The UK risks being cut off from the rest of the world because of a reluctance to learn languages, according to a leading head teacher in this BBC news report.
"Our record in language learning is uniquely bad in the developed world. We cannot simply assume the rest of the world will learn English to accommodate us," he says.
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TweetThe UK risks being cut off from the rest of the world because of a reluctance to learn languages, according to a leading head teacher in this BBC news report. "Our record in language learning is uniquely bad in the developed world. We cannot simply assume the rest of the world will learn English to accommodate us," he says. Useful links Study languages with the ...
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Comments
I learnt to speak French fluently at a British school and set out to start working life as a qualified 'bi-lingual' PA in 1982 ... but I have NEVER been hired as a French speaker for any job in all that time! So, in almost 30 years of working my French has only ever been an incidental plus for an employer ... once it got me a transfer to a job that required French within a company but it's never actually got me a job. So, where's the incentive to study languages? I was asked at school career guidance sessions ... so, do you want to be a translator or a French teacher? Those were the options then and I'm not sure it's changed.
I fully sympathise with you. I have only used French and German as a translator when I worked for a kitchen company (Wrightons) and did a few translations for an Irish builder in Swedish- my main language- in which I- unfortunately- have no formal qualifications. The usual reply..also the ill-founded idea that "they all speak English anyway" - they don't, even if it is taught in all European schools. No, sadly they seem to prefer to hire nationals of those countries and I imagine all the others rather than give any work to their own people. Or they rely on computer translation, which often is a joke if you look at some of the inanities which result! I'm going to do an MA to get that much needed qualification now that it has at last been reinstated but now I'm guilty of being considered too old- a crime, it seems, in Britain- so I'm not too hopeful-besides which I may not get help with the fees for the same reason and can't survive on an Old Age Pension. Like most things in Britain old ideas die hard!