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Join_1000words_campaign_logoWhat do the 10 most important languages for the UK’s future and the 10 foreign languages taught by the VICI Language Academy in Newbury have in common? Absolutely everything – they are identical!

 

In a widely reported report published by the British Council ‘Languages for the Future’ puts 10 foreign languages in order of importance.

  1. Spanish
  2. Arabic
  3. French
  4. Mandarin Chinese
  5. German
  6. Portuguese
  7. Italian
  8. Russian 
  9. Turkish
  10. Japanese

Here at The VICI Language Academy we have been teaching the majority of these languages for the last five years! The only language we’re not teaching at the moment is Japanese, but we can as soon as we have students wanting to learn it. Of course we also teach English too.

More importantly, we started to promote Spanish before the report came out on Wednesday and only have a few remaining places on our Junior and Teenage classes. Learn more about the new Spanish programme here. Do get in touch if you want to heed the report and equip your children with what the British Council says is the most important language to the future of the UK.

Within the report we discover that a survey commissioned by the British Council suggests that three quarters of the UK public are unable to speak any of these languages well enough to hold a conversation. That figure is even more alarming when you consider that the report also confirms that 70% of the world do not speak English. The findings also suggest that people in the UK are learning the right languages, but not in large enough numbers.

The British Council says: “the UK needs to develop its citizens’ competence in a wider range of languages, and in far greater numbers, in order to reap the economic and cultural benefits available to those who have these skills.”

We are delighted that the British Council findings support not only what we at VICI have believed we should be promoting, but also what our clients are asking for, which bodes well for West Berkshire in the future.

However it stresses that schools across the UK should enrich their curricula with the inclusion of new languages from the top 10 and an increased focus on understanding other cultures. It also says schools should be exploiting the many languages and cultural resources available; whether funded, free, local, online or through international links and partnerships with other countries.

However it is not just the responsibility of schools and the report says young people – and their parents – should seek out more opportunities to learn languages and experience other cultures, both in school and outside – and receive more consistent advice about the benefits of doing so. (For help within schools, click here)

And parents themselves, indeed all adults who do not speak one of the 10 languages are being urged to do so.

This has lifted out multilingual hearts here at VICI for while we are a business, the Academy was born of a passionate belief in the importance of enriching lives through learning language no matter what your age.

People learn a language for a host of reasons from fun to business, holiday to hobby or simply for the joy of learning a new language. Whatever your motivation and especially if you are heeding The British Council, please get in touch and we would love to help you on the road to bilingualism.

 

 

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