Are the British particularly bad at languages? Yes and no. Short, personal thread based on my experience. /1
There is nothing which makes British people inherently bad at languages I think. Many have successfully learnt other languages or already have more than one (BAME or multi-heritage people for example). /2
The lack of emphasis in school curricula, especially recently, is a strong factor. So is the fact that it is possible to rely on English in many places in the world. /3
But I out the challenge down to the fact that we do not learn English properly. And this goes back a long way. Ask people what a past participle or an adverb is and chances are you’ll draw a blank. /4
And I’ll admit that I only know this because I’ve studied other languages. /5
So, as well as the gender of words (yes, French, German and Spanish, I’m looking at you) we find it difficult to comprehend different ways in which languages work. /6
This also explains why there is a huge market for language learning in the UK but so many stall so quickly. The idea that you can be conversational quickly without understanding how a language works is a big problem. /7
I have no problem with promoting (eg) Chinese, Arabic, Japanese as target languages in schools - but without a basic grounding in (English) grammar rules, this is not going to be successful. /8
So with professionals, it is much more tricky to start later in life without a solid grounding in any other language from childhood, as well as properly understanding English. /9
And the British still have a ridiculous fear of sounding silly or causing offence by saying something wrong, even if we know some words to say. /10
The key is to start languages as young as possible but then keep them in the core school curriculum. This includes explaining English grammar properly too. /11
There is also a collective need to stress the value of languages, in schools and beyond. Otherwise, language provision will become the domain of private schools or for those lucky enough to have multilingual family backgrounds. /FIN
