# Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world

Naomi Truan

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## To cite this version:

Naomi Truan. Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world. International Journal of Multilingualism, 2025, pp.1-20. 10.1080/14790718.2024.2443154. halshs-04907824

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Submitted on 23 Jan 2025

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Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French
speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of
distinction in a globalised world

Naomi Truan

**To cite this article:** Naomi Truan (22 Jan 2025): Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world, *International Journal of Multilingualism*, DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2024.2443154

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2024.2443154

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Published online: 22 Jan 2025.

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# Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world

Naomi Truan

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden, Netherlands

## ABSTRACT

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between language ideologies, elite multilingualism, and the identity of migrants with a focus on L2 speakers of German. Relying on interviews with the Francophone community in Berlin, I show that two main language ideologies circulate: ‘language as a skill’ vs ‘language as an identity marker’. While these ideologies may seem opposite, I argue that both are in fact shaped by dominant language ideologies around German being hard to learn. Even if the argumentation differs, in both cases, becoming a speaker of German enables the interviewees to profile themselves as different from other non German-speaking communities. Both ideologies are a reaction to English as a dominant language that can be traced back to early metadiscourses on foreign language learning in French schools. Ultimately, I suggest that both positions correspond to elite multilingualism in which learning and using German works as a means of distinction in a globalised world.

## ARTICLE HISTORY

Received 26 August 2023
Accepted 4 December 2024

## KEYWORDS

language ideologies; elite multilingualism; French; German; migration

## 1. Introduction

*Because you hear a lot of prejudices*

*German is hard German is ugly and everything*

— Aurélia, 18 years old

What Aurélia (all names have been changed), 18 year old who moved to Berlin one year prior to the interview, describes in the introductory quote resorts to widespread language ideologies around German – clichés as old as Mark Twain’s popular essay *The Awful German Language* (Twain, 1880). This perception, which is extremely frequent in the narratives of the French speakers living in Berlin which build the core of this study, is important to understand how the perception of German as ‘hard’ (Andersson, 1998) and ‘ugly’ (Giles & Niedzielski, 1998) allows these speakers to perform ‘elite multilingualism’, a term that relates to the historical prestige associated with the learning of one or several foreign languages by members of the educated classes (Edwards, 2006, p. 26; Barakos & Selleck, 2019). Elite multilingualism refers to the knowledge of another world

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language or colonial language (here German next to French) which may be seen as a resource or a tool that can be acquired and then made visible and beneficial on the job market (Yeung & Gray, 2022). This ideology corresponds to 'language as a skill' (Heller, 2005) and 'language as a tool' (Polzenhagen & Dirven, 2004). In this view, language is seen as a commodity (Heller, 2010), and the relationship to the acquired language is governed by usefulness and impact. On the other hand, language may be seen as an identity marker. Learning a new language is then framed as a matter of personal preference to foster belonging to the chosen country of migration while resisting the neoliberal agenda – in the case of German, by opposing the learning of German to metadiscourses of linguistic imperialism around English (Phillipson, 1992). German is then learnt in lieu of English (often not next to it), as a specialised resource less commodified on global job markets and having local value. An implicit contrast pervades these ideologies: Learning German is either extrinsically beneficial (at school, on the job market), or intrinsically valued (as a way to perform an elitist multilingual identity).

While the conceptions of 'language as a skill/tool' vs 'language as identity marker' may at first be seen as opposite, the interview data shows that they are in fact intertwined around dominant language ideologies of 'German being hard'. As people often define themselves based on their skills, 'becoming' a German speaker (Block, 2015) is being framed as a difficult process imbued with prestige. Interviewees adhering to the ideology of language as a tool find German hard – thus, learning it is seen as an investment that pays off because it is a means of distinction compared to other highly skilled migrants in Berlin who speak English only. Interviewees seeing German as an identity marker, on the other hand, challenge the common view of German being a difficult language. Rather, they stress the need to learn German instead of English to belong in their new environment. Even if the argumentation differs, both rationales behind learning German as a foreign language in adulthood pertain to the need for distinction: Becoming a speaker of German enables the interviewees to profile themselves as different from other non German-speaking communities. Both ideologies are a reaction to English as a dominant language that can be traced back to early metadiscourses on foreign language learning in French schools.

The paper contributes to the literature on elite multilingualism, showing how the learning of the dominant language in a multilingual city becomes a way to perform a specific migrant identity as an L2' speaker of a perceived hard language against English as a lingua franca. The analysis informs our understanding not only of the French-speaking community in Berlin, but also of language ideologies in a globalised world in general, highlighting the role of English as an implicit counterpart in foreign language learning. The interview data also shows that the framing of German as being 'hard', and thus of students learning it as being 'good', impacts the identity construction of multilingual adults. Beyond the case study on a specific language, the article underscores the importance of early metadiscourses in childhood, with schools and families playing key roles in language socialisation, even when it comes to adult migration.

I answer the following research question: How do L1' speakers of French position themselves towards German after they moved to Germany in adulthood? Going further, what do these positionings tell us about the role of German as an elitist language in an era of globalisation? The paper is structured as follows. I first offer a theoretical overview on language ideologies, multilingualism, and second language acquisition (SLA). In
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Section 3, I present the French population living in Berlin, and then the interviewees more specifically in Section 4. The analysis unfolds in two main parts. In Section 5, I show how the perception of German as a difficult language makes it an elitist tool in French schools, thus becoming an index of social class. In Section 6, I argue that opting for German is often constructed as a personal choice. It then strongly correlates with a sense of belonging, especially against the background of dominant language ideologies in France, which consider German to be a hard and/or unaesthetic language, and in clear opposition to English. Ultimately, I suggest that both positions correspond to elite multilingualism in which learning and using German works as a means of distinction in a globalised world.

