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United Kingdom academics state that not speaking English is as bad a problem as only speaking English, having no ...
United Kingdom academics state that not speaking English is as bad a problem as only speaking English, having no knowledge of alternative languages; they estimate that 80,000 million dollars a year might be lost in the future for not being competitive enough.
Expertos explican que sólo saber inglés es también un problema en el nuevo mundo globalizado. Foto: Archivo
The English are concerned for speaking only English. During the beginning of the new school year this week, primary schools started to mandatory teach foreign languages for the first time ever.
Simultaneously, businessmen complain about not finding employees with a suitable knowledge of other languages. Which are the most valued languages people should learn?
This has become a pressing matter not only at a cultural level but also at an economic level. According to a research done by Professor James Foreman-Peck, of Cardiff Business School for the British Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and quoted by the British newspaper The Observer, it has been estimated that the United Kingdom might lose around US$ 80,000 millions a year, -3.5% of GDP- due to “linguistic and cultural ignorance”.
Professor Foreman-Peck explained in his report that the lack of linguistic skills ends up acting as a “tax over growth”, complicating the development of the exporting sector among small and medium companies.
The research was mentioned by the “Manifiesto for Languages”, published in July by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages (APPG), a parliamentary group which aims that every political party demands the spread of languages’ teaching in schools and at work.
“English is a very important language in the world, but recent research has shown that, during the XXI century, only speaking English is as much a disadvantage as not speaking English at all”.
The document received the support of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), that, as The Observer points out, in 2012 found a survey in which 61% of non-exporting companies, but prone to international commerce, fail to do so due to lack of knowledge on other languages.
Even 70% of exporters admitted not knowing the language of the country in which they operate. “We are victims of the success of the English language. Many people make the mistake of thinking that everyone speaks English, a fact that it is simply not true: three quarters of the world population does not speak English”, said to BBC World Mark Moulding, from the British Council, a public institute with the objective of spreading the knowledge of English and its culture.
“Traditionally, only a reduced number of languages, mainly from our European neighbours, are taught in schools in the UK, and children do not need to study up to an advance level. This means that there is a real lack of people capable of speaking important languages such as Chinese or Portuguese, and there are not many who speak French, German or Spanish”.
Most highly regarded languages
U.K. companies complain about the lack of employees with proper knowledge in other languages.
According to a survey published in June by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and the editorial and educational services company, Pearson, 65% of U.K. companies mentioned their need of employees with foreign languages knowledge.
Difficulties to finding bilingual British employees is high and the CBI confirmed that only 2% of companies are “very satisfied” with the level of knowledge on other languages among university graduates.
The most valued languages by British employers, according to the CBI/Pearson survey are:
“With the UE being our main exporting market, it is not surprising to see that knowledge on German, French and Spanish are very appreciated by companies. But as China and Latin America keep on growing, ambitious companies demand knowledge on languages that may facilitate the entrance towards new markets”, explain CBI sub director, Katja Hall.
“Young people considering their future options should be advised on the benefits that come from learning a foreign language,” points out Hall, who also states that it shall be seen whether recent government initiatives may stimulate the resurgence of languages learning.
“It prevents us from connecting”
Meanwhile, the British Council analysed economic, geopolitical, educational and cultural factors to determine the ten most important languages to achieve the prosperity, security and influence of the U.K. during the next 20 years.
Indicators used were: current U.K. exportations, linguistic requirements of companies in the U.K., British commercial priorities, highly growing emerging markets, diplomatic and security priorities, linguistic interests among citizens, foreign destinies of visitors, priorities on the government international education, English speaking levels in other countries and the prevalence of different languages in the Internet.
In this analyses, published on November 2013, the British Council concluded that the most valued languages are: Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese.
A research requested for this report determined that 75% of the British population can not speak any of these languages well enough to keep a conversation.
The most spoken languages are French (15%), German (6%), Spanish (4%), Italian (2%), Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian (1% each). “The lack of knowledge in foreign languages in the U.K. causes many problems”, explains Moulding, “mainly due to business opportunities that are lost because we do not have linguistic skills to make deals”.
Another inconvenient is that, as fewer people study languages at university, the teachers supply is more reduced. “If we want more children studying languages, we will need more language teachers”, says Moulding.
“And there is another major problem- he points out-: the way in which the lack of language knowledge prevents us from connecting with people from other cultures. Thinking that foreigners speak English is expecting for them to do things our way, and that is not a good base for any relationship. As Nelson Mandela once said: “if you speak to a man in a language he understands, that reaches his head. If you speak to a man in his own language, the message reaches his heart”.
The British Council is highlighting positive steps, such as mandatory teaching at schools and the objective of duplicating the number of children studying Chinese in the U.K. However, the major challenge is that young people “come to understand the benefits” of learning another language: “they must really want to learn a language, because if the do not, they will drop it the first chance they have”, explains Moulding to BBC World.
Risks are visible. Young people face the situation of entering the labour market “without the skills required by employers”, companies “lose opportunities abroad”, and the country “is losing its position in the world as a result of not being able to connect with other countries and cultures”. “Therefore, there is plenty of reason to take measures on this issue”, he concludes.
Source: La Nación – BBC Mundo