Money talks – in many different languages
As English has cemented its position as the default language of global business, Anglophone interest in foreign languages has steadily waned.
“We have taken a perverse pride in the fact that we do not speak foreign languages, and we just need to speak louder in English,” British education secretary Michael Gove lamented to a newspaper last week. His government hopes to reverse a decline in the number of British students sitting a language GCSE – a drop from 444,700 to 273,000 over 12 years – by teaching foreign languages from the age of five.
But how much do measures like this stand to benefit English speakers, given the dominance of their language? To an aspiring executive from an English speaking background, does it make sense to spend time acquiring another language when the world is learning yours? Or would you be wiser investing that time in other areas of your career instead?
Read the full CNN article.
During the Festival of Ideas learn about the importance of languages with Why do languages die? and Bilingualism in school.
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