Dear Richard,
where I come from ‹ comp. lit. ‹ there are no specific foreign language
requirements at Ph.D. level - but for the BA and the MA you have to have
full reading abilities in the Nordic languages, English, German plus at
least one of the main languages (French, most likely).
The reason for this is that ‹ in principle ‹ you have to read all works in
the original. This is an impossible ideal and most canonical literature is
translated. But this is not the case when it comes to the secondary
literature. It always boils down to pragmatics. You can read Don Quixote in
English or Danish for an undergraduate term paper. But you can hardly write
a dissertation without reading the original and without familiarizing
yourself with the Spanish reception.
In design research, as in most fields, the master texts are likely to exist
in English. But design research cannot be reduced to writings on design
alone. No field of research is an island and design research must venture
into related fields. For instance if you want to use Bourdieu, Benjamin,
Foucault, you name it, you can read their works in translation. But in order
to understand the scope and perspective of their thought and position, you
have to know about the intellectual context. You have to have an
understanding of the questions these particular works set out to answer.
Much of this is more or less implied. And you can never trust the
introduction.
The terrible misunderstandings of the thoughts of Jacques Derrida in America
can be explained by this lack of understanding of his context in French
philosophy. We're talking a major disaster here: thousands of people tied up
in fruitless discussions for a decade.
In short, strict language requirements is not just a matter of academic
spielverderberei. It is rather a matter of acknowledging the fact that the
basic tool of academic research is the ability to seek out, read and digest
all relevant information. Only in rare cases will this be possible in a
single language.
À bientôt
Thomas Schødt Rasmussen, Ph.D.
Research Coordinator
Danmarks Designskole
Strandboulevarden 47
2100 København Ø
Denmark
Phone (+45) 3527 7593
Fax (+45) 3527 7601
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