The most monolingual country in the world

The UK is in danger of becoming one of the most monolingual countries in the world. Our language skills deficit could harm our performance in the global economy and its intercultural competence.

This is the conclusion of a review of modern language provision in England commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Hats off to UCL as their positive action will certainly encourage students to take learning a language seriously as from 2012, all University College London applicants, regardless of discipline; will need to have a GCSE qualification or equivalent in a modern foreign language.

With schools now allowing students to opt out of modern languages, if you find yourself needing to attain at least a GCSE standard in a language then there are some great fun ways to learn a new language – ones that parents will certainly be happy to contribute towards.

Even if you don’t feel linguistically inclined, it’s possible to learn a new language in a short space of time with patience, a sense of humour and the willingness to immerse yourself in the country where the language is spoken.

It’s almost impossible to learn a new language, or at least to learn it rapidly, unless you begin thinking in that language and the only way to do this is to fully immerse yourself in the culture and language of a country.

Travelling, working abroad or volunteering is a great way to continuously hear the sounds, rhythms, and inflections of a new language–spoken on the streets, in buses, on television, etc. Your brain will already start to process and interpret a new language.

For a unique learning experience, you can even live-in and learn a language with a teacher. Spend a week living in with a German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or French immersion teacher and you’ll learn as much as you would if you’d spent 4 weeks in a group class – perfect if you need to learn fast.

The key to learning in this way is to forget translating and just talk. Resisting the urge to translate everything into your native language can be the single fastest shortcut to fluency. Simply listen to how the locals speak, watch their facial expressions as they say the words; study how they move their mouths and then imitate them as best you can. 

Practice at every opportunity; forget your nervousness about making mistakes, just talk.  And, what a perfect excuse to combine language lessons with leisure taking a holiday to learn a language.

Whether you are thinking of applying to UCL in the future or just want to make a positive change to the way other countries think about the UK’s linguistic skills, take a look at our range of quality language courses now to see where you can learn Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic and more in inspiring locations around the world…

Category: Language Courses