Mourning the decline of French
In today’s Guardian, Marcel Berlins approves of Jacques Chirac’s walk-out from the opening session of the EU spring summit last week, prompted by a speech in English by the French leader of the EU employers’ organisation. Ernest-Antoine Sellière did so because English is “the language of business”. Berlins notes that he could have added “of international trade, the internet, pop music, the tourist industry and Hollywood”:
French cannot compete. All it has in its favour is that it is the most beautiful language in the world, the most elegant, expressive and mellifluous. It’s also the pre-eminent language of culture. But that’s irrelevant if all you want is to do a deal.
What Chirac was concerned about, apparently, was that as French becomes less important on the international stage, it infiltrates and degrades French as well, which has been changing very rapidly of late, changes increasingly spearheaded by the younger generation, an example being “the language of the banlieue (slum/suburb), much in evidence last November during the riots of the disadvantaged”. Of course, the language of the French slums is likely to be different from middle-class French, because they are populated by large numbers of Arabs and Africans. And as for the preponderance of English popular culture, dreck is dreck in anyone’s language, but if the French have not produced a culture they consider worth keeping in the last forty years or so, you can hardly blame their youth for looking elsewhere.
Actually the real reasons French is on the decline is simply that it failed to colonise enough of the right places in the 18th and 19th centuries, and because Europe is enlarging. The British got underpopulated areas like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and (for a while) America. It also colonised most of India and large parts of Africa. Today, English is the lingua franca in many of these places – still used officially in India and Pakistan (its replacement with Hindi being resisted by, among others, the Tamils). France first tried to grab its neighbours’ countries, and got trounced. It later got north Africa (which it misruled dreadfully), the desert and semi-desert of the west African interior, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon, Québec, and a few pockets of India – mostly places where a major international language was already spoken or widely understood: Arabic.
French is still an official language in many of these places, the internationally known names of several cities in Algeria, for example, being French rather than Arabic or any other local language. Read any English guidebook of Morocco, and you will find streets being named in French, rather than Arabic or in English translations.
As for the decline of French in Europe, this was bound to happen as French ceased to be the biggest single language spoken in the EU. In the Cold War days France was the biggest country in the EU by far, and French is also spoken in Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of Italy. Italian has similar Latin roots to French, while English and German have substantial amounts of French or otherwise Latin-based vocabulary, and French is generally the first foreign language British children learn. This is not the case any longer, with the arrival of large populations of Slavs whose language has nowhere near this level of French influence, and with French being only one of four major Latin languages. Probably the EU’s biggest single language is German, with eastern Germany and Austria now in the union (with speakers in France, Poland, Belgium and Italy), but because of the problems you might have in getting the Poles and Czechs to accept German as the language of European business, it’s not really a viable proposition.
I find it rather amusing that Berlins thinks French culture is particularly threatened, with fewer than 100 million speaking the language worldwide – compare this with fewer than half that number speaking Polish and with other European languages with fewer than 10 million – worldwide, not just at home. What do the Lithuanians do when speaking at these summits – do they never speak any language except Lithuanian? The only reason Chirac walked out in a huff is because in bygone days, he would have been able to go to other EU countries and expect to hear French. And I’m not sure the Italians would agree that French is “the most beautiful language in the world, the most elegant, expressive and mellifluous”.
I guess I just do not get the whole French thing. Like when you go to Quebec but they refuse to speak English to you even though they can because they feel the “threat of English”. The Portugesse, Italians, and other groups do not seem to have this attitude.
Also, I think that in part English is the language of money becuase of English Colonialism; but today they are teaching American English in schools in China and India, but I guess that just gets back to the British..lol
Quel dommage. Not.
your article is full of mistakes! i would be ashamed, if i were you. agree with the decline. but you don’t really understand what matters to french people, for the language it is a cliché, we want to keep it in france clearly, but after for foreign countries it is political. for colonisation your totallly wrong.french colonized as much as english people ( aa bit less ok). french were present in many countries in subsaharian area( a lot in the west) a lot in indochine also, quebec, and also like u like to mention it for english, french colonized louisiana. Anyway france has a lot more importance with middle east countries, china and south american countries than england do! believe me or not. france has economical problem is clear, but what u speak about is empty of sense!who cares about the languages!
