanians brace to protect language from EU

VILNIUS – There are worries in Lithuania about preserving national identity, especially language, after the country joins the European Union. Meanwhile, Brussels is trying to reassure Lithuanians that the EU is not a melting pot of nations.

Is EU membership threatening the Lithuanian language? Danguole Mikuleniene, head of the Lithuania's state language commission, thinks so.

"There is a big danger. However, Lithuania cannot be a kind of reservation in Europe," Mikuleniene said.

She emphasized that all languages of EU member countries are official languages of this union. At the same time, Mikuleniene stressed that her commission should stand guard for the Lithuanian language.

"It is important that the Lithuanian language would dominate in all spheres of the country's life. All computer programs must be translated into Lithuanian," Mikuleniene said.

She said that her commission has no fear of foreign firms coming to Lithuania.

"Foreign firms send their directors to work in Lithuania. But usually they work for one year. Then the firm finds a local director for its Lithuanian branch. The foreign director communicates with staff through interpreters and translators. Foreign firms are obliged by our commission to translate all their interior paper work into Lithuanian," Mikuleniene said.

The commission ensures that the Lithuanian language would rule everywhere in the country. However, sometimes it makes exceptions.

There is a poster in the windows of the National Theater. It is written in English only. It invites patrons to come to the performance of "Shopping and Fucking" staged by the theater company of director Oskaras Korsunovas. All other posters in these windows are either in Lithuanian or bilingual – Lithuanian and English.

"Our commission did not protest against this poster. I have seen this performance. It speaks about Western realities that are not characteristic to our society. It would be difficult to translate this title preserving its style," Mikuleniene said.

Some politicians say that her commission is not radical enough. Stanislovas Buskevicius, leader and the only MP of the Lithuanian National Party "Young Lithuania," promised street demonstrations against the commission. His anger was caused by fact that the commission does not look for Lithuanian replacements for all words of foreign origin. Buskevicius said he does not like word kompiuteris (computer).

He said Lithuanians should follow the example of Iceland, whose language has not a single word of foreign origin. Buskevicius used as an example the word krepsinis that Lithuanians use for basketball.

The future of the Lithuanian language and problems with national identity were discussed during a meeting between Vilnius University students and Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, on Feb. 11. The discussion in the Big Hall of the ancient university was held in English.

"Why do we speak English? Isn't the EU a danger to our national identity," asked one student.

"We can speak Italian," Prodi said smiling and provoking a laugh from the students. Later he became serious and tried to reassure students that the Lithuanian identity and language will have the same respect as the national identities and languages of other EU members.

"You hear my accent. I'm Italian. In my office I speak English. But nobody can force me to speak any language but Italian when I come to the European Parliament. The longer I live in Brussels, the more Italian I feel. We have interpreters," Prodi said. "When new countries will join we'll need more interpreters. For example, the EU will need interpreters and translators from Lithuanian to Maltese."