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@Linguist_CIOL DEcEMBEr/JANUArY The Linguist 11 FEATURES Q How does the embassy promote Austrian culture and language in the UK? A Austria and culture go hand in hand. The Austrian cultural Forum (AcF) London arranges, initiates, facilitates and supports about 150 events a year, approximately 50% at its premises in Knightsbridge. The AcF was established in 1956 to promote cultural contacts between the UK and Austria by organising events, and supporting artists and projects in music, the arts, film, literature and science. Anyone can join the library, or you can submit a proposal for an event at the AcF London by emailing office@acflondon.org. Q Tell us about some of the past projects… A There was a workshop with the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Elfriede Jelinek, with the title 'Alterity, Xenophobia and cultural Translation'; the Wolf Suschitzky Photography Prize; a call for compositions for Murau International Music Festival (MIMF) 2019; and a literature scholarship for the 'Writer of the city of Graz'. Meanwhile, the Austrian club maintains the 'Austrian spirit' among expatriates in London and UK nationals with strong links to Austria. Embassy insights Q What is the difference between the German of Austria and Germany? A The language has a lot to do with our history and literary background. Austria has many Jewish authors and, in general, our authors tend to work with a language more consciously because, deep inside, the hochdeutsch still feels a bit foreign to us. We use the possessive dative (Meinem Vater sein Auto; 'my father's car'), for example, which follows the hungarian grammatical structure. The Austrian Ambassador, Michael Zimmermann, talks to Romana Sustar about Austrian culture and language in the UK Q Do Austrians speak other languages? A Multilingualism used to be regarded as a considerable advantage. I went to Theresianeum college in Vienna, where German, English, French, russian and Latin were compulsory, and I also learnt Arabic, Portuguese, Japanese and hungarian through my job. Today, Austrians speak English well but we don't generally speak the languages of our neighbouring countries. There are minorities who speak croatian in Burgenland, Slovene in the south, romani and hungarian in the east, and czech and Slovak in Vienna. HE Dr Michael Zimmermann became Ambassador to the UK in August 2018 (@MZimmermannAT). For details of Austrian events see @ACF_London, or to inquire about a collaboration, tweet @austriainuk. Council member Romana Sustar MCIL CL is a multilingual Digital Marketing Manager and language tutor. Twitter @RomanaSustar Austrians have lived in the UK for centuries, coming in greater numbers in the 1930s due to the Nazi regime. There are approximately 25,000 here today. In 1955, Britain, France, the US and the Soviet Union signed a treaty to establish an independent but neutral Austria, with Austrian National Day marking the law on permanent Austrian neutrality on 26 October. Austria joined the United Nations that same year and the European Union in 1995. FACT FILE: AUSTRIA CREATING LINKS Ode to Lucias and Vinenz Stergin's '12 Photos 12 Tracks' art project at the Austrian Cultural Forum; and (inset) Michael Zimmermann