Yes the worm has turned .I as a european is only delighted that the most aragant country in EU is having to eat humble pie….Long it may be
I thoroughly agree with the post. As an Indian, i am today most comfortable with english, more than even my mother tongue or national language or the regional langus=ages i know (we have that many languages here, you see). And as for the historical aspect of it, the french were on the decline for the past 50 or so years and the language just followed them. The interesting thing is, if Dupleix had defeated Clive in my country in the 1700’s we would be a francophone people now!
Siddharth, you may be interested in this site…
Sorry, I meant here…
heh…good page, man.Clive was probably one of the most influential figures in modern history, and maybe the most despised colonial figure in my country in the history textbooks.Good to see him getting the attention he deserves.
French cannot is not in decline as a matter of fact just recently leaders from France, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania advocates for the sole use of French in EU.
Haven’t you guys heard that in Nigeria, French is required in secondary schools and they it even has a French speaking village called Badagry to help students become more proficient in it not to mention that there’s a movement there to make it the second official language.
Ghana is another former British colony that made French compulsory ion schools. French is also required in Police training and it’s becoming more and more used in business there.
Finally, English is in gret danger in Eastern Africa because Swahili is now an official language and there is a sign that it’s now used more often than English in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia and not to mention that most of the Afro-Americans have interest not just learning it but also to make it the first language of that community.
French is becoming stronger in Africa while English is receding even in South Africa because of the attitude of the former colonialist to their former subjects.
As I understand it, French has actually been losing influence in Africa, because of the malign interference of the French in the affairs of some former French and Belgian colonies. The present ruling classes of Rwanda and the eastern Congo speak English, not French; French is what the old elites spoke. It is understandable that countries in west Africa require children to learn French, because it is a colonial language in many other countries in the region, like Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal etc., but these countries also often emulate the British educational system, in which children learn French.
There is no reason why Afro-Americans would switch from English to Swahili en masse. It is not even part of their heritage; most of their ancestors came from west Africa and some from Angola. The slaves from the Swahili-speaking east mostly went to the Arab world, or stayed in Africa (as parts of it were ruled by the Omanis). Swahili is just the local language of the Muslim coast of Kenya and Tanzania; it is a beautiful language, but there is nothing about it which is universal to black people everywhere (much of its vocabulary is Arabic and English).
Just admit it English speakers that your language is receding in Africa.
I thought that at the end of apartheid the Afrikaans language would die in South Africa. But it turned out to be the opposite. Afrikaans is now more widely spoken than ever before and the de facto lingua franca.
The reason why French is embedded in Africa is because of the educational system(not patterned after the British). France endlessly donating funds while the British don’t care enough about the educational welfare of its subjects.
Besides, French is not considered a foreign language in Former French Africa but rather as a language of their own. That’s why the French of French Africa is far better than the English of Kenyans, Zimbabweans, etc.
As for Rwanda, it hasn’t totally abandoned French. It’s still official.
French is mandatory in secondary schools in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia and it’s making its presence in Liberia.
English is great danger in Zimbabwe because of what happened recently there. Th properties of the British settlers were seized. The culture of the colonizers is being despise there.
*Just admit it English speakers that your language is receding in Africa. I thought that at the end of apartheid the Afrikaans language would die in South Africa. But it turned out to be the opposite. Afrikaans is now more widely spoken than ever before and the de facto lingua franca.*
Afrikaans is the language of the Dutch-descended settlers and of the descendents of their Indonesian indentured servants. It’s dominant in some parts of South Africa and not others. There has been a move towards getting rid of European names generally and replacing them with native ones, such as Tshwane for Pretoria (or rather Greater Pretoria, since the inner part of the city will still be Pretoria). Perhaps English will suffer in relation to Afrikaans since many English South Africans still have links to Britain that Afrikaaners don’t have to the Netherlands, i.e. they have nowhere to go. Neither can just die, as they are the native languages of several million people.
