Magazine / Society / Mobility / Commentary | 07/05/2008

The Erasmus Cliché

Why it's sometimes good to disrupt the harmony. A critical commentary by Gernot Wolfram.

To this day I regret that during my studies I never applied to the Erasmus programme. Why? At the time I was sceptical about the feel-good atmosphere that many Erasmus students described at the so-called Erasmus parties. Everything was bathed in a soft feeling of we-are-all-friends.

Photo: photocase

While at one level I found this very appealing, there seemed to be something artificial about the sense of harmony it generated. I was a highly critical supporter of the Erasmus cliché: "We're all together and getting along fine."

And to his day I continue to believe that the fear of encountering different perspectives, historical experiences and prejudices against other cultures is seldom talked about even in cross-border exchange programmes like Erasmus. Yet it is exactly programmes like these that provide an opportunity to bring these problems out into the open. You don't get anywhere at all if everyone just plays the well-mannered guest. To really be understood you must address the thorny issues as well.

One example: a little while ago a young man from the Republic of Macedonia attended one of my seminars for international students. He put the word "Macedonia" beside his name for the publication we were working on. I didn't even notice, and no one said a thing when we went over the galley proofs. After going to press, however, I discovered that several Greek seminar participants were extremely upset. They felt that only the northern Greek region could call itself Macedonia, and that the student should jolly well use the official name
FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia).

Why did they say nothing, and deal with things behind closed doors? Because that is more polite, because it doesn't disrupt the harmony. But it gets us nowhere in terms of mutual understanding.

Gernot Wolfram

The author Gernot Wolfram, born in Zittau in 1975, holds a doctorate in cultural studies. He lives and works in Berlin and has published numerous ...
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