Monolingualism in the UK by Isabelle Lenton

Last year, Madame Pini was my French teacher and, in one of our lessons, she told us that there was a decline in language A-Levels being taken every year. This was quite weird to me because our school is very focused on languages and my family as a whole is multilingual. Could it be because of Brexit and Brits wanting to further themselves from the rest of Europe or because ‘everyone in the world’ can speak English?

According to a survey published by the European Commission, British people are officially the worst language learners in Europe.

In short, the survey says:

• 62% of people in Britain can’t speak any other language than English.
• 38% of Brits speak at least one foreign language
• 18% speak two 
• Only 6% of the population speak three or more.

A recurrent excuse is that we don’t need to learn other languages because ‘English is a language spoken worldwide’. In my view, this is a very worrying mindset that will prevent learning and communication with people from other countries. Even if it’s just a few words for when you go on holiday, it’s important to show effort.

In comparison, over half of people in the EU can speak at least two languages with 38% being able to speak English. Just over half of Europeans (54%) are able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, a quarter (25%) are able to speak at least two additional languages and one in ten (10%) are conversant in at least three.

There is a difference between learning and already knowing another language. Learning a language can be hard and it is easy to give up. However, already knowing a language can help you with learning another one. For example, if you can speak French it will be easier to learn another of the Romance languages: Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese. Another trick would be to choose a language with similar grammar.

London is a place of many nationalities. In the 2011 census, 36.7% of London's population was foreign born and London, unsurprisingly, has the largest number of foreign-born residents of any UK city. Hopefully, the UK will become more motivated to learn languages, whether it’s to make their CV look good or to be able to talk with the locals when travelling. Dealing with another culture enables people to gain a more profound understanding of their own culture. Communication is what enables us to pass information to other people, and to understand what is said to us...a key life skill.