*The reason why French is embedded in Africa is because of the educational system(not patterned after the British). France endlessly donating funds while the British don’t care enough about the educational welfare of its subjects.*
They are no longer British subjects; they stopped being when the British left. There is still the Commonwealth and English is still the official language and it’s what they wealthy speak, as do those with family links to the UK (like the former president of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings, whose father was Scottish). Again, they inherited their educational systems from the British, and in the British educational system, French is taught and is highly prized in fact. However, the idea that they would ditch English in favour of French, which is mostly spoken in poor and often war-torn African countries (Ivory Coast, Niger, Mali, Guinea – Senegal is the only relatively stable part of French-speaking West Africa), is far-fetched in my opinion. The links between Ghana and Nigeria and the UK are just too strong. However, they have French-speaking neighbours and it makes sense to teach people French to communicate with them.
*English is great danger in Zimbabwe because of what happened recently there. Th properties of the British settlers were seized. The culture of the colonizers is being despise there.*
I don’t think so, since the elite speak English even though they are anti-British. Even Robert Mugabe gives speeches in English and the children of his cronies and other rich Zimbabweans are educated in schools in other English-speaking countries. He has not sought to remove English from Zimbabwe despite a 10-year campaign against the white farmers; if they do replace it, it will be in favour of Shona, the country’s majority native language, rather than French, which has no history there other than as a school subject.
Just listen to the way the French speaking Africans talk in French and compare them English speaking Africans and you would see the big difference.
To you French is declining but haven’t you learned that Egypt is a Francophone member instead of a Commonwealth member. French is ery much alive there and it’s creeping in Sudan.
Most of the Eastern European countries have observer status in La Francophonie except for Romania, Moldova, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria that are either full/associate member. Eastern Europeans are skeptical about English. Yeas, they do learn it because of necessity but if you ask them, they have this feeling that they don’t want their language and culture to be swallowed by English. I think they have a wishful thinking that they want to restore the old days when French was the leading international language.
All I can say to you English speaking folks is be contented by what you have and don’t ask for more , you wou’d lose what you have now. Anyway you have US, UK, Australia, NZ, huge portion of Canada, India(which is supposed to be a Hindi speaking country now but thabks to the Tamils, it remained English speaking), Philippines, Parts of Carribean, Guyana and large portion of Africa. Don’t desire to take what belongs to others. While French only has France and its overseas departments and territories, a portion of Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti, and the loyal countries of French Speaking Africa.
Let’s just respect other linguistic zones like Spanish, Russian,Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and others because they have a language and culture of their own which they would not give up in favor of English or French.
All I can say is “Color comes in different varieties and not just one” if you know what I mean.
BTW, I have nothing against learning the English language because I myself is an Anglophile and Francophile at the same time. I fully appreciate the works of the English speaking world for the advncement of the international community. But I hate seeing you ramming English on the throat of other people. What I mean is learning a language has to be voluntary. Anyway there’s no doubt is indeed number 1 but give other languages a chance to prove their worth please.
There is a Frenchman here who pretends to be afraid of English-speakers “ramming” their language down other people’s throats, even though he doesn’t give a single instance of English-language policies for forcibly replacing French by English in Africa that might explain his fears. This is pure Freudian projection on the part of the French, most of whom seem to still stick to their jacobine version of language imperialism. The French love to coerce other people. They love power. Too bad that coercion is counter-productive in the long run. Which is why the French language has not spread nearly as far as Portuguese, Spanish or English.
Check my blog on the decline of the French language across the world.
Brainwashed “Non-Conformist” states that people in French colonies speak better French than Ghanaians or Nigerians English. This is the other way around and studies have demonstrated it again and again. Let me refer readers of this blog to Theories of Africans by Christopher L. Miller. You can read relevant excerpts of that book at http://theworldwidedeclineoffrench.blogspot.com/2008/09/english-based-creoles-vs-french-based.html
Anglosphere is the way to go!
Salam alaikoum
Un French, the excerpts you posted from the Miller book refer to the linguistic situations colonies during colonial rule, which has now been over in most places for fifty years- I mention this namely in the context of “encouraging local literacy.” Furthermore, this point of view is also largely subjective. While it can be argued with authority that Algerians, for example, were limited during the colonial era in their access to higher education, basic education was often provided at the elementary school level which left the boomer generation with the linguistic skills necessary to thrive in higher education after independence. The difference with Spanish and Portuguese is that French is often a viable SECOND language in the Francophonie and not a first. Finally, French publishing houses aren’t necessarily indicative of the success of French language in ex colonies, for two reasons. First, in North Africa at least, there was a policy of expropriation, so outside of major energy interests (which fit into a global pattern vis a vis Africa) it is only now that French companies are assuming a visible presence in some places. Secondly, local publishing houses in the French language thrive, so French ownership doesn’t really make a difference. As far as “speaking better” than anyone else, I think “better” is largely subjective. I will say that personally I have a harder time reading El Watan than I do reading Le Monde. While I don’t agree completely with non Conformist, I don’t think your examples are completely relevant as they refer mainly to the colonial period. The Francophonie is a fascinating subject which I won’t get into hogging the comments here.
