The Dean

The problem is surely that languages are seen as an academic subject, rather than as something that is simply 'useful to know'.

My daughter is a superb artist, but has no Art GCSEs or whatever - it's just a skill she has, and one she has worked hard to improve over the years (she sees it as a fun hobby to be able to do something she is good at). My son appears to be developing some superb IT/techie skills, but he has never taken an IT exam.

My daughter (returning to the topic) is also a naturally gifted linguist. After going down the conventional school route for French and German, she is now reasonably fluent in Italian which was entirely self-taught with the help of some time spent in Italy during her gap year. She will be spending more time in the Middle East in the next year or two, and I know she will be more or less fluent in Arabic by then.

The general issue for most people though is a sense of embarrassment if we are not fluent: speak French in an 'English' accent and it sounds awful (and the French pretend they can't understand anyway), but listen to a Frenchman speaking English in a French accent and we are supposed to think it sounds charming and even 'sexy'.

They don't care about sounding perfect as long as they can communicate and be understood, while we feel uncomfortable if we can't do it properly.

typical

Right on. Then again the same is true of maths, sciences...

That's much less of a problem outside Paris, in my experience, unless you're actually incomprehensible.

Bahtatboy

My youngest son's just done his GCSEs (in UK) and he did Spanish (it was on the curriculum in a state school). He'll probably get an A, but he really struggles to put a sentence together. My daughter got all As and A*s in her GCSEs, excpet for German for which she got a C (she's bilingual (not in German) which I firmly believe makes it easier to learn a third language): her "failure" was all down to the teaching, I'm convinced. I think the standard of foreign language teaching in UK schools is dreadful. I also think that we should be teaching Mandarin far more widely. Arabic? No, but I struggle to put forwarnd an inoffensive reason.

auzdafluff

Parisians are like that to people from other parts of France too. Mainly because they're twats.

Anyway, French was compulsory for us from Year 7 (first year of high school). Then in the second year, those in the top set were also taught Spanish. So I ended up with GCSEs and A levels in both French and Spanish.

I'm currently learning Arabic too - well, useful Arabic. I've already become fluent in Arabic swear words and insults thanks to my Arabic speaking friends.

Norm_uk

I can believe that. When I was there for Chinese New Year with my lady I was offered three jobs teaching English because they really want native speakers to improve their studies and get a good feel for the language.

N.

Ethos83

I studied Greek and Latin at school. Talk about useful languages, eh?

My French was passable enough to get around as a tourist but recently I've been working on improving my French abilities. I do wish I could speak German.

If you are treating languages strictkly from a practical/business perspective, Britain does far more trade with France and Germany than it does with ME or Asian countries and our corporate/banking/finance industries are more interlinked with the continental countries than with any ME country or even China. Since joining my company in April I've travelled to France four times for work and speak with our French partners quite often. Ditto for Germany and Switzerland.

Bahtatboy

Japan went through this in the 80's and 90's, with several vast organisations employing thousands of "native" English speakers, and nearly all large companies employing their own Gaijin. One of the biggest language schools went bust last year.

China is a huge market for this, and there are some interesting opportunities for combining language with foreign business training. My business plan is in preparation...

Norm_uk

China has that buzz of something big is happening and it's great. I think any long term plans should involve learning Mandarin though as they are generally decent to foreigners but I know from my lady's family that they wouldn't be impressed with someone living there for years and not speaking the lingo (unlike us in the UAE or large chunks of Tower Hamlets ).

N.

littlejimmy

Actually I found Latin quite useful, seeing is it is the root language for many modern European languages. Still flunked the O-level, mind.

ctfc

It's a very simple case of payback. Though it's the third most widely spoken first language, it's the most widely spoken second language by a huge margin.

If a Frenchman learns English he can talk with almost anyone in Europe, but for a native English speaker, no other language offers anything comparable in terms of payback, unless you're moving to a specific part of the world.

IMHO it's much better to teach the kids how to hack computers and make viruses and internet porn. That's where the money is.