{"id":1491,"date":"2013-12-11T11:29:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T10:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=1491"},"modified":"2021-11-18T16:20:21","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T16:20:21","slug":"languages-for-the-future-the-top-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/languages-for-the-future-the-top-ten\/","title":{"rendered":"Languages for the future: the top ten"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent report by the British Council<\/a> has laid out the ten most important languages for the UK\u2019s future, in political, economic, educational and cultural terms.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the ten most important languages, in order, are: Spanish<\/a>, Arabic<\/a>, French<\/a>, Mandarin<\/a>, German<\/a>, Portuguese<\/a>, Italian<\/a>, Russian<\/a>, Turkish<\/a> and Japanese<\/a>. I read this list with a certain amount of smugness that I speak Spanish, German and French \u2013 although my knowledge of key languages such as Mandarin and Arabic is, sadly, next to nothing.  So feel free to give yourself a pat on the back if you can speak, or are learning, one of those ten languages.<\/p>\n

\"languages\"<\/a>Unfortunately, the report also indicated that the numbers of UK residents actually learning these languages, especially the ones not taught in schools, are very low. On a positive note, around 15% of people can hold a conversation in French. However, only 6% are able to do so in German, 4% in Spanish and 2% in Italian. But the figures for the other languages are as low as 1%.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the problems is that Mandarin, Japanese, Russian and Arabic all require learners to pick up another script. This might seem daunting, but is actually really exciting. Just being able to read simple words in another script gives you  a huge sense of achievement, and you\u2019d be surprised how quickly you can begin to decipher words from what previously looked like squiggles.<\/p>\n

Hopefully if you\u2019re reading our blog you already know the importance of language-learning, and that picking up a new language is an adventure rather than a chore! But maybe this list will give you an idea about which language you fancy picking up \u2013 maybe it\u2019s time to start reviving your A-level French? Or be brave and give Arabic a try? Personally, I\u2019m working on adding Italian to my list, which is proving interesting as I lapse back into Spanish as soon as I don\u2019t know a word!<\/p>\n

The report recommends a much greater focus<\/a> on languages in schools and that businesses should invest in language training for languages that are useful in their industry. But don\u2019t worry if your school days are behind you \u2013 it\u2019s never too late to learn a new language!<\/p>\n

Alex<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent report by the British Council has laid out the ten most important languages for the UK\u2019s future, in political, economic, educational and cultural terms. According to the report, the ten most important languages, in order, are: Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese. I read this list with a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,11,49,244,231,103,3,80,9,97],"tags":[118,10,336,113,48,243,64,124,52,148,65,337,8,292,129],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8427,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1491\/revisions\/8427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}