Adults in the U.K. (and probably other places too) forgetting the languages they learned in school

Dieu et mon droit (God and my right), the motto of the United Kingdom. Remembering that gives students four free French words.

Here's another article on the foreign language ability of people in the U.K., and I'm sure a number of other places such as Western Canada and the U.S., and perhaps Australia and New Zealand too (I'm just guessing at those though so leave a response below if this is wrong).

As always, people forgetting languages doesn't mean they think them to be unimportant:

Two fifths of the 1,000 people polled by ICM regretted not keeping up their language skills after leaving school.

Most people thought languages were important in everyday life and 52% said they were important to a career.

Most languages are declining in popularity in school:

The latest figures show the number taking French has slumped by a third in four years, although language experts say they hope the trend is now slowing.

German has also continued to fall - from 81,061 in 2007 to 76,695 this year - a drop of 5.4%. In 2004, 122,161 students sat a GSCE in the subject.

It comes after the government scrapped the requirement to take a language in England's schools from the age of 14 in 2004.

Spanish has been steadily growing in popularity, but from a lower base. Entries rose by 4.9% on last year - from 63,978 to 67,092.

Other modern languages - such as Chinese and Arabic - are also growing in popularity although the totals are comparatively small.

I like this part:

And more than two thirds (69%) said they were jealous of people who were able to speak another language fluently.

Of those who can speak another language, 61% said it had been of benefit to their career, with a third (34%) saying their language skills have given them opportunities to travel and work abroad.

That first point is actually what got me interested in languages for the first time. Not French in school or anywhere else, but the scene in Braveheart where it turns out that he is also fluent in Latin and knows exactly what the two people in front of him are saying:

King's Advisor: [to Princess] Sanguinarius homo indomitus est, et se me dite cum mendacia.
[He is a bloody murdering savage. And he's telling lies]
William Wallace: Ego nunquam pronunciari mendacium! Sed ego sum homo indomitus.
[I never lie. But I am a savage]
William Wallace: [to Princess] Ou en français, si vous préférez?
[Or in French if you prefer?]

Zing! That scene alone trumped anything school ever did to try to get us to learn French.


Given the fact that foreign languages never used are easy to forget, I'm more or less convinced that the best way to get people to study a language in a place where there's pretty much no chance of having to use a language besides English is to focus on the etymology and history of English words, giving the students a much firmer basis upon which to later embark upon other European languages. It's easy to forget words in other languages when you never use them, but not so easy when you've tied them into your mother tongue.

Take for example the following:

• grenade is related to the word pomegranate, and the Spanish word is grenada.
• doppelganger (doppelgänger) literally means "double walker" in German.
• the were in werewolf is cognate with Latin vir for man, and the word virile
• all the words related to ally: from Latin alligare, to bind to, from ad, to + ligare, to bind. Compare alligate, allay, alloy and ligament.

There are thousands and thousands of words that can be learned without ever having to leave the comfort of the English language, and learning them this way makes them both harder to forget, and makes the idea of learning a foreign language that much more interesting. Another approach that can be taken is adopting more foreign language terms when talking about world history. The word Anschluss is a German word that some might know because of Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, so there's a free German word there. Also think of the Beer Hall Putsch. Add to that questions on what other terms like coup d'état mean (lit. strike of state) and there is a lot of room in other subjects to get people used to the idea of learning other languages.