Interview with Prof. Peter Benz

Ulrike Garde (UG): Thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview. My first question is: How many languages do you speak?

Peter Benz (PB):  I don't really have a precise answer to that. I speak German and English fluently, and I would say more or less equally well. Apart from that, I speak modern Greek reasonably well, and have a rudimentary knowledge of a whole range of languages: mainly Spanish, but also French, Japanese and Cantonese. I learnt Russian at one point, but I wouldn't put my knowledge to the test. I also had nine years of Latin at school.  It's not a spoken language, but it has helped me a lot in my life.

UG: How did you learn these languages?

PB: I grew up in Greece and went to kindergarten where I learnt Greek. Our neighbours were mostly American or English, which is how I learnt English. We spoke German at home. Those were my three first languages. I learnt a few other languages, such as French and Latin, mainly at school.

My mum is Peruvian, but we didn't speak Spanish at home; I picked it up somehow on the side. I started learning other languages, such as Russian, Japanese and Cantonese, by taking courses. After that, it depended on whether I really needed the language in my everyday life: I was able to use Cantonese when I lived in Hong Kong and I still actively use it. Other languages - such as Russian and Japanese - eventually fell by the wayside.

UG: I would love to hear more about this: How do the cultural aspects associated with each language influence your everyday life?

PB: The different cultural influences have played a huge role in my life for a long time. As I said, I grew up in Greece and, more recently, I lived in Hong Kong for 17 years. This means that I have spent more than half of my life abroad, and it was always important to be able to speak the local language at least to some extent to give myself access to the local cultures. But it was also important to be able to speak the language in order to integrate and be a part of a community.

The culture of a country is expressed, among other things, in its language. For example, in Chinese, a tonal language, you can't characterise a question by the pitch of your voice, you have to pronounce the question mark. For example, »Ni hao« means »You good« and is used the same way German uses »Hallo«; »ni hao ma«, on the other hand, means »You good?«. The sound »ma« is simply the question mark, but changes the meaning of the sentence to »how are you? «. Similarly, you can express polite forms in Chinese by adding particles. Ultimately, these forms can be used to express elaborate social constructs in a very efficient and somehow low-threshold linguistic way, but they can also be heard.

It is interesting that, although I only have a basic knowledge of Chinese, I have adopted certain Chinese cultural conventions through the language. I believe that today I actually use my tonality more precisely in German - in the sense of how I formulate certain things depending on the situation - because I learnt this from Chinese. That seems to have rubbed off on me.

UG: Interestingly I had a similar experience with Australian English.

There are also students at the Sprachenzentrum | Centre for Language and Cultural Learning who learn languages primarily for academic or professional reasons. Which brings me to my next question: to what extent do the languages you speak influence your academic and professional experiences?

PB: If I hadn't learnt English, I wouldn't have been able to teach abroad, I wouldn't have earned a professorship, so I wouldn't be where I am today. If I hadn't learnt at least a little Cantonese, I wouldn't have been able to assert myself in my position in Hong Kong and wouldn't have felt comfortable there. So, in a way, professional or academic aspects aren’t really distinguishable from the importance of the language in everyday life. But there is no doubt that language skills were essential for my professional career.

UG: You already speak so many languages. Suppose you wanted to learn another one — how would you go about it?

PB: It depends a little on what I need the language for and why I want to learn it. For example, do I just want to learn it for fun and can I take my time learning it? Or do I need it now, specifically and quickly, because Iam moving somewhere soon? I would probably start by attending a suitable language course. Then I might look for a private instructor.

UG: Let's move our thoughts from the Sprachenzentrum to the larger institution, namely the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. What role does multilingualism play here, and how could multilingualism be promoted in everyday university life?

PB: Unfortunately, it probably doesn't play a big enough role. You can generally survive at the Bauhaus-Universität if you can only speak German. These language skills are completely sufficient for a large proportion of our students and staff. However, for reasons based on my own personal experience, I am convinced that life is made richer through the ability to communicate in multiple languages; it gives you access to the cultural values and experiences I have described.

In this respect, it would indeed be nice to have more multilingualism at university. In a professional or institutional context, English always comes to mind, and while it is a language that I personally enjoy speaking very much, I think it is too easy to use English alone as a characteristic of multilingualism. I’d like to see multilingualism that is actually multilingualism, and by this I mean a fluid change between several languages - for example, from English to Spanish and Russian then Vietnamese – I think that would be even better. I know that's utopian and we'd need a bit more time, but it would be inherently valuable.

UG: I’d like to ask you about languages and creativity. I’ve heard that you like spoons. If every language you speak was a piece of cutlery, which utensil would you associate with which language and why?

PB: Yes, I am indeed an enthusiastic spoon collector, but cutlery isn’t just limited to spoons. So if I consider knives, forks and spoons...

I think I need to clarify here a little. I’m not a particularly musical person; however, when it comes to a language, its sound is very, very important to me. I like Cantonese, for example, but not Mandarin. Although the languages share many similarities, Cantonese, unlike Mandarin, has longer vowels, a wider range of tones, a distinct rhythm, and clearly pronounced endings. I prefer this to the less enunciated sound of Mandarin. I also don't like French or Portuguese for the same reason. So if I were to compare cutlery with languages, then these soft, polished languages would actually be the spoons, with the individual elements merging smoothly into one another. And then there are the forks: these are the languages with peaks, with ups and downs, such as Cantonese. And then, of course, you have to think about what the knives are. I’m not sure about these yet, but there are forks and there are spoons, and at least when it comes to languages, I prefer forks.

UG: Thank you very much. When it comes to literary or cultural works in the languages you speak, are there any pieces in particular that have touched or influenced you? I could imagine wanting to learn German, for example, just to be able to read Kafka in its original language...

PB: In German, for me it is Georg Büchner, especially Leonce und Lena, but also Lenz. I find the linguistic quality of these works fantastic.  

When it comes to English, it’s a bit more superficial. I like English limericks and puns, the wordplay can be done particularly well in this language... In this sense, I have to admit that I still really enjoy the children's books by Dr Seuss, for example Green Eggs and Ham or The Sneetches. It's not great literature, but I find the creative use of very simple language amusing. In Chinese, I like the imagery and its richness; my theory is that the language has evolved in this way because the characters have their origins in pictograms - in images - and that has an effect: Chinese insults are wonderfully rich in imagery.

UG: Thank you so much for sharing these insights with us.