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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope, our advanced episode.

On languages.

In our previous episode we talked a little bit about the native languages of Britain, but today we're gonna be talking a lot more around language learning in the UK, attitudes to language, and also some of the languages that you might hear on the street in the UK.

I mean the UK is a very multicultural country, especially if you live in London, you bound to bump into lots of people with a wide variety of native languages.

Yeah. What do you think are some of the most popular or some of the most widely spoken languages in the UK that are not English or native languages?

I'm not sure which is the most spoken, but I know it’s definitely not French.

Yes, French is relatively widely spoken but not as much as these languages the languages actually are...the first one is Polish.

噢，波兰语, ok, yes, that is… at least before Brexit, when I was in the UK I did notice a lot of Polish people.

Yep.

You have a lot of Polish immigrants or just workers.

Yeah, so you have Polish. Then you have Punjabi.

Punjab is the Indian language, Pakistani language?

Yes, it comes from the Punjab region of India Pakistan; so it’s a northern language. You also have Gujarati.

Sounds also Indian.

Yes, Gujarati is from the area around Mumbai.

So western India, then you have Hindustani, so Hindi, Urdu, and also Bengali.

So lots of Indian languages, lots of different regional Indian languages.

Lots of Indian languages, yeah.

Because you have a huge population that's originally from India.

Yeah, I remember when I was at school, I could have learned a few words of Punjabi, Hindi, Gujarati, but I was a kid, so they were mostly swear words, relatively rude words.

We're always doing that learning languages. You mentioned learning some of these curse words in foreign languages in school, but forgive me for saying this, but based on my understanding, British people are not the best at learning foreign languages.

We are notoriously bad at learning foreign languages.

According to some statistics about 62% of UK citizens can't speak a second language.

I think it's also because if you can use English to go around the world, then people are just a bit lazy, they just don't want to learn.

Well, say it a bit lazy but also there's not really much incentive. As an English speaker, if I go around the world it’s very rare that I find myself in a situation where I can't get by, I can’t find someone that speaks English.

Exactly.

But you compare the 62% of UK citizens with most other European countries where that's around 10% of the population that can't speak a second language.

Especially if you think about some central western European countries that are smaller, it is so common for them to speak 3, 4 languages fluently.

Yeah, particularly if you go up to Northern Europe, for example, the Dutch, when I go to Holland or go to the Netherlands, it's amazing that pretty much every Dutch person that you meet speaks flawless English.

Flawless English, yes, because of that their own language Dutch is actually facing some challenges because you have young Dutch kids speaking English among themselves.