Your Well-Educated Kanak

2026-10-15 19:20:52

Hamid's Glow-Up and Sloppy Terms: What the Publisher Said

Now it's time for the reactions I got when I made my point about the story.

Context

After raising concerns about how migration is represented in the textbook, I wrote to the publisher. You can find the whole email here: Hamid's Story and the Politics of Gratitude in a German Language Coursebook. Below is the reply from the publisher, with my reflections right after each part.

In the emails below, the parts in bold are what I changed from the originals (anonymisation, removed passages).

Email from the Publisher

From: Publisher's Representative
Date: 1 Feb. 2025, 11:28 MEZ

after feedback from our editorial team, we can understand your concerns, but we do not share the same view that a text about personal plans in a textbook at B1/B2 level should also include the topic of the difficulties faced by migrants in Germany.
We have to consider that a complete, sociologically differentiated view of a topic cannot be expected in every text in a textbook for German as a foreign language.

I actually agree with this. Because we never get the full picture, every word is a choice about how to show immigration and "Germany." That's why editorial choices matter so much, especially when completeness isn't possible.

It may be the case that a small text like this influences the learners' perception of Germany to some extent. This is why we generally endeavour to remain realistic in our texts.

So in practice, this tells me: those experiences I mentioned—Hanau, discrimination in housing and hiring—don't really count as "realistic" for them.

However, we cannot see that Germany is overly idealised in this text.

I think I showed clearly why the story is idealised. They disagree, but instead of saying, "these examples don't represent migration in Germany," they just insist there's no idealisation.

We explicitly mention bureaucratic hurdles and that Hamid still has some difficulties.

This feels like a very simple idea of "balance": mention one negative point and suddenly the text becomes neutral. Bureaucracy critiques are safe—they appear in many German critiques—so immigrants get a pass to complain here while deeper issues like racism are ignored.

Nevertheless, we will consider whether to take out Hamid's fleeing experiences in the last paragraph of the text.

This is a classic surface-level compromise. The main story stays the same—Germany is where he can finally live freely—but they might remove one detail to seem accommodating.

Surely the text can be an input for a discussion in the course, in which different perspectives can be expressed. Providing such input is also the task of a textbook, even if the discussion topic is not explicitly mentioned on the page.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Kundenservice

I like the idea of using it for discussion—that's what I'm doing here. But at the same time, they get to say what a textbook's job is, pushing the hard work of raising uncomfortable issues onto teachers and students rather than embedding it into the text itself.

Later in the same book, I found something else problematic and wrote to them again.

Second Email to the Publisher

Date: 22 May 2025, 16:28 MESZ

Dear Publisher,

I hope this message finds you well.

I am writing to raise a concern regarding the textbook [Textbook Name], specifically the content on pages [Page Numbers]. In the reading comprehension exercise in Lesen Teil 4, there is a section discussing the distribution of the Sprachförderkoffer in kindergartens with a high percentage of children with a Migrationshintergrund. However, in the corresponding multiple-choice question (question 15), the term Ausländeranteil is presented as the correct answer for this context.

As you will be aware, Migrationshintergrund and Ausländeranteil are not equivalent concepts in German official terminology and social research. The former includes both citizens and non-citizens with a migration background, while the latter refers exclusively to non-citizens. Conflating these two terms not only risks factual inaccuracy but also reinforces problematic assumptions about identity and belonging in Germany, which is especially troubling in a textbook intended for integration and vocational language courses.

Given the importance of accurate and socially responsible language in educational materials, particularly in contexts dealing with migration and integration, I urge you to review this section and consider a revision in future editions.

[...]

I sincerely hope that this issue will be taken into account in your editorial review process.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Kind regards,
me

(Photos of the highlighted book pages were attached to the email.)

The reply: "Please send us the ISBN"

From: Contact Person (Customer Service, Publisher)
Date: 23 May 2025, 14:23 MESZ (1 day later)

Dear me,

Thank you for your message.
Please send us the ISBN from the book, so that we can check it for you.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Contact Person
Kundenservice

A fast reply, but not a reasonable question. I had given the title, the page numbers, the exercise, and the question number, and I had attached photos of the pages. If the publisher keeps its books in a searchable database, searching for the terms I mentioned would have found the page in seconds.

I would call this a passive-aggressive attitude. I assume they asked for the ISBN just to annoy me, since they could easily have found the page by themselves. And I ended up answering with a passive-aggressive comment of my own.

My answer

Date: 6 Jun 2025, 10:22 MESZ (14 days after their reply)

Thank you for your reply. The ISBN of the book is [ISBN].

As a small note, considering the quality of OCR and text recognition technologies nowadays, it might also be helpful for publishers to keep searchable digital records of their publications for easier reference in such cases.

(Oh, being a smart-ass makes me feel better. I'm not sure if that's the correct term.)

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
me

The second reply: "if necessary"

From: Contact Person (Customer Service, Publisher)
Date: 3 Jul 2025, 13:55 MESZ (27 days after my email)

Dear me,

Please excuse the late response.

The responsible editorial department will review your comments and the facts and correct the place in the book if necessary.

Thank you for your understanding.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Contact Person
Kundenservice

[This was the last email exchange between the publisher and me.]

From my second email to the last reply, 42 days passed. The answer was polite, but it commits to nothing: the editorial department will look at it and correct it "if necessary." I don't see this one as a difference of opinion. Migrationshintergrund includes German citizens, Ausländeranteil does not.

Looking back at both replies

Both replies are friendly, and both stay careful. In the first, the publisher understands my concerns but does not share my view. In the second, the editors will check and correct "if necessary." Neither says clearly whether I was right or wrong, and following up took effort too: an ISBN round, weeks of waiting. I mention it only because that effort stays with the person who complains.

It is easy to say these are small things: one story, one word. But the publisher itself wrote that a small text like this may influence learners' perception of Germany. I think the same applies to a single word in a test question. And this is an exam preparation book. As I read it, a learner who wants to get question 15 right has to treat Migrationshintergrund and Ausländeranteil as the same thing. Being marked correct is how people learn what is "right," and a textbook for newcomers is often where they first learn it.

And it is not only about the word. The two issues look different, one is a story and the other is a single term, but both are about how the book frames who is a "foreigner" and who belongs. Neither choice is neutral. A story that ends with gratitude is a choice, and so is a word that treats citizens with a migration background as foreigners. If a textbook cannot show everything, as the publisher says, then what it chooses to show, and how, deserves careful attention. That is why I wrote these emails, and why I wrote this post.

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Outline of the "Hamid's Story" Series (aka #GermanCourseBook)

1. Classroom observation → Discomfort with migrant representation → Hamid's Story and the Politics of Gratitude
2. Complaint to publisher → Polite acknowledgment → Responsibility shifted to pedagogy → Hamid's Glow-Up and Sloppy Terms (this post)