It's very hard to get English kids to learn any language, not just German. Given the choice between an all expenses-paid term in Germany or France and paying for themselves to go on an exchange in the States, students at one English university all chose to go to the US, "because they speak English".

They weren't so happy when they got to America, and found that the US administrators required them all to attend language classes, because they were "foreigners".

Can't we all just speak Newspeak? Probsolvedjeez.

Sounds like a plan. I mean, Arabic could be hellishly useful. I've even wondered about taking courses, but given how badly I sucked at German when I was at school, it'd probably be a waste of time.

I didn't have to do German in school, instead i was forced to do Welsh which really....is the most useless language in the world

I do wonder about the value of learning a language, for a brief period at school, which you don't encounter in your daily life. Those intensive programs, where very young children get the majority of their lessons in a second language, seem a better way to go.

Not that I really know. I was thrown out of French classes due to being exceptional stupid.

TheNewScumUK, just how many people are there who speak Welsh but also don't understand English?

no one learns languages in uk schools anyway

my sister is good at them, but no one else i know is even close to being a decent standards, it doesn't matter that there are more on offer,

kid will still pay little to no attention in class

I had to do German , and do i remember any of it now

fuck no , i should have kept it up really

I think I was the only kid in school who actually enjoyed languages. All my Highers (Scottish A-Levels) are in language subjects.

But really, I learned more about English through learning French, German and Spanish than I ever did in English class.

I think as part of the English speaking world, we're very spoiled in that it is considered 'the' business language and the language of most forms of entertainment (film, literature and music). The arguement I often hear against learning other languages is "Why should we if they all know how to speak English?". Hard to argue with when our other European neighbours are as fluent in English as we are and our own flawed attempts at speaking their respective languages pale in comparison.

Erm... just trying to get British children to learn one language is a challenge. If this helps get better results then its a good thing. Foreign language teaching at my school was not exactly useful - I mean I can explain my hobbies and an assortment of pets in German, but can I say anything useful? I kind of like the government's other idea to try teaching an actual subject in a foreign language, apart from I would have ended up with a rubbish mark for that subject.

In contrast, my Swedish/Polish/French friends/colleagues can speak several [European] languages extremely well. Potentially things will change given the amount of Chinese, Arabic and Hindi speakers in the world today compared to European languages... then again the international language of business, science etc etc is...

My kid's just looking at GCSE options, and will probably go for two languages. Given the English approach to "speakin furrin", I predict a relatively high income

People are going to have to get used to languages being part of the curriculum, from 2010 foreign language teaching will be compulsory in primary schools.

Oh they all can speak English, its just that theyre all backwards retards from the countryside. They seem genuinely convinced that I'll suddenly find the ability to speak fluent Welsh...provided they absolutely refuse to speak English. Stupid goddam farmers

i remember being in France once about the age of 15 and trying to speak French and nearly everyone saying

'don't worry i speak English'

kinda defeated the point of our language trip

I had that problem when living in France...if anyone heard me speak English they'd assume that I couldn't speak French. They were also determined to speak English, even though in most cases, their English was far worse than my French. Grr. Given the attitude of most English people abroad though, it's not surprising that we have the reputation of not being able to speak any other languages.

I did French at school but it was kind of pointless 'cause I've never been to France and I can't remember most of it now anyway.