Here we are, blogging again. All the blogs have been nicely set up, and I hope everyone is ready to start writing.
For a start, I would like you to imagine what your life would be like if you didn't know any foreign language. The topic has been inspired by an article in The Observer I have just read, in which the author discusses foreign language learning in British schools. It says that the number of British students learning modern languages has been decreasing dramatically ever since 2004, when languages were removed from the "core curriculum", i.e. became optional courses rather than mandatory for students aged 14 or older.
At 60% of state schools, three-quarters of 14-year-olds are not taking a modern language. Meanwhile, the take-up in primary schools is mysteriously delayed. Language teachers are not so easy to find and, indeed, where would they come from, given that no one's studying languages any more?
You might say that native speakers of English, the global language of today, don't need to learn other languages because they can communicate in their native language anywhere in the world. Still, the author considers consequences of the situation at various levels, including personal development:
On the individual level, think of the loss of possibility, the preordained narrowness of a life encased in one language, as if you were only ever allowed one, as if it were your skin in which you were born. Or your cage. That's your lot. (...) If you don't have another language, you are condemned to occupy the same positions, the same phrases, all your life. It's harder to outwit yourself, harder to doubt yourself, in just one language. It's harder to play.
Is this an exaggeration, or do you agree with this opinion? Comment on the topic on your blog, please, drawing on your personal experience and observation.