## 2. Language ideologies, multilingualism, and second language acquisition (SLA)

According to Silverstein's famous definition (1979, p. 193), language ideologies are 'sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalisation or justification of perceived language structure and use'. As they are mediated through discourse, language ideologies may be approached as a nexus between localness (as they are enacted in interaction, see Liebscher and Dailey-O'Cain (2009)) and broader systems of meanings and power relations (Cavanaugh, 2020). I will describe the methods for approaching language ideologies in Section 4.4.

Although sociolinguistics and second language acquisition (henceforth SLA) 'have not sat easily together in language research' (Rampton, 2016, p. 458), research focusing on identity construction has long acknowledged that individuals learning a second language (L2) are not simply abstract learners striving for accuracy (Vandergriff, 2021, p. 3; citing Ehrlich, 1997, p. 440). Even if the terms 'first' and 'second language' point to problematic hierarchies and emphasise the learner's identity of multilinguals – as opposed to the fact that they are language users (Block, 2015) – it reflects how the participants position themselves (see Section 3). I speak of French as an L1' and German as an L2' with an apostrophe to highlight the various understandings of 'first' and 'second language' the participants bring in. This means that I interviewed anyone who self-described as 'native speaker' of French, regardless of their biography. Even though, as a sociolinguist, I do not use the expression 'native speaker', nor believe that being a 'native speaker' would be necessary to have an opinion on languages (Truan, 2024a), maybe even more so in multilingual spaces, the concept bears some significance for the participants. The 25 people who responded to my interview request indeed considered that 'French' was (one of) their first language(s), even if they migrated to France at the age of 8, for instance (see Section 4.2). Conversely, the participants had a clear – though implicit – understanding of language boundaries, referring to languages as named entities such as 'English', 'German', 'French' (Gal, 2006, p. 14), thus engaging in 'language making' as 'the creation of imagined linguistic units with clear-cut boundaries perceived as 'a language'' (Krämer et al., 2022, p. 2).

While being usually aware of the newly gained socio-economic, cultural, and linguistic capital a new language may give them access to (maybe even more so for highly prestigious languages, see Barakos & Selleck, 2019), L2' language users are not solely motivated by practical benefits or the desire to integrate into a new community (Gardner, 2001; cited in Anya, 2016, p. 38). Instead, they are socially motivated agents who employ their
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linguistic resources to position themselves within social contexts (Anya, 2016). Next to
motivation (Dörnyei & Schmidt, 2001; Dörnyei, 2007; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009) that
tends to overemphasise the role of the individual and psychological factors, recent
research shows the decisive role of the learning community (Norton, 2013; Anya, 2016).
In this paper, I highlight the role of dominant language ideologies in the country of socia-
lisation in shaping the participants' understanding of why learning a language is seen as
beneficial.

Many studies concentrate on students' narratives (Anya, 2016; McGregor, 2016; Vogl, 2018; Bodis, 2021), possibly due to researchers' convenient access to this target group. The idea behind interviewing adults who moved to Germany in adulthood is to investigate how stable language ideologies that may have shaped individuals in childhood remain after migration. While Garrett (2010, pp. 29–30) observes that language attitudes tend to be more durable than other, Woolard's (2011) comparison of language ideologies around Catalan and Castilian with high school students and the same individuals twenty years later shows, however, a more contrasted picture. In her case, participants reflected major changes in their language practices corresponding to major social junctures – one of them being international experience (Woolard, 2011, p. 641). Similarly, Schulte (2019) shows, based on her own experience as a bilingual of German and American English and that of other students, that their positioning towards the use of English in Berlin as well as code-switching changes over time. In high school, speaking English or *Denglisch* (a mix of German of English) indexed coolness, whereas as people grow up, performing 'localness' by avoiding English and its associations with (elite) tourism and gentrification becomes more prevalent. How migration impacts the language ideologies around the L2' remains to be investigated (Truan, 2024a).

Specifically, I will analyse stances as part of indexical relations. To say it with Jaffe (2016, p. 88), 'what kinds of people and stances are associated' with German? Indexicality is here understood as a 'field' (Eckert, 2008) of possible interpretations, where 'conventional associations' [become part of the backdrop of the shared sociolinguistic knowledge that competent (socialised) social actors use to produce and interpret meaning' (Jaffe, 2016, p. 89). In this paper, the focus is not directly on the relation between linguistic forms and social meanings, but on what is constructed as a linguistic entity – German – and the people who engage in it or not: German users, or German learners, and those who do not know German, with a wide variety of what 'being a German speaker' may mean in terms of (perceived) proficiency, emotional attachment, etc.

3. The French population in Berlin

Often self-proclaimed as the symbol of a cosmopolitan European city¹, Berlin is a 'global
city' (Stevenson, 2017, p. 18) with people of 190 different nationalities (Amt für Statistik
Berlin-Brandenburg, 2020). 21% of the population of 3,7 million inhabitants either have
another nationality than German, or combine the German one with another one or
several other nationalities. The most prominent groups are Turkey, Poland, and Syria (All-
gemeine Statistik für die Ausländer*innen in Berlin, 2019).

Other minority groups, however, still remain largely underexplored (on Spanish in
Berlin, see Krämer (2020); on German-American bilinguals in Berlin, see Schulte
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(2019)). The Berlin's landscape remains mostly marked by English (Fuller, 2019a, p. 287), although French is also present, for instance in the subway and in some museums. Although French nationals only represent a portion of the French-speaking population in Berlin, this paper focuses specifically on people who learnt French as a first language in France (see Section 4). According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, 25,000 French citizens are living in Berlin in 2020 (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2021, p. 127). The French population in Berlin strikes out as having 'no particular collective stigma and no single social profile – such as 'guest workers' or expatriates from transnational firms' (Duchêne-Lacroix & Koukoutsaki-Monnier, 2016, p. 139). It is overall young: The average age of Berlin residents with French citizenship is 38,9, which corresponds to the average age of EU citizens other than Germans living in Berlin (38,5) (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2021, p. 61).

