Photo: National Cancer Institute, Unsplash

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Here’s some rather depressing news that will have knock-on effects for years to come: fewer students at less affluent schools in the UK are studying foreign languages. Now, some people won’t think this matters, because, after all, as some people will say, “everyone in the world speaks English” and “learning languages is less important than learning maths or IT”. But this couldn’t be more wrong. Studying languages is an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issue and it’s one that has an impact on workplaces, as well as on people’s brains, self-confidence and personal lives.

First of all, the news article tells us that fewer than half of the students in less affluent state schools study a language, and actually the news isn’t that much better at the more affluent state schools, where fewer than 70% of the pupils choose a language. In other words, on average, only about 50% of young people take a language in the UK to GCSE level, which means that their skills may not even be at a high enough level for them to feel confident going to that country and ordering a meal, never mind trying to conduct a business meeting in that tongue. And for the 50% who don’t study a language to even GCSE level, they won’t be able to communicate with people from other nations unless that’s in their own tongue. It seems a lot to ask for everyone else in the world to always have to use English to communicate.

Even among those who do study a language, the options taken in the UK are primarily French, Spanish and German. Those are all excellent, important languages, but they definitely aren’t the only ones in the world, and they quite possibly aren’t the most essential ones for the future. More than 7,000 languages are spoken in the world today and, interestingly, it’s thought that over 300 different languages are spoken in homes and communities in the UK, of course including Welsh, which is an official language in schools, the Senedd (parliament) and elsewhere in Wales. Currently, the most spoken languages in the world are Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic; as noted, only one of those is regularly studied in the UK (Spanish).

Sure, us English-speakers can probably get by with our English, but it shows a lack of respect if we travel or try to do business with people from other nations and can’t even have small talk with them in their language. Our communication options will be decreased and we might miss nuances in our discussions if we try to converse solely in English, which might be a second, third or even beyond language for the people we are talking to.

There are many benefits to speaking other languages. We’ve already mentioned how useful it can be in a business context, because it can improve cultural and practical understanding, prevent confusion or awkwardness, and it can impact interpersonal understanding. From a financial perspective, companies that wish to do business outside their own country’s borders can make a real impact and attract clients by having staff who speak the languages of other nations. As a customer, would you place more trust in an organisation that spoke your tongue or one that didn’t? Which one would you rather do business with and give money to?

Written by Dr B.J. Woodstein (Research Associate, PILAA)

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