As the Kosovo Report has put it, ‘[a]ny assessment of conflict involving ethnic identity requires delicate treatment of language.1’ No doubt, language often plays an undeniable role in ethnic conflicts, which signifies its importance in defining one’s national, or that in a broader sense, ethnic identity. In this paper, we shall examine the links between these two.

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Everyday experiences tell us that boys and girls talk differently. In terms of intention, boys, for instance, tend to use language to top each other, while girls tend to use it to show that they are actually the same. In terms of body behavior during conversations, boys tend to move around and avoid direct eye contact, while girls tend to be more focused and look at each other in the eyes. In terms of the words used in conversations, boys tend to use more technical jargons, whereas girls tend to explain ideas in more layman terms.

These differences are often misunderstood as boys’ being aggressive or inattentive, but as we will see, many of them can actually be explained and thus understood in a more neutral way.

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When one gets in touch with a new language, the first thing that catches his attention is probably the alphabet. The German alphabet consists of all the 26 letters from the English alphabet, together with 4 additional letters, namely die Umlaute ä, ö, ü and das scharfes s ß, which only exists in lowercase. Here is the complete alphabet,

a ä b c d e f g h I j k l m n o ö p q r s t u ü v w x y z ß
A Ä B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Ö P Q R S T U Ü V X Y Z

Pronunciation of the German language is rather consistent, meaning that every word is pronounced more or less as its spelling suggests. For instance, ‘a’ is always pronounced as ‘ah’ in bar when it is long and as ‘a’ in man when it is short. There are several sounds in German which English speakers may find interesting. For example, the German ‘r’ sound is more guttural and produced at the back of the throat, which is quite different from the English one. In addition, the German ‘ch’ often causes English speakers severe problems as it does not occur naturally in the English language, and varies in sound depending on its position in the word and the sound which precedes it.

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