## 4. Interviews with French-speaking women living in Berlin

Section 4 presents the setting in which the participants were recruited (4.1), their overall composition (4.2), my positionality (4.3), and finally, theoretical, and methodological accounts on doing and transcribing interviews to access language ideologies (4.4).

### 4.1. Participants' selection

The 25 people whose stories are being told in this paper were recruited via a Facebook private group for French speakers in Berlin consisting mainly, although not exclusively, of women. I am a member of the group but not very active, although I had already noticed that the growing community (11,900 members in March 2022, 13,900 in August 2023) is usefully very responsive, open, and helpful. My open inquiry on the Facebook group in May 2020 reads as follows:

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3 hrs

...

Cher·e·s tou·te·s,

Dans le cadre de mes recherches, je m'intéresse à la manière dont les personnes dont la première langue (ou langue maternelle) est le français conceptualisent leur rapport à l'allemand et, possiblement par ricochet, au français. J'aimerais rencontrer quiconque a envie d'en discuter avec moi, dans la langue de votre choix (français, allemand, anglais), de vive voix en maintenant nos distances ou virtuellement. Je me réjouis de tout échange, même bref, y compris interrompu (par les enfants par exemple...) : pour le moment, je souhaite avant tout me faire une idée des différents types de ressentis à ce sujet.

Si vous êtes partant·e·s ou souhaitez plus d'informations, à vos messages 😊

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Dear all,

In the context of my research, I am interested in the way in which people whose first language (or mother tongue) is French conceptualise their relationship to German and, conversely, to French. I would like to meet with anyone who wants to discuss this with me, in the language of your choice (French, German, English), either face-to-face while maintaining our distance or virtually. I am looking forward to any exchange, even if it is brief, even if it is interrupted (by the children for example ...): for the moment, I would like to get an idea of the different types of feelings on this subject.

If you are interested or want more information, please send me a message! 😊

I received 26 private messages in less than 24 hours, which led to 25 interviews within three weeks (May–June 2020). 23 of them were with French speakers who (partly) grew up in France: These are the interviews considered in this study. All interviews have been recorded, either per video and audio if they took place online via Zoom, or only per audio if they took place offline (usually in a café or a park, at the interviewee's convenience). Although I specifically wrote that interviews could take place in French, English, or German, following the idea that 'the language choice should not be imposed but negotiated' (Busch, 2016, p. 6), all interactions happened in French, probably because it is the L1' of all participants, me included (also, the Facebook post was written in French).

## 4.2. Participants' description

As is usual in sociolinguistics, I conceptualise multilingualism in 'a broad and inclusive sense' (Aronin & Singleton, 2012, p. 7), without assuming complete proficiency, although the dominant language ideologies the participants are exposed to focus on competence and near native speakerism (Blommaert et al., 2005, p. 199). The 25 Francophones who shared their experience with me thus all have knowledge of at least French and German, with French being a language learnt until 12 (though not necessarily from the parents) in which they feel fluent and confident. The interviewees learnt German in Germany, although most of them had been exposed to it or learned it in school. As Stevenson (2017, p. 6) puts it, 'German had not been part of their repertoire but they were inevitably confronted by it, so what effect did that have on their migration experience?'.

Regarding the nationality: 23 out of the participants are French nationals, and only two of them are Swiss. While this may be seen as a limitation of the present study, I would rather argue that this works as a point of entry into who feels legitimate to talk about their language practices and ideologies as an L1' speaker of French. It may also reflect the composition of the Facebook group as well as the growing numerical importance of the French community in Berlin (see Section 2). Seven out of 25 interviewees learnt French next to another or other languages spoken at home, and two of them learnt French after moving to France with their family in a war context from the age of 8–9 and 12, respectively. While French may not be regarded, strictly speaking, as their L1, my approach centers the participants' experience. My way of subsuming heterogenous accounts on the idea of 'first language' (and, conversely, 'second', 'third language', etc.), then, is to mark this fluidity with an apostrophe while maintaining the use of *L1* as an ideological construct: *L1'*. The ethnicity of the interviewees was highly homogenous, which intersects with the profile of the French population in Berlin and their high socio-economic status: 23 interviewees were white, 1 Black, and 1 Brown (South Slav).
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The interviewees are 18–75 + years old and have spent 6 months to 40 years in Berlin. Their self-assessed German level ranges to intermediate (B2) to very proficient (C2), except for a participant who had just begun learning German (A2). This corresponds to quantitative surveys which have shown that ‘on the whole the French population in Berlin has a high level of cultural capital: they have an excellent command of French and a good self-assessed command of German’ (Duchêne-Lacroix & Koukoutsaki-Monnier, 2016, p. 140). Most interviewees have office jobs, all have studied at university, often with a specialisation in culture and education. This again corresponds to what Duchêne-Lacroix & Koukoutsaki-Monnier have observed a few years ago on the basis of quantitative surveys: French people ‘have frequently completed several years of higher education (in the vast majority of cases in France)’ (Duchêne-Lacroix & Koukoutsaki-Monnier, 2016, p. 140).

Finally, all interviewees are women. This is mainly to explain through the composition of the Facebook group, which has changed over time but has been primarily used by women. As of June 2022 (it is unclear when the rules have been added), the first rule states that the Facebook group is ‘open to men only if they offer a service to the community (plumber, hairdresser)’ and are aware that most members are ‘feminist’. While at the beginning of the data collection, I did not plan to investigate French-speaking in Berlin through a gender lens, the all-female composition of the interviewees invites for a consideration of whether, how, and where gender plays a role in the interviewees’ language ideologies (Piller & Pavlenko, 2001). I will, however, refrain from making gender central in the analysis if it is not constructed as interactionally salient by the interviewees themselves. Rather, I will show that gender may have played a role in the interviewees’ language ideologies related to school (learning German as to be part of more selective students’ groups, see Section 5).

