Home truths about language learning

Following the rather negative tone of my piece a couple of days ago, yesterday I woke up and read about one woman and her organisation in the UK with just the kind of international outlook I think the country is severely lacking. Bernice McCabe, headmistress of a north London school, advocated in a speech delivered yesterday that, regarding languages, teachers should go beyond "functional phrasebook competence" for their students, and should bring the outside world into the classroom in order to encourage students to become global citizens. Amen to that! She also said that teachers should be "a thorn in the side of British insularity and reticence". I won't argue with that, either.

However, I am alarmed if schools are reluctant to offer language qualifications because top grades are considered harder to achieve in languages than in other subjects. Surely this would constitute a de facto dumbing down of education overall. This would then be exacerbated if language exams were also set and marked differently – an idea she also welcomed to increase the take-up of languages. But do those educating the next generation honestly believe that the best way to improve language learning, standards and global awareness is to seemingly make exams easier?

Learning languages may indeed be hard. But if you want to be a global citizen, or you want to move to a country whose language is not your own, or you need to engage with locals beyond your functional requirements as a tourist; you quickly learn about hard work, humility and assimilation. McCabe seemingly recognises that lessons in a cosy UK environment won't help you if you lack the vocabulary to tell a barber how you want him to cut your hair; or how to sidestep geographical questions about your home country when you haven't a clue. Besides linguistic competence, skills in politeness and an appreciation of other people's culture and preoccupations are also required. These aspects are not covered in course books! So further tinkering with language exams seems to me to be at odds with these crucial additional aspects McCabe alludes to.

I've voiced these views before, I know. But future generations need to understand the value of being able to live and work in a different language; how it at least puts them on a more equal footing with the millions globally who do the same; how it might help them avoid an economic recession in their home country (as in my case) and how it enables them to debunk myths and about their mother country abroad. Learning languages changes you personally. You learn to engage with people, to be flexible, think on your feet and adapt your outlook and behaviour. These are skills that are acquired – not taught – as result of living in and using another language over time.

So, Mrs McCabe, hello – is it me you're looking for? I'd love an opportunity to tell others about these real-world benefits of language learning on my return to the UK. Where do I sign?

A state of blissful ignorance?

At the school where I currently teach, there's a bright, ambitious lad who is as keen on engines as he is on English. He often asks for my opinion on aspects of English life. He's a huge fan of the TV show Top Gear and, specifically, Jeremy Clarkson himself. Though I do not share his fascination with the man, I'm happy that my student has found a topic – or a vehicle, if you will – through which to express himself and his likes and dislikes in a language that is not his own. I'm even happier that while the BBC may broadcast Clarkson's shows over here; the presenter's opinions that are not voiced on an international platform seem less likely to be discovered by eager 14-year-olds in Switzerland.

We all know that Clarkson has been in trouble over language in the past, and has been threatened with the sack by the BBC. But I doubt that his latest comments will lead to that. He's reported to have taken aim at the Welsh language, this time; calling it a “maypole around which a bunch of hotheads can get all nationalistic”. Some people in England seem to like to denigrate things they have little or no knowledge or experience of. So spouting rubbish about their neighbour is just lazy and boring. Welsh is significantly older than English, and English itself is a historical mix of many languages – as we know. Under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, Welsh is also the only language that is de jure official in any part of the UK. English is merely the de facto official language. But why should such facts get in the way of a celebrity's right to rant in exchange for money?

How exactly the UN might even begin to implement his wider call to abolish some languages is anyone's guess. What an utterly ludicrous proposition! Could a multilingual version of the Welsh Not be introduced at UN level to punish people for using their native languages? Would all foreign loan words used in English also be banned (including 'penguin' – from Welsh – and words with Latin roots)?

Alternatively, Clarkson could concede that the UK's policy of foreign language learning being optional at GCSE level since 2004 is appalling. It does not justify the rejection of a multilingual world – full of cultures, histories, traditions and personal experiences that differ from his own. Respecting that diversity means engaging with it, whilst also recognising that imperialistic attitudes are one component in the constructed 'otherness' that allows resentment, fear and hate to thrive. So when I read such depressing diatribes with increasing frequency and I factor in the populist rise in anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiment, I wonder if the UK I left some four years ago has become a state of blissful ignorance during my absence.