She is one of the leading voices in contemporary Belarusian literature: the poems by Volha Hapeyeva, a poet, author and translator with a doctorate in linguistics who was born in Minsk, have been translated into more than 15 languages. She has been living in exile since 2020 and is currently a fellow of the DAAD’s Artists-in-Berlin program.

A key, an open window or a path leading to new horizons – many popular metaphors for languages are about breaking out or setting off on a journey. Learning a foreign language is “the acquisition of a new point of view in the previous world view,” wrote Wilhelm von Humboldt, the founder of comparative linguistics, in around 1825.

Societies that long viewed themselves as predominantly monolingual are nowadays witnessing growing multilingual dynamism as a result of globalisation, increased international networking and migration. While my generation for example knew English as a foreign language taught at school, many young people in Germany today routinely watch American series in the original version, follow English-speaking influencers on YouTube and write their TikTok posts in English. In their text mes­sages they combine German not only with English but also with languages that they know as the native tongues of their parents, grandparents or friends.