### 4.3. Author's positionality

My own migration trajectory, as a French-Swiss national who learnt German in school and first moved to Berlin in my early twenties, corresponds to the experience of most interviewees, who may have arrived in Germany later, but usually had basic knowledge from German from their school time. As a white educated young woman, I belong to the core group of French nationals in Berlin having completed a university degree (see Section 4.2). I thus interviewed a mobile community I closely relate to as a highly skilled migrant with a high level of cultural capital and excellent command of standardised French and German. My background positively influences the interviews as the participants consider me one of their own. Without me thematising where I come from, most interviewees assumed that I was familiar with the French school system (which is the case), for instance through the unmarked use of expressions such as *LV2* for *Langue Vivante 2* ('Second Foreign Language') or *classes bilangues* ('two-languages classes', i.e. classes in which two languages are learnt at the same time at the age of 11–12 instead of beginning with one and learning the second one (LV2) one or two years later²).

### 4.4. Doing qualitative interviews to explore language ideologies

A way to look at how language ideologies are enacted in discourse is a stance-taking approach (Ziegler & Angenendt, 2024). In the original definition by Du Bois (2007, p.
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169), stances are defined as 'a public act by a social actor', which is not directly relevant for interview data. The main contribution of stances to language ideology research is rather the focus on 'overt communicative means (language, gesture, and other symbolic forms)', together with the recognition that stances are 'achieved dialogically'. Importantly, language ideologies can be both explicitly named, but also acted out through people's use of language resources in interaction. Going beyond content analysis, exploring stances as expressions of language ideologies thus involves (1) examining which value is given to the object of interest (here the use of German); (2) how social actors (here, the interviewees) position themselves with respect to this object; (3) how the social actors position themselves in regard to other stancetakers, including possibly implicitly, including myself as an interviewer and other potential figures; (4) and finally which 'presupposed systems of sociocultural value' are invoked through stance taking (Du Bois, 2007, p. 139). In this paper, I use the word *stance* to refer to the interviews' extracts on the basis of which the participants' positioning was coded.

Interviews serve as a rich and abundant resource for exploring language ideologies. They provide the opportunity for participants to share detailed accounts of their experiences in contrast to closed questions typically found in questionnaires, for example. The semi-structured interviews revolved around language questions, while following a narrative structure. The first question I asked was typically, 'Can you introduce yourself while telling me what role French and German play for you at the moment?', which prompted answers related to the biographies of the participants. The next questions then depended on the specific milestones the interviewee would name, with questions related to the experience with (learning) German, level of proficiency and self-confidence, and language practices (e.g. code-switching or using English when not knowing a word in German). I also always made sure we tackled current language ideological debates such as angli-cisms or gender-inclusive language (Truan, 2024b), which would either be mentioned by the interviewees themselves, or by an open question: 'Are you interested in debates about language?'.

The data was transcribed by me and two student assistants, Jun An Chen and Matilde Mondo. After the first round of content-wise transcription, the student assistants indepen-dently classified extracts according to recurring themes such as L1, school, France, Germany, French, German, English, accents, multilingualism, etc. in a table with the meta-data (date, pseudonym, length of the interview). Next to the analytical column containing coding categories, we wrote down short paraphrases in a different column, using the interviewee's formulations directly (e.g. *oublier, les mots manquent*, 'forgetting, missing words'), with the interview's number (1–25) in brackets to account for similar wordings across the interviews. A detailed description of how I code interviews in collaborative research processes is to be found in Oldani and Truan (2022, pp. 5–6) (based on a different corpus).

Selected extracts or stances, including those in the upcoming sections, were tran-scribed following the principles of interactional sociolinguistics (Schiffrin, 1994). For the present article, I explore how L1' speakers of French position themselves towards German after they moved to Germany in adulthood. I identified two apparently conflict-ing positions in the data: German as an index of social class (Section 5), and German as a personal choice and identity marker (Section 6). Despite their apparent opposition, I argue
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that both positions indicate how German, and, per extension, profiling oneself as a speaker of German, is a means of distinction in a globalised world.

## 5. German as an index of social class

To understand the value ascribed to German, I show how language ideologies pertaining to the status of German in French schools still permeate the interviewees' narratives – even in adulthood and in migration contexts. All interviewees but one learnt German at school. The interviews thus often touch upon the role of German in French schools, which serves as an explanation for when and why the participants began their journey of learning German. Often, the decisive factor is not that of a personal choice – this comes only later in the interviews and in the participants' lives –, but the idea of 'selective classes' (bonnes classes):

**Example 1: Carine, 57 years old, in Berlin since 2019 (French/German/English)**

1 CARINE when I went from primary school to middle school (1.0)

2 the teachers: wanted to put us in the selective classes

3 so if we wanted to go to the selective classes

4 and then we had to go to the German class (2.0)

**Example 2: Amélie, ~ 40 years old, in Berlin since about 2005 (French/Spanish/German/English)**

1 AMÉLIE eu:h me it started at the Middle school in fact

2 so this question of (.) good classes from bad classes

3 and the question of German LV1 [Foreign Language 1] means good classes

In both extracts situated at the very beginning of the interviews, the participants explain that they learnt German to be part of the 'selective classes' (bonnes classes) – an expression that has established itself as a pattern and comes up in three interviews, while the more general idea (being a 'good student', having 'good grades') is present in three more interviews. In France, students usually learn one first 'foreign' language from the age of 11–12 (then called LV1, Langue Vivante 1, or Foreign Language 1), and then 13–14 (LV2). In many secondary schools (collèges), English is the default option as a LV1, and German, Spanish, and Italian are usually offered as a LV2.³ In some schools, however, it is possible either to learn German as a LV1, or to learn both English and German at the same time in the so-called classes bilangues ('two-languages classes'). But the learning of German altogether has significantly dropped, being learned by 18,6% of students in the early 2000s and only 3,6% in 2022.⁴ The 23 interviewees who learnt German in the French school system before its significant lower(ed) status thus hold a privileged position as L1' speakers of French. Schools indeed reinforce the idea that foreign language learning is a means of maintaining elite or social status, thereby creating a barrier to entry for those without such privileges (Paulston, 1978, p. 320). Historically, German was learnt by the bourgeoisie. Its status in the nineteenth century is surprisingly close to the current situation: English was already heavily favoured (Rogers, 2006, §10), while German was deemed 'too complicated for girls' (Rogers, 2006, §6).

