which languages to learn and why?

Contentious @DiddlySquatted! La Francophonie in the Mahgreb/western Africa is not currently a shining example of peace and prosperity.

Not really the same thing. English is the dominant language, often imposed by Britain on countries it invaded and left in a mess.

Like who ?. Australia, Canada, Singapore the USA ?. Any mess there was was mostly of their own doing.

@Robinbuildsbears there really aren't plenty of people who are able and qualified to teach BSL. I tried really hard to find a place to learn level 2. There wasn't anywhere in or around our city. There also really aren't a huge number of deaf people who can't communicate because nobody uses BSL. As I've said on this post before, I've discussed it at length with professionals who work with deaf children. Technology now means that access to speech and language is so much easier for deaf people and so few rely on BSL. My cousin who is a Teacher of the Deaf works with several profoundly deaf children with speech and language as good as their peers. They're not interested in BSL, despite being exposed to it from birth. They just want to chat with their friends.

Not really the same thing. English is the dominant language, often imposed by Britain on countries it invaded and left in a mess.

If we native Brits laughed at and mocked the broken English and foreign accents of people who grew up speaking other languages, we would get arrested.

No you wouldn't. Hence why many experience it...

If we native Brits laughed at and mocked the broken English and foreign accents of people who grew up speaking other languages, we would get arrested.

And regarding BSL, just because most BSL users can read and write in English, doesn't at all mean that it's not worth learning or teaching. There are plenty of people able to teach, just not enough demand for them. It must be incredibly isolating to only talk properly with a very small group of people, depending on where you are, and that most people feel that you're not worth bothering to learn for. And BSL is not mainly useful for communication with those who have moderate to severe learning difficulties, you're thinking of Makaton.

I thought that, BIWI.

Calling language learning if it's not for work reasons a 'vanity project' is a very odd description, @Simonjt!

It's about keeping your brain working and challenging yourself, surely?

I've started learning Irish on Duolingo. Mainly because I love visiting Ireland but also because it's a dying language, it will be gone in 100 years they say. I think it's important to keep some languages alive particularly where they have just a rich literary history like Irish.

If I had to choose I'd learn Italian but it's the only country in Europe I intend on visiting multiple times, it's a beautiful language. I mostly like travelling to North America or plan on doing other countries just once/twice so it's not worthwhile investing too much time in a language.

Language teaching in the UK is shite though. I grew up in Wales so we were taught welsh 4-16, we only had French for a few years in high school, I dropped it as I didn't want to do 2 languages (forced to do welsh). So I could speak welsh pretty well...which was entirely pointless, even if I had stayed in Wales. My son has been taught small amounts of French and Spanish in primary, did Spanish in Y7 and now had to switch to French in Y8 due to lack of Spanish teachers. It's a massive shame because he is really good at languages and picks them up in a way I can't dream of, but the inconsistent, patchy teaching up to this age means a lot of time has been wasted.

I think they get taught to 14, but there's no 'minimum' number of hours they're taught so primary schools is mainly just fun. Plus there's no language teachers, and much harder to do foreign exchange now. So the numbers doing gcse have plummeted

Aaah. Thanks both

No, but for those who do study a langauge they are taught very poorly due to a piss poor curriculum, the skills needed to achieve a good grade at GCSE are minimal.

They are in certain years. Key stage 3 for sure and possibly KS2.

It was saying that 75% of people think they should be compulsory in school - like they used to be.
Hold on, are languages not compulsory at UK schools?

This was it!

www.thelanguagesgateway.uk/explore/

@DiddlySquatted most people aren't fortunate enough to grow up bilingual. You must surely be aware that, as a pp said, most french speakers have a heavy accent and make mistakes in English too. Your sneery attitude is horrible, just because you had the fortune to grow up bilingual.

So happy I found this thread as I've been thinking about this all week after I read an article in the Times about languages. It was saying that 75% of people think they should be compulsory in school - like they used to be.

The point of the article was about a new website to help share existing resources. I think it was aimed at parents/teachers not students. Will try to find it.

We’re a multi language household, me and our children are fluent in Urdu, English, Swedish and BSL. I’m also improving my German. I used to be fluent in Balti, it’s my first language, but my Balti skills are no longer up to scratch. My husband speaks Swedish, English and German fluently, his Urdu is now pretty good.

The thing I would consider is the new language for career prospects etc, or is it purely a vanity project? If its a vanity prospect you can just purely focus on something you fancy. See if there are any clubs in your local area for speakers of the language you’re interested in, having paper skills or duolingo skills really don’t cut it when you speak with a native speaker.

Trust me, many native English speakers have "good" laugh at ESL learners as well.

Yes and that's mean too.

that there seems to be a reluctance often, on the part of us Brits, to bother to pronounce words properly.

Definitely. As an MFL teacher in British schools it's quite a hurdle. It's quite difficult to persuade kids that using a French accent to speak French isn't weird, embarrassing or showing off. Many claim they can't do it. Sometimes I get them to try speaking English in an exaggerated Allô Allô French accent (after amusing them by doing it myself), just to break the ice and show them that they can make those sounds if they try . Then I say 'Right. Now do that accent, but when you're saying French words'!

My father and family are English. I spent summers and long holidays in London plus I spoke to him nearly every day so I was clear and fluent in English when I moved to London at 14. I had a slight accent which I quickly lost.

in my job and career we are not talking about students or tourists ordered a beer. This is serious industrial technology which requires substantial funding and finance. This all comes from Paris.

When you are asking for large sums of money you need to come across as competent, controlled and professional. That doesn’t work with a less than complete command of the language. Nobody is going to make allowances and we have lost our case for funding over it. Made even harder since Brexit.

We now work closely with our US subsidiary and all meetings are is now conducted in English. It is the international language.

I grew up in poverty in what we used to refer to as a third world country, I’m no longer in poverty, but I’m certainly not elite. I speak three languages fluently, I’m also very good at BSL. I also travel quite a bit, lots of places can be done on a budget. I once did Budapest for £120 for three nights (that was flights, hostel and all costs).

I speak fluent French. My mother is from Nice and I lived there until I was in my early teens so it always makes me laugh when I hear English people, who pride themselves on their French, speaking like Arthur Bostrom from Ello Ello.

Whereas native French speakers are so good at speaking English without a French accent? I'm a French teacher and have barely ever met a French speaker of English who didn't have a strong French accent (unless they were raised bilingual, obviously), even those who teach English!

People are very much misunderstanding the point about some people.
Someone trying to speak or speaking not perfectly is absolutely normal and no one is perfect, it's great to keep trying.
Someone very, very confidently to a point of arrogance announcing they are fluent and then producing "Me travel into Berlin last year" equivalent in any language is a different matter.

This attitude is why so many English speakers are afraid to learn another language.
Trust me, many native English speakers have "good" laugh at ESL learners as well.