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Monolingualism in Britain

This headline from a popular British newspaper doesn't surprise me: “UK voted worst country in Europe at learning other languages.” That was in 2016, the year in which 17 million people voted to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum, triggering a political earthquake that continues to be felt today. Politics aside, though, why are Britons notoriously bad at learning another language? It's not an easy question to answer, but in this post I will attempt to do just that.

Anyone who has watched the first episode of the Netflix series “Red Rose” will have seen a group of sixteen-year-old school leavers in the north of England celebrate not having to endure any more “boring” French lessons. This scene stayed with me, one reason being that I, on the contrary, enjoyed learning French at school, although there were times when I was expected to memorise long lists of verb conjugations, a rather dull process that is best avoided, in my opinion. Schools in the UK now allow pupils to opt out of modern languages at GCSE level, a move which seems to support the view that native speakers of English don't need to know another language. Yes, English is a global language, but does that really give you an excuse? Spanish is also widely spoken. Do Spanish speakers eschew learning English for that reason?

Journalists and academics point to the conclusion that there is a monolingual mindset in Britain, and it is rooted in the country's history. Anglo-Saxon culture came to dominate much of the island of Great Britain, and English evolved and became the language of power and influence, which then spread to colonies overseas. Wikipedia gives an eloquent perspective: “The predominance of English in many sectors, such as world trade, technology and science, has contributed to English-speaking societies being persistently monolingual.” There is a joke about Americans which could also apply to the British. What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. And someone who speaks one language? American.

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was involved in an online discussion about popular activities among Britons during the first lockdown. I asked if anyone had spent time learning another language, like Spanish. One man replied that learning to ride a unicycle would be more useful. And there you have it. Never mind the professional and cultural benefits of learning a language spoken by half-a-billion people worldwide! That man clearly belongs in a circus, where his unicycling prowess will be appreciated by a small audience of like-minded people. His attitude is by no means uncommon.

Admittedly, I didn't bother much with languages after studying GCSE German and French. It wasn't until I arrived in Poland in my late twenties that I decided to immerse myself in another language. Since then, I've gained a wealth of knowledge about Polish and Slavic languages in general, and I'm glad to say that my level of Polish is around B1, which means I can communicate in a variety of contexts. It also means that I have a better understanding of the challenges faced by Polish people learning English, how their language influences their speech, and so on.

The British may be largely reluctant to speak a language other than English; however, there are many people who, like me, are trying to buck the trend.

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