Learning German is reconstructed as something that happened without being driven by a strong desire to learn this language specifically. Rather, in the French school system
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and maybe for parents more than children, German is associated with high prestige because it is constructed as an elitist language based on its presumed difficulty. Choosing German then becomes a 'strategy', as an interviewee recalls, usually prompted by the parents: 'my parents who were left-wing wanted to limit the damage' (*mes parents qui étaient de gauche voulaient limiter la casse*), sometimes to avoid having to change schools or switch to a private school, as Clara recounts:

### Example 3: Clara, ~ 25 years old, in Berlin since 2018 (French/English/German)

1 CLARA and I was a good student in elementary school so they [my parents] told me

2 well you stay in (.) you MUST be a good student

3 then you do what you want but you MUST be a good student

4 and so they (.) the deal was

5 either you go to a bilingual class [two-languages class] at the public school in town

6 you stay with your friends you stay in public school and (.) and that's it

7 or you go to a private (.)

8 and uh I said ah no NO WAY private is not possible

9 so I went to the public school

10 and the only bilingual class [two-languages class] there was German

11 so in fact it wasn't a choice at all

12 it was more of a ((stifled laughter)) like

13 you do that right away and everything and so I said okay ((extract cut))

14 but I didn't really like it that much

15 I was EVEN more bored with it, and moreover, uh (.)

16 when you're in bilingual [two-languages class] German classes

17 you're a bit of an outcast ((stifled laughter)) at school

18 it's kind of the nerds and all

As we see here, the parents' involvement in their children's education plays a major role when it comes to decide which foreign language to study first. Similar to the 'strategy' adopted by Coralie's progressive parents, Clara's parents made a 'deal' (I. 4) with her, although she depicts the situation as one in which her parents are asserting their authority, as the repetition and emphasis on 'MUST' (*il faut que*, I. 2-3) indicate. For teenager Clara, learning German as a first foreign language was then a way to stay with her friends (I. 6), and she denies opting for German as a 'choice' (I. 11), even recalling that she did not enjoy it back then (I. 14-15). The gradation from line 13-14 (and the insistence on 'even') as well as the several instances of laughter (I. 12, I. 17), suggest that Clara was uncomfortable with the newly acquired status of a 'good student' that was suddenly imposed upon her through the learning of German. Expressing trouble with the idea of being 'an outcast' (I. 17) because of her belonging to 'German classes' (I. 16), she goes as far as to describe her new position as an 'intellectual' one (I. 18), and one from which she distances herself through the plural generic 'the nerds' (*les intellos et tout*, I. 18), while also mitigating the derogatory tone ('a bit', 'kind of'. 17-18, laughter). Without being salient in the extract, gender may also play a role in the *a posteriori* identity construction of the 'nerd' through the learning of a foreign language considered hard by reputation, as girls are often seen as being better at school. Nerds are indeed both feared and despised, 'for intellectual capacity is seen as a potential threat to the social order' (Bucholtz, 1998: 119), but in this case, Clara did not purposely engage in a nerd identity which seems to be the consequence of learning German (instead of Spanish or Italian) only. Clara's ambivalence is thus emblematic of the shift from the first-order index of 'German = hard' to a second
<figure><img src="image_21.png" /></figure>

order in which the people learning German are being stereotypically associated with certain types of students.

Clara's positioning is best understood in relation with broader language ideologies that permeate all three extracts. German's perception in France happens at three levels, which can be conceptualised as first-, second-, and third-order indexicality (Silverstein, 2003). First, at the level of first-order indexicality, one that speakers become aware of, German is conceived as a 'difficult language' for L1' French speakers, especially in comparison to English and Romance languages. For that reason, it is recommended for 'good students' able at taking up the presumed challenge. When this association (German -> hard -> good students) become noticed and commented on, a second-order index is established. At the level of second-order indexicality, German thus plays an elitist role, and then becomes a means of distinction – but also, and hence the ambivalence, a way to 'stick out', possibly as 'nerd' – that follows students all through their educational path. Finally, when this association becomes objectified and metadiscursively linked to stereotypic personae, here types of students, (learning) German becomes, at the level of third-order indexicality, indexed with a (white) upper and middle-class status.

## 6. Opting for German

Even if they often followed their parents' incentive, 23 out of 25 interviewees construct their learning of German as a personal choice. While landing in a so-called *classe bilangue* ('two-languages classes') may be, in retrospect, constructed as a coincidence, the extracts that follow link learning German with a strong positioning that could be paraphrased as such 'I am German-speaking and I decide to be so in a hostile context'. Only one interviewee uses English more frequently than German in her everyday life, although a third of them also use English at work. The common resistance towards English (implicitly opposed to German) is manifest in Carine's interview:

<table><caption>Example 4: Carine, 57 years old, in Berlin since 2019 (French/English/German)</caption><tr><td>1</td><td>CARINE</td><td>I'm here to learn German</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>I'm NOT here to speak English (1.0)</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>NAOMI</td><td>okay [alright]</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>CARINE</td><td>[period ((extract cut))]</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td></td><td>I find English SAD actually [yeah]</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>NAOMI</td><td>[okay]</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td></td><td>you just see it EVERY where it's so effortless (.) well</td></tr></table>