We should not confound France with the French language. As a power that formerly influenced world policy France really is in decline, but not more than other European countries like Germany and Britain. Concerning the language French surely has not that prestige it had in the 18th century in the royal courts. But former centuries never knew so many speakers of French we have now in Europe, Africa and Northern America. In Europe French has even more native speakers than English. The idea of the special decline of French is a wanna-be argument of Anglophone and Anglophile people. In relation to English every language (except for Chinese or Spanish) is on the point to loose former prestige and importance. But as you see by the reaction of the opponents in this debate speaking or writing English will not solve our identity problems and cultural differences that separate us…
The real threat to English in Africa is not just French but Araic and especially Swahili.
French is still very much used in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia while in Sudan and Egypt, English is less used than before.
Similarly, French is growing in West Africa and over the years it has even become the first language of a number of people there especially Ivory Coast and Gabon. On the other hand, native English speakers among Kenyans, Tanzanians, and Ugandans are nowhere to be found especially nowadays that they are putting emphasis on Swahili and less on English.
French became not just mandatory in secondary schools in Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and even Liberia but they are planning to raise its status equal to that of English. In fact, French is now used as a medium of instruction in these countries for math and science subjects.
The quality of French spoken by French Africans are far better than the English of Ex-British colonies. Listen to them how they speak. You can find fluent French speakers even among the less educated French Africans while in the English Africans, even the educated elite struggle to commit mistakes whenever they speak English.
“English Africans, even the educated elite struggle to commit mistakes whenever they speak English.”
But not when they write it.
Actually, the big threat- and the interesting thing- to English as a world language is the rise in Globish which native English peakers are particularly bad at learning.
I find the growth of French and the decline of English in Africa rather interesting. How long this will last is difficult to say when English has an upper hand because it is the most prominent language in science, engineering, and computing. Could Africa be making a bad decision in the long run?
The real threat to English in Africa is not just French but Arabic and especially Swahili.
French is still very much used in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia while in Sudan and Egypt, English is less used than before.
Similarly, French is growing in West Africa and over the years it has even become the first language of a number of people there especially Ivory Coast and Gabon. On the other hand, native English speakers among Kenyans, Tanzanians, and Ugandans are nowhere to be found especially nowadays that they are putting emphasis on Swahili and less on English.
French became not just mandatory in secondary schools in Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and even Liberia but they are planning to raise its status equal to that of English. In fact, French is now used as a medium of instruction in these countries for math and science subjects.
The quality of French spoken by French Africans are far better than the English of Ex-British colonies. Listen to them how they speak. You can find fluent French speakers even among the less educated French Africans while in the English Africans, even the educated elite struggle NOT to commit mistakes whenever they speak English.
English in Decline as a First Language, Study SaysStefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
February 26, 2004
It may be time to brush up on your Mandarin.
According to one new study, the percentage of the global population that grew up speaking English as its first language is declining. In addition, an increasing number of people now speak more than one language.
In the future, English is likely to be one of those languages, but the Mandarin form of Chinese will probably be the next must-learn language, especially in Asia.
“The status of English as a global language may peak soon,” said David Graddol, managing director of the English Company in Milton Keynes, England, and the author of a new study on the future of language.
However, a separate study suggests that English’s dominance in the scientific arena will continue to expand. While this trend has encouraged international collaboration, researchers warn it could also divide the scientific world into haves and have-nots, determining who can, for example, publish in international journals.
Both studies are published—in English—in this week’s issue of the journal Science.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0226_040226_language.html
Hope to see the day that french is zilts in europe
You are mistaken about India. British English is still taught in India. In fact school syllabuses are written in British English. Chinese would certainly teach in US English though, as they do not share India’s colonial heritage.
