Moldovan society lives in several parallel worlds, Alexei Axan

Moldovan society lives in several parallel worlds, separated among other things linguistically. This causes instability and hazards, which must be overcome if Moldova and its citizens want to join the European Union, Alexei Axan, professor at the Romanian Language House, said in an interview with Info-Prim Neo. Alexei Axan said in this context that the Moldovan citizens will be accepted into Europe only when they start feeling comfortable with the official language of their country, referring both to the national minorities and the majority population. “The people who don’t speak Romanian eventually have to learn and speak the official language of the country they live and work in so that together we could bring this country into the European Union and become European citizens with full rights, with decent living standards, with European salaries and pensions, with protected fundamental rights, with confidence in the day of tomorrow. This is the great stake! Moldova won’t be allowed into the European Union as long as its society remains divided along territorial, but also linguistic, criteria, as well as cultural and political. Such a society generates hazards and instability, and the Europeans are very selective in such cases and it’s their right to be so. They will not accept instability, so the Moldovans need to homogenize, to go through the integration processes like all the EU member-countries did.” According to Alexei Axan, the Moldovan citizens who don’t speak the official language should make it clear for themselves what is there to gain and what to lose from the current state of affairs. “I suggest we look at things through the eyes of this category of people. Apparently they think that if they don’t speak Romanian they earn some special status in this country, a status which sort of obliges everybody else to speak their language in order to be able to communicate with them. It also appears that this is how they think they preserve their national identity, other than of the majority population, neglecting the integration processes which are absolutely natural for all the countries and all the nations. Yet this state makes Moldovan society divided in several parallel worlds, at least two, if we speak from a linguistic point of view. After all, we have to bear in mind that official languages play a key role in the integration processes”. „At the same time, the people who don’t speak the language of our country minimize their chances of playing a role in its remaking, in it Europeanization, in speeding up its modernization, and consequently, in acquiring the EU membership. I would even say that this category of population is isolating itself from the rest of society, or even commits discrimination against itself, since it representatives are unable, for example, to apply for certain government posts, which require the knowledge of the official language. Furthermore, it seems to me that the people who don’t speak the official language are living in a constant state of discomfort because they always have to anticipate the reaction of their interlocutors to the fact that they don’t speak the latter’s language”, says Alexei Axan. According to him, some representatives of the majority population, too, feel uncomfortable with the official language “Some speak it incorrectly while others misname it. And this discomfort generates misunderstanding and instability in entire society”, Alexei Axan from the Romanian Language House told Info-Prim Neo in an interview.