Refusing to speak English is not only a matter of personal preference that would make the interviewee 'sad' (I.3), but is undoubtedly linked with English as a global language that is so pervasive and dominant ('you just see it everywhere', I. 4) that it appears 'effortless'. Why English is viewed as 'effortless' may be related to the frequent exposure both in mainstream media and in the Berlin's linguistic landscape (Fuller, 2019a; Schneider, 2020), but also to its status as an easy language compared to German, especially for French students for whom learning German is constructed as access to a better education (see Section 5).
<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

Precisely the overcoming of a what is collectively seen as a hurdle is what makes learn-
ing German ‘a fascination’:

Example 5: Gaëlle, ~ 25 years old, in Berlin since 2019 (French/English/German/Dutch)

1. GAËLLE it's more of a fascination in the sense that you're used to English relatively young

2. and as soon as you're not speaking English

3. it becomes immediately more exotic and German has very new sounds

While Gaëlle mentions early exposure to English in contrasting terms, thus making German, and by extension, its speakers, more original ('exotic,' l. 3), the Education First English Proficiency Index (2020) shows a different picture: France is ranked 34th out of 370 countries (moderate proficiency), below European standards. In that sense, English could still be seen as 'exotic' in France in some ways. Although English's status as a global lingua franca appears firmly established today, it is, in fact, a relatively recent development (Mair, 2019, p. 13), one that has not entirely displaced the personal appeal of other languages. Gaëlle's choice to learn German reflects this, driven more by personal interest than pragmatic need. She explains at the very beginning of the interview that despite being 'a relatively good student' (which would be a further example of what I showed in Section 5), she struggled with German's declensions. 'But I still liked the fact that I could speak something other than English,' she adds, suggesting that her engagement with German offers a linguistic novelty and cultural distinctiveness, but also individual allure or personal value that English, despite its global reach, cannot provide. This extract suggests that while English may be (perceived as) accessible, it does not negate a personal choice to explore other languages like German to construct a special persona.

Even if I lack specific data that would indicate that the interviewees *need* German to function in Berlin, German remains important in areas like administration and the public sphere, despite Berlin's cosmopolitan appeal. Fuller (2019b) suggests that knowledge of English may, in some cases, contribute to not learning German, particularly among (Anglophone) immigrants who feel they can rely on English and are not dependent on learning German for e.g. visa reasons. In contrast, for many L1' French speakers, familiarity with German can act as a facilitating factor in their decision to migrate, as it reduces the perceived language barrier in navigating administrative and public life. Gaëlle's case exemplifies this dynamic: Her decision to learn German was driven by personal interest, yet it may have ultimately made settling in Berlin seem more attainable, blurring the line between personal curiosity and practical benefit. This suggests that the choice to learn German is not purely a post-migration adaptation but also a pre-migration consideration that shapes their perceptions of Germany as a viable destination. This is consistent with broader patterns: The data shows that German always was an option at school, even if it may have initially been disregarded, as for Marguerite, who was tempted by German but discouraged because it would be too 'hard' (see the following examples), or Katrina, whose basic German from school is insufficient to apprehend the German culture – both have put significant efforts in learning the language to fill this gap. In that sense, L1' French speakers' engagement with German is often a proactive, individual choice rather than a response to functional necessity.
<figure><img src="image_23.png" /></figure>

We see how at the level of first-order indexicality whose speakers directly refer to, English is constructed as banal ('sad' for Carine in (4), non 'exotic' for Gaëlle in (5)), because it is the language that everyone speaks. As the speakers comment on this indexical link, it becomes clear, at the second-order index, that what may upset them is also that being a speaker of English would mean denying L2' speakers of German a special status. German is also a means of distinction here, but not directly inherited from school. Rather, it receives added value as linguistic capital showing the social integration of the individual in their new place: 'here', the dominant language is German. As this association becomes enregistered (English -> sad -> not special), types of speakers become judged upon: It is not so much English that is 'effortless', but nonspeakers of German more so. Speaking English is thus not seen as one of the multiple resources a multilingual may use in their repertoire, but in opposition to German – as the failure or even refusal to speak German in the host country where (standard) German is the majority and unmarked choice. Carine may also be performing the 'good migrant' – the one who 'makes efforts' where English speakers would choose the opt out of the learning process ('I'm here to learn German', l. 1). In childhood, using German was a means of distinction in the French educational system. In adulthood, using German remains a means of distinction by constructing the learner's social identity not as *any* multilingual with German being one of the many languages, but as a speaker of German specifically.

While German may also be seen as an economic asset on the job market (Heller & Duchêne, 2006; Holborow, 2018), only one interviewee explicitly says that she learnt German for promotion ('let's say that if you want to progress, you need to add German to your language skills'). The most common narrative, however, is German as a personal quest:

<table><caption>**Example 6: Mélanie, ~ 30 years old, in Berlin since 2017 (French/Alsatian/English/German)**</caption><tr><td>1</td><td>MÉLANIE</td><td>at first I found (.) well at first first first</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>when I first learned it [German] I DIDN't like it</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td></td><td>I thought it was ugly as many people say</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td></td><td>and when I arrived in BERlin</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td></td><td>and when I tried to to to under</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td></td><td>well when I began to understand more what was being said to me</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td></td><td>I found that the German language was charming actually</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td></td><td>that it was practical and charming at the same time</td></tr></table>

German is work – not only academically or linguistically, but emotionally. Becoming a user of German means going past initial negative language ideologies ('ugly') pervasive in the French discourse and beyond ('as many people say'). This extract is centred around a before/after narrative in which the arrival in Berlin (l. 4) and the participant's emotional engagement with German (l. 5) represent a starting point ('I began') in shifting language ideologies. Many interviewees first affiliate with dominant language ideologies around German, or express their enthusiasm towards German as an oddity. Mélanie also did not like German at first, as she found it 'ugly, as many people say' (l. 3). On the other hand, Marguerite confesses, against all odds, to 'even like the sound of it [German] contrary to what you hear when people say 'Oh, German is really aggressive'". Defying expectations, Marion also has always loved German and 'Nordic languages' (her words), 'only
<figure><img src="image_24.png" /></figure>

the languages that people in France find ugly', although she 'understands that people find German ugly', which she explains due to the lack of exposure to German in mainstream media. In all these narratives, the interviewees stand out against the mass of the unidentified but dominant 'people' who disparage the German language. They may, in the end, be outliers – rather than 'outcasts', as Clara feared (example 3).

