AWARDS FOCUS
ciol.org.uk/tl
R
enée Van hoof-haferkamp's attitude towards languages
is not what you might expect from the winner of a
prestigious award for outstanding contribution to the
field of languages.
1
As director-General of the Joint interpreting
and Conference service for the European institutions, which
she established in an earlier incarnation in 1958, she has been
at the forefront of interpreting provision for the European
institutions from the start, inspiring a generation of linguists.
Yet she doesn't see the study of languages as an objective in
itself; language, rather, is "a tool for better understanding,"
ideally to be acquired while studying other things.
For those of us raised in times of peace, this distinction
might not hold such importance, but for Van hoof-haferkamp,
language learning was the result not of schooling but of
upheaval. As a child, she was forced to leave her home in
Cologne, Germany after the Nazis came to power, finding
refuge first in holland and then in Brussels. she was hidden
by the resistance in Belgium with her half-American mother,
German father and older sister after a failed attempt to get
to switzerland following the invasion of holland.
it was a journey into languages born of the worst trauma
imaginable, as she learnt the languages of the countries
she sought refuge in: first dutch, then French, later picking
up English at school. As a result, "i never thought of
languages as something interesting," she concedes.
Cross-cultural communication and understanding were
simply essentials for survival. so when her parents agreed
to her study of German philology after the war, they
were motivated by a much deeper imperative than a
simple interest in languages. "they pushed me not
only into languages, but so that it would never
happen again," she explains.
her mother, in particular, was determined that she
work for the Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-henri spaak,
a dedicated supporter of European integration. Faced
with such high expectations, the young renée was
understandably reticent, but when her parents took her
Voice of Europe
renée Van hoof-haferkamp has been at the centre of major events in Europe
over the last century, having set up the European institutions' interpreting service.
in a rare interview, she tells Miranda Moore about her life and legacy
©
Chris
Christodoulou
