Exercise 4
The following (fictionalized) text comes from a real study on socialization processes within the Vietnamese community in Berlin. Managing multilingualism was a key focus of this study.
Read the text below and identify at least three weaknesses that could allow the research location and individuals to be identified despite pseudonymization.
Text Example:
The present study was conducted between January 2016 and January 2017 in a daycare center located in a district of Berlin where many people of non-German, especially Vietnamese, origin live. The daycare center, which we will refer to here as „Spatzennest,“ offers around 105 places, divided into five groups, and is one of the daycare centers supported by abw (a non-profit organization for work, education, and housing). It is specifically geared towards families born in Vietnam, as evidenced by the fact that it is the only daycare center nationwide to offer a bilingual German-Vietnamese care program. Its homepage is also designed bilingually, which greatly facilitates access for Vietnamese parents. In each group – at least ideally – a German-speaking and a Vietnamese-speaking educator work together in equal numbers, each interacting with the children in their native language, meaning they also speak Vietnamese with German-speaking children and vice versa.
During our first visit to Spatzennest, the director, Ms. M., who emphasized her origins from East Berlin, explained that this concept cannot always be consistently maintained, especially in situations where it is necessary for the addressed children to understand what is being said. Ms. M. also expressed a very critical attitude towards this educational concept in later conversations, which partly led to conflicts with the educators working there. For example, the two educators born in Vietnam, who work with the groups of five-year-olds, complained that the requirement to make important announcements in the respective mother tongue of the involved children does not truly promote bilingualism. The following situation illustrates this very clearly (…)
- The Berlin district with a large Vietnamese population can be identified as Lichtenberg due to historical demographics.
- The daycare center “Spatzennest” is easily identifiable as it is described as the only daycare in Germany with a bilingual German-Vietnamese program.
- The daycare director and educators can be identified through the unique combination of personal details (origin from East Berlin, Vietnamese background) and specific staff assignments (working with five-year-olds), especially by cross-referencing the daycare’s website.