In extract 6, the interviewee distances herself from the representation of German as 'ugly', but the language ideology of German being 'practical' (I. 8) remains present, now coexisting 'at the same time' (I. 8) next to the positive appreciation of it being 'charming' after the migration experience. Allowing for new affects surrounding the L2' once it becomes a tangible reality may be common for many L2' learners once the learning process gets externalised outside the classroom. However, what distinguishes German for L2' French speakers is that adopting the role of a German speaker in daily life also entails a transition from the commonly held unfavourable view of the German language in France.

Marguerite, who learnt Spanish at school under peer pressure ('because Spanish is supposedly easier [than German]') discusses her experience learning German as an adult, highlighting the challenges she faces:

### Example 7: Marguerite, 36 years old, in Berlin since 2019 (French/English/Spanish/German)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>MARGUERITE</td><td>there's also this side where I put pressure on myself to learn</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>and I had a bit of a complicated phase where it came to me</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td></td><td>I can't seem to get going and finally I can't seem to dare [using German]</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td></td><td>even if it means making a mistake it's not a big deal</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td></td><td>but at the same time you say to yourself at 35 years old</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td></td><td>you're starting to learn a new language again</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td></td><td>and in fact I realised the last time I started a new language</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td></td><td>was when I was in high school and I was fifteen [...]</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td></td><td>so obviously it's not that easy and maybe I've forgotten my reflexes</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td></td><td>but at the same time I like learning languages</td></tr></table>

The reflection on starting to learn a new language at the age of 35, after a long hiatus since her teenage years, clearly demonstrates the effort to distance themselves from an 'English-only' approach. Her statement reveals the conscious decision to engage with a new language despite its reputation and the years of relying on English, which suggests that adult learners of German choose to step away from an English-dominant experience.

Opting for German, then, concerns all interviewees but one. This may well be a recruiting bias: The participants are willing to be interviewed for a research project on German. I argue, however, that this also suggests a focus on *becoming* a user of German – as opposed to *being* one (Block, 2015). This identity often overlaps with being a learner (prior to becoming a user of a language). While this positioning may thus seem unmarked for the participants I spoke to, it still is constructed as a minority position compared to French-speaking people in general – those who do not have a migration experience and/or those who do not speak German (well enough) to appreciate it. A common disclusive move consists in voicing an indefinite group of people expressing disaffiliation towards German, to highlight, in turn, one's special position as someone who 'gets' the specificity of German as a language:
<figure><img src="image_25.png" /></figure>

Example 8: Gabrielle, ~ 30 years old, in Berlin since 2010 (French/English/German)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>GABRIELLE</td><td>but no one falls in love with German</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>most of the time the French go BEUH</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td></td><td>German is ugly (.) and then I'm like but no:</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td></td><td>but the language is actually much more beautiful than you think</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td></td><td>my perfect example is always to say</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td></td><td>that there are beautiful words in German (.)</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td></td><td>but you have to know the language first</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td></td><td>to realise it (.)</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td></td><td>but you have to reach a certain level to realise it</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>NAOMI</td><td>yeah</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>GABRIELLE</td><td>it's when you have the level to read Goethe (.)</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td></td><td>that you go WOW incredible</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td></td><td>if I had known well yes but everyone says so</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td></td><td>but first your ear is not happy at the beginning so</td></tr></table>

The act of incorporating German into one's daily life, thereby adopting the fresh identity of both a German speaker and enthusiast, becomes a transformative endeavour in the face of negative remarks. A recurring unspecified group acts as implicit adversaries against which the interviewees position themselves: French speakers who do not like German or find it unattractive/difficult. Despite the apparently generic *you* pervading the extract ('you first need to know the language'), Gabrielle refers to her experience, first faced with negative judgments upon German. Her positioning appears in a dialogic way: It is the second segment of a pair of utterances, the first one ('German is ugly', l. 3) being attributed the generic noun phrase 'the French people'. As she elaborates on why French people do not like German, Gabrielle proposes an explanation in terms of language competence (l. 7), thus implying that once (or if) French people learn(t) German well enough – as well as she does –, they would come to the same conclusion as her. At the same time, she repeatedly highlights that only high language competence (l. 7, l. 9, l. 11) will lead to this desired effect.

Retracing one's own steps as someone able to appreciate German because you know better is thus framed as a shared experience, but also to highlight the status of exception of those French finally able to detach from common clichés:

Example 9: Dominique, ~ 30 years old, has left Berlin after several years (French/German/English/Polish)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>DOMINIQUE</td><td>I've always been keen to defend (.) DEFend German</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td></td><td>because (.) people who don't know it they will tell you</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td></td><td>ah it's ugly it's harsh it's guttural and so on</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td></td><td>whereas (.) as I've learned more and more German</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td></td><td>euh I find that there are many forms that are euh po POetic</td></tr></table>

For interviewees at odd with the perception of German as 'hard', 'unattractive', 'aggressive' (Giles & Niedzielski, 1998), becoming a speaker of German (and enjoying it) means embracing a minority position, sometimes against your relatives as well. Anna, in her early forties, raised bilingually (Italian-French), has been living in Berlin for ten years at the time of the interview. Even with her family language being French, she explains that the grandparents on both sides are explicitly undermining German, making it hard for her to justify why she and her children speak it despite living in Berlin.
<figure><img src="image_26.png" /></figure>

For French people, learning German is tied up with a strong sense of belonging to a minoritised community of practice – and this even though speaking German may seemingly be unmarked in Berlin. Despite the global status of German as a prestige language, the learning of German as a first foreign language in French schools has dropped significantly (from 614,664 students in 1994 to 158,915 students in 2019, see footnotes 3–4). Learning German, and proficiently using it, then leads to a special status on two grounds. First, in France, where 23 of the 25 interviewees were socialised, German is often mocked. When they master German despite the initial hurdle and social contempt, the interviewees thus see it as a personal matter. Second, in cosmopolitan Berlin specifically where speaking English may go unnoticed in the international community, positioning oneself as a competent German speaker is a way to showcase local embeddedness.

