Languages

A friend just posted this article on his facebook feed. I agree wholeheartedly, bar one comment; "There is this strange cluelessness of the English"... I'd prefer that to be re-written as 'native English speakers'.

Working in a language school, I'm in contact on a daily basis with people of all ages from many many countries (over twenty, off the top of my head), who are striving to learn our difficult, idiosyncratic language. When I tell them I can speak 2 other languages fluently, as well as bits and pieces of at least 6 others (heehee), they don't believe me. And if they do, they are shocked and tell me I am 'not like other English people'. And instead of being proud of my achievements, instead I'm ashamed that they feel that way about native speakers of English.

Most of my friends have a GCSE in one language, but would be hard pushed to actually speak it after almost a decade. Many people say "languages are difficult" and "I'm no good at languages"... Well, I found maths difficult, but I still had to do a GCSE in it. And many of my students are not natural linguists and find learning English difficult, but they feel they have to. Whose fault is that? If we won't learn their language, what choice do foreign businesses have?

A-level results were released yesterday. My Mum has been a secondary Spanish teacher for over 30 years, and says that the format of the language exams for both GCSE and A level have definitely be dumbed down. Soon, she says, no-one will be able to teach languages because no-one will have a high enough level to be able to! It's shocking that, so many years after taking away the requirement of a GCSE in Modern Languages, it is only this September that it'll be compulsory for all primary school kids to learn a language from the age of 7. That should have come into force long before the GCSE was taken away.

Anyway, rant over.