Why do the Brits just not bother with learning foreign languages?
Jay Doubleyou: britain is bottom of the class when it comes to second languages
Jay Doubleyou: immigrants with no second language? it’s true britishness
Is it because they don't really need to?
Jay Doubleyou: do the brits really need to learn a foreign language when everyone speaks english?
Or is it because they don't want to speak anything 'foreign'?
Jay Doubleyou: brexit: and what the british think of themselves
Here's the opening of a recent piece which asks these questions:
Why are foreign languages so taboo for Brits?
Language learning in most UK schools is both feared and loathed
Foreign languages have always been tricky for most Brits, but that shouldn’t be a reason for the government to discourage them.
Diminishing opportunities for language learning
Since the British public in 2016 voted to leave the European Union there has been an increasing rise in racism and xenophobia. A report by the Home Office found that in the 2016/2017 reporting period the UK experienced a 27 per cent and 35 per cent increase in racially and religiously motivated hate crimes, respectively.
There appears to be a correlation between this and the dramatic decrease in the number of students choosing to study languages in recent years. A report by the British Council suggests that just over a third of state schools noted that leaving the EU has had a negative impact on student motivation and/or parental attitude towards language learning.
A further issue is that the government have increasingly prioritised STEM subjects, while cuts to education have had a devastating impact on language courses in schools. The NEU reports:
‘the cumulative impact of funding cuts since 2011 meant by November 2017, 50% of colleges and schools that responded to a survey had dropped Modern Foreign Language courses’.
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Why are foreign languages so taboo for Brits? | Shout Out UK
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