## 6. Conclusion

In this paper, I analysed how L1' speakers of French position themselves towards German after they moved to Germany in adulthood. I have shown that the role of German for French-speaking participants relies on an ideological tension between language as 'social-status marking' (Edwards, 2006, p. 27) and language as a marker of belonging (German as an identity marker and choice). Both are language ideologies that make multilingualism in general and the acquisition of German in particular attractive in a globalised society, as it acts as a distinction strategy. Being a speaker of German then becomes an elite marker. As they were offered the possibility to learn German at school as a LV1 ('Foreign Language 1') or in a so-called *classe bilangue bilangues* ('two-languages classes'), the interviewees often comply with their parents' expectations, which may have led to ambivalent feelings about attending 'selective classes'. Moving forward, the interviewees underline the crucial role they are now playing in normalising German against the background of an overall negative connotation.

Further, the interviewees build their identity in contrast to French nationals, who, from the participants' perspective, often spread negative judgements on German as a hard and ugly language. Mastering German and, going further, mastering German against the background of a hostile context at home, becomes a way to detach oneself from previous selves prior to migration and to depart from the mainstream perception of German in France. In this second scenario, many participants report speaking German *instead of* English rather than German *and* English. German is then being attributed a higher social status than English as 'the language of tourists and expats', as German becomes part of a new identity constructed through migration.

In all cases, the dominant narrative may be summed up as 'I am one of the few who know German'. This overarching narrative underscores the significance and exclusivity attached to possessing proficiency in the German language for French speakers specifically. Becoming a German speaker conveys a sense of exceptionalism and a unique identity that emerges from being part of a select group with the knowledge of German as a distinguishing factor. The assertion of being among the few who possess this knowledge positions individuals as privileged and distinct, emphasising their specialised linguistic competence – both in France and in Berlin, thus enabling them to reunite their identities before and after migration. While the ability to communicate in German is frequently
<figure><img src="image_27.png" /></figure>

regarded as a valuable attribute within the (particularly local) job market, the rationale behind employing the German language often transcends the notion of 'language as a utilitarian tool' from a neoliberal standpoint.

To sum up, while the ideologies of 'language as a skill' (Heller, 2005) vs 'language as an identity marker' may initially appear to be opposing concepts, I have argued that they are actually both influenced by overarching language ideologies that revolve around the perceived difficulty of learning German. This shared perception of German as a challenging language to master shapes the formation of both ideologies. Despite the differing rationale that underpins each ideology, the underlying motivation remains consistent: The acquisition of German proficiency empowers the interviewees to establish themselves as distinct from other communities that do not possess German language skills. Interestingly, the study draws attention to the historical context, highlighting the influence of early metadiscourses on foreign language learning within the French educational system. These discourses have led to the position of English as a dominant language, both in foreign language teaching as it would arguably be easier, and in a globalised world. As a reaction to English's dominance, both ideologies – 'language as a skill' and 'language as an identity marker' – emerge as responses to assert distinction within a linguistically diverse landscape.

Crucially, the article proposes that both of these stances can be categorised as instances of elite multilingualism. In a globalised world, learning and utilising German serves as a vehicle for differentiation. By engaging in German language acquisition, individuals position themselves within an elite subset that holds specialised linguistic proficiency. This positions them to stand out in a globally interconnected society, aligning with the idea of language as a tool of distinction. In essence, this study not only sheds light on the interplay between language ideologies, elite multilingualism, and identity formation but also emphasises the significance of early metadiscourses in childhood, with schools and families being the primary locus of language socialisation.

### Transcription key

<table><tr><td>( )</td><td>contextual information (e.g., analyst note)</td></tr><tr><td>[...]</td><td>omissions in the transcript due to unintelligible fragment on the recording</td></tr><tr><td>:</td><td>lengthening 0.2–0.5 seconds</td></tr><tr><td>::</td><td>lengthening 0.5–0.8 seconds</td></tr><tr><td>...</td><td>lengthening 0.8–1.0 seconds</td></tr><tr><td>(.)</td><td>pause up to 0.2 seconds</td></tr><tr><td>(-)</td><td>pause of 0.2 to 0.5 seconds</td></tr><tr><td>(2.0)</td><td>pause of more than 0.5 seconds (here, 2 seconds)</td></tr><tr><td>-</td><td>pause of less than one second or hesitation</td></tr><tr><td>aCCent</td><td>emphasis put on a syllable</td></tr></table>

### Notes

1. As the prominent Berlin Green Party legislator Özcan Mutlu, cited in Gramling (2016, pp. 199–200), for instance maintained.

2. https://www.education.gouv.fr/les-langues-vivantes-etrangeres-et-regionales-11249, 22 August, 2023.

3. According to the statistics of the French Ministry of Education, English has consistently been chosen as a LV1 ('Foreign Language 1') by most of the students since the 1990s (4,936,800
<figure><img src="image_28.png" /></figure>

students in 1994, 5,433,702 in 2019). German was relatively often picked up as a LV1 in the 1990s (614,664 students in 1994), but has undergone a rapid drop (158,915 students chose it as a LV1 in 2019). See https://www.education.gouv.fr/reperes-et-references-statistiques-2020-1316, 'Données publiques à télécharger', '3.05. L'étude des langues vivantes dans le premier degré', 22 August, 2023.

4. https://www.senat.fr/questions/base/2023/qSEQ231109109.html, 14 May, 2024.

## Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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