Is our foreign-language worry justified?

Using foreign languages must be a rewarding affair – financially, practically and personally. If we are not rewarded, we lose interest. Finding the incentives to learn a foreign language is the challenge. Let’s use our resources on that rather than worrying about it.

I was out last night to give a talk to a group of language professionals on whether our worries about the fate of foreign language mastery are justified.

I concluded that we have every reason to worry; for one reason: we keep worrying without actually doing anything about it. I believe very few of us will ever learn to conduct hardcore negotiations in French or Spanish, let alone Chinese. I also claim that this is irrelevant. What we must learn, though, is how to open mental and social doors with our business partners: opening and closing remarks at meetings; socialising and, not least, showing interest. For that purpose, learning foreign languages is absolutely vital.

Mastering the essentials of a local language is hard work and the expression of a constructive attitude: Interest in the other side. This paves the way for more in-depth communication – with most of our business partners, that would be in English. In other parts of the world it would be Spanish or French. We seem to be interested in discussing this matter and worry about it: why do languages other than English enjoy so little interest amongst upper-secondary students or at university level? I believe the keyword is “absence”: when a young person leaves school after, say, three years of Spanish or Italian, what happens? Nothing! There is hardly any Spanish or any other foreign language to be heard in Danish society. It’s basically all English – no wonder the skills acquired at school are bound to “vanish into thin air” and eventually disappear altogether.

We have every reason to worry if we believe that language learning is confined to the educational system. We must define the roles the various foreign languages play in our society and act accordingly – in the media, enterprises and society as a whole. For languages to be seen worth learning, they must be heard and spoken in contexts that are relevant and attractive.

What a pleasure it was to meet people who contributed with views and ideas during my talk. Not everybody agreed, which further added to the experience. And all contributors used the working language of the evening: English.

New book this autumn

Communicating across borders: Why English?

In addition to my mother tongue, English is my language too. Having graduated in English in 1982 and planning to start my own communication consultancy firm, I was told by experts that in a world of globalisation, English would not be the only foreign language to be used by Danes when working outside their borders. Spanish, German and French would be as important and get the same attention as would English. The experts were wrong. While German, French and Spanish are undeniably representative of enormous cultural and demographic domains, these languages have become truly ‘foreign’ in Denmark. Sadly, one might say, languages other than English have been reduced to minor subjects at schools, or they have disappeared entirely. Efforts are made to remedy this language deficit: campaigns are arranged, language societies evolve and slogans are made: ‘We lose business opportunities in Germany if we don’t master German’; ‘French is the gate to understanding French culture’, and ‘Spanish represents an entire continent’. And yet, in spite of these powerful statements, English prevails as the Danes’ first foreign language.

“Communicating across borders using English as a second language” – book to be published this autumn.