English for business rather than pleasure

Why is it important that British people should be able to speak other languages? Doesn’t the rest of the world speak English? You don’t need to go as far as China to get a clear answer to that. Anyone who has had a car break down as they drove out of Calais will be able to confirm that this is a myth. The professional elites in many areas do have good English, but they speak it for business rather than for pleasure. If you want to build relationships you need to show that you respect their culture, and their language.

Coming out of the languages recession

For several years, the UK has been floundering in a languages recession. When the gravity of it became clear, a series of government interventions was launched, especially in England and Wales. The question is whether these have been effective and whether they can now be withdrawn. In fact the interventions have been effective in stemming the decline, but the recovery is still fragile. We can see green shoots, like the bottoming out of the decline at GCSE and A level. But it is still not a full-blown recovery.