Fact is, French is not useful. The French can continue to dream but stop trying to impose that language on other people because there is no need for that language outside of France.
“rench cannot is not in decline as a matter of fact just recently leaders from France, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania advocates for the sole use of French in EU” – honey, you are joking. I am Polish and I must tell you – in my country virtualy nobody learns French. We learn English, German, Russian and recently Spanish. None of our leaders speaks French and none of them advocates for the use of French in EU. We would welcome using English only in EU
I disagree with you Polish that Spanish is more widely spoken than French in Poland. Eastern Europe has no interest in learning Spanish.
The most widely spoken foreign languages in Poland are English, German, Russian, and French followed by Italian.
Spanish is never heard in Poland. Are you really Polish? You must be a Latino who’s working in Instituto Cervantes that promotes Spanish by badmouthing the French language.
Spanish is in great danger not French, Polish.
As a matter of fact, the forms of Spanish spoken in Latin America are evolving into separate languages from each other and from the standard form.
Amerindian languages like Gurani is spoken by more than 90% of Paraguayans. Others like Quechua, Aymara, Quiche, and Nahuatl were not just given official status but they are now used as medium of instruction in school and in broadcasting.
While French is tightening its grip in Africa, Spanish is fast losing ground in Latin America.
Actually, Spanish is only losing ground in areas with strong indigenous languages, which means the upland areas of Peru and Bolivia, and eastern Paraguay. In fact, Quechua was made an official language in Peru some years ago, and subsequently this was scaled back so that it became official only in the traditionally Quechua-speaking regions. Not all native people in those countries speak Quechua (or Aymara) nor ever have done. Many Spanish-speakers are part native, as in most other Latin American countries, and most Paraguyans who speak Guarani are mixed-race and also speak Spanish.
Also, spoken Spanish differs from place to place, but that is the same with any widely-distributed language, including English and French. There is no serious challenge to Spanish in most of Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela and it will never be completely displaced in the countries in between.
As for Poland, I agree that it’s fanciful to suggest that Spanish will ever become a major second language as there are no significant historical links between Spain and Poland.
Hi, regarding your comment,
“You must be a Latino who’s working in Instituto Cervantes that promotes Spanish by badmouthing the French language.”
I think you, your racism, and your stupid french proud are the cause why french is a death language that nobody wants to learn.
French is still the main language taught in British schools despite it being a declining language globally. The reason is that most people who are qualified to teach who know a foreign language happen to know French rather than any other language.
There are various lobbies for teaching non-European languages in state schools but the government has ignored them. I once met a member of UKIP who pledged to expand the provision of Asian languages in schools for trade and commerce purposes. He said that the British education system has an unhealthy overreliance on French and teenagers are losing interest in studying it.
“I think you, your racism, and your stupid french proud are the cause why french is a death language that nobody wants to learn.”
I believe that, your greediness and your stupid Spanish arrogance are the cause why spanish is on its way to its extinction like its mother, Latin. Nobody wants to learn spanish.
This thread is not made by a briton but by a hispanic guy who works for Instituto Cervantes desperate to attract people to study Spanish but futile because Spanish is not practical because of its very little contribution to human kind.
Happy times ,I have waited long to see the near end of french as an main language in europe.Special I like to see the arogant francophones in brussels to have to learn english.It will be the revange of the flamish in belgium
Dear Francophony. French is dead, long live English.
I don’t have a preference.
But fop practical reasons, we only need 1 world language. I don’t see the point in having 2. And the verdict has already been reached decades ago: English is the world language.
I see no longer any point in having French and German as official languages of the EU institutions. This is not fair to the Italians, Polish, Spanish,… The French will have to start using English, like everybody else. Workers at the institutions would have a far better use of their time (and the EU would have a far bigger talent pool to fish from) if we would no longer require knowledge of French/German! This is called progress.
Dear Commonwealth English is dead because in the USA and Canada the speech there evolved parallel to that of Afrikaans from Dutch.
And do you mention about the status of French in Africa because Francophone Africa declared that French is their language too not just for French, Canadians, Belgians, or Swiss.
Why don’t you look at the status of English in Afican countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia where it is being shaken by the promotion of Swahili in every aspects of the lives of people there.
