Reflections on foreign language learning and cultural enhancement

Are native English speakers downright smug or just utterly lackadaisical? What's your scoop on this topic? Read the article as food for thought.

It is frequently lamented that there is such a steady decline in the learning of foreign languages among native English speakers. Only 4% of Irish students, for example,  go on to study a foreign language at university. In England, Wales and the Northern Ireland, the outlook for European language learning is just as gloomy: French and German have experienced a steep decline since 2010.

During the prolonged Brexit imbroglio (a nice Italian word import), or the political impasse (imported from French), anglophones often remarked on the ease with which Continental Europeans now routinely hold their press conferences in only lightly accented English: Juncker, Tusk, Barnier, Macron, Rutte. How many Irish or British politicians could perform as confidently in French, German or Spanish?

The only British politician known to be an outstanding linguist is the Prisons Minister Rory Stewart, who speaks fluent Pashto, having spent time wandering the terrain of Afghanistan, just for the fun of it. Hats off to him!

Yet every time Juncker, Tusk, Barnier & Co spout English, they knock another nail into the coffin of language-learning among anglophones. Youngsters think: why learn foreign lingos when everyone speaks English? And though this is dispiriting for those of us who have always liked learning languages, it's the brutal truth. English is global. Everyone does business in it. The Swedes now publish all their scientific papers in English.

Just try speaking Dutch in the Netherlands, having learned off a few polite phrases, such as, "which is the way to the station?". You'll inevitably be answered in English which, all told,  may be for the best.

It's nice to learn a few words of anyone else's language. How charming when visitors to Ireland come out with the cúpla focal (Gaelic: "a few words") that they have carefully rehearsed.

We should never forget however that it is also polite and necessary etiquette to say "May I speak English?" when opening up an anglophone conversation. We, English-speakers,  should not take it for granted that our interlocutor can speak to us in our difficult language.

Interestingly,  the Irish Department of Education's publication 'Languages Connect', recommending foreign languages "for trade and the economy and our own cultural life" is only strictly right in the last affirmation. Cultural enhancement, okay. But trade and the economy? All done in English. Don't kid yourself.

The other brutal truth is that most of us, through the course of our lives, are not going to master a foreign language. I've spent years, on and off, trying to learn German, and although it's often been interesting, it's also been a waste of time. German is a snidely deceptive tongue: because it has 'lexical similarity' to English (many basic words like 'mother' and 'father' are similar) it looks accessible at first. You can always get to first base: "Noch einen Kaffee, bitte." But your head begins to spin when the grammar looms - "der Mann, den Mann, des Mannes, dem Mann, die Männer, den Männern" according to case and number. Then you try to read a newspaper like the Frankfurter Allegemeine - well, forget about it, mein Schatz.

I learned French when I was a teenager and got to speak it reasonably well. But I still attend a monthly French conversation session, and still need to read a French newspaper daily to retain the skill. And I'm still learning! No end in sight. Language learning requires both constant input and constant commitment. Leave it for a month and you become rusty.

If young people prefer to focus on STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and maths - their choice is clearly justified. STEMs will be much more useful to them. And most of the techie stuff they will tackle will be in English. Portuguese audiology technicians now do their research into the development of hearing apparatuses in English.

Robots, bots  and language apps are also increasingly used as translation supports when communications get stalled.

Today, sadly, the only real reason to learn another language is for the love of it (which should have been the real reason for Irish people to learn Irish, rather than rigid compulsion). Yes, if you plan to live in the Costa del Sol, it would be polite, as well as rewarding, to learn Spanish, which also has a global reach across the Americas. But if you want to converse with any of the thousands of foreigners in any Spanish, Italian, Greek, Asian destination, English is your passport. Admittedly, some specialists in Mandarin and Arabic will always be required. But otherwise, English rules the roost. Because the English language has taken all before it: absorbed everything from Hindi ('bungalow') to Persian ('pyjamas'), from Irish ('smithereens') to Dutch ('spook'). It has morphed into Pidgin: when speaking in West Africa, Prince Charles expressed thankfulness for his good fortune in Nigerian Pidgin: "God dun butta my bread." English is shape-shifting and endlessly adaptive, inventing new words annually ('selfie', 'Brexit') itself.

The greatest incentive for learning a foreign language is simply necessity. Jean-Claude Juncker indeed speaks excellent English - then, who is going to speak to him in his native Luxemburgish?

All languages have their particular charms and strengths and I'm grateful that my endeavours in German introduced me to the uniquely German genius for the compound abstract noun, the most famous of which is 'Schadenfreude' - pleasure in the misfortune of others. My favourite of all is 'Verschlimmbesserung' - an improvement that makes things worse! Joking apart, the cultural aspect behind foreign language learning and the enrichment it offers the learner makes it all very worthwhile and native English-speakers should never underestimate the mammoth task undertaken by the millions who invest time, energy and very often large sums of money in learning English, using it pragmatically to their advantage while promoting intercultural communication "for free". English native speakers must never forget to be grateful to those who have enabled communication to take place by virtue of years of commitment to acquiring this tricky foreign language with its often nightmarish, higgledy-piggledy pronunciation.

Adapted from:  Irish Independent.