Dear Francophone and spanish guy: you appear to both be semi-literate, intolerant pillocks. If you have nothing constructive to add to this debate, please keep your ill informed and prejudiced opinions to yourselves, as the rest of us really do not have the time or the inclination to put up with them.
Secondly, whilst French is certainly in decline, it is still indeed the preeminant language of food and culture, and has hundreds of millions of speakers. Spanish likewise is about the 4th most popular language in the world, so it is safe to say there is a fairly vibrant future for the both of them.
look at the status of English in Afican countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia where it is being shaken by the promotion of Swahili in every aspects of the lives of people there
I spend quite a bit of time in those countries and this simply isn’t true. Tz is the only country in that group that has Kiswahili as official language and that too is changing.
And Rwanda is moving away from French, the govt has already changed instruction in schools from French to English. Anyway they needed to do this to join the East African Community. It’s for the same reason that countries like ghana are teaching French in schools -their trading partners in Ecowas are mostly francophone. So it’s done for economic reasons. But whereas ghana is about teaching french as a foreign language, in Rwanda they are actually making english the medium of instruction in schools so there is a big difference there.
Davois says:
11th December, 2009 at 12:24 am
“Dear Francophone and spanish guy: you appear to both be semi-literate, intolerant pillocks. If you have nothing constructive to add to this debate, please keep your ill informed and prejudiced opinions to yourselves, as the rest of us really do not have the time or the inclination to put up with them. Secondly, whilst French is certainly in decline, it is still indeed the preeminant language of food and culture, and has hundreds of millions of speakers. Spanish likewise is about the 4th most popular language in the world, so it is safe to say there is a fairly vibrant future for the both of them.”
Correction: The growth of French from 1950’s to the 1980’s maybe so slow let say by just 1% compared to English and Spanish but in the 1980’s it made a great stride in Africa.
French is the only global language along with English. True that more people speak English as a foreign language but French has more secondary speakers than English and almost all of them are in Africa and thanks to educational system which Anglophone Africa does not posses.
Just because it has fewer native speaker it doesn’t mean that it has declined.
Most welcome to read that the most arrogant language in europe is bleeding to death Let it be forever,I dont think that anyone in eu except the arrogant francofhonie will miss it….
El francés no esta en peligro, ni el inglés. Las 3 lenguas del futuro serán el inglés, el español y el chino. El francés no va a desaparecer pero perderá terreno en el mundo de los negocios y tratados.
I am Italian, and in 2012 Italian resulted the 2nd language in EU by the number of native speakers as first language, after German. But of course no Italian claims Italian (nor French) as the sole language in the EU. In my opinion all EU languages must be official, but only English should be used as a working language. The tri-linguism English-German-French just sounds discriminating and represents one more obstacle on the way of a true European integration from a political and social point of view.
93%of the mexicans speak spanish as a native language and only 1%of them speak nahuatl(the language of the aztecs), 98% of mexico speaks spanish as a 1st or 2nd language and mexico has more than 60 native languges, not just nahuatl, so basicaly spanish is not only a lingua franca but also a national language.
How will leaving the EU affect the teaching of foreign languages in schools? Should schools now start to wind down the teaching of French and German and start to teach more non-European languages instead?
It is estimated that at least 1 in 5 of all school age children in England now speak a language other than English at home or with people from their community but government ministers fail to take this into account when formulating policies for the teaching of foreign languages in schools. Some education analysts argue that the government and businesses should make more effort to harness the linguistic knowledge of children of foreign origin who speak another language at home, then put it to productive use, rather than waste time and effort teaching foreign languages to large numbers of indigenous British children who have no enthusiasm or desire to learn them.
In my opinion, the teaching of foreign languages in schools has barely moved forwards since the years when I was at school despite many changes taking place both in the wider world and the demographics of school classrooms in England in the meantime. Both schools and much of the national education community cannot see beyond European languages apart from Mandarin.
What does the owner of this blog think? Should we have a situation where tens of thousands of children in cities like London, Birmingham, and Leicester have their community languages recognised by the education system and take GCSEs in Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish, and Gujarati, whilst around 90% of children in white working class areas and around half of them in white middle class areas do not even bother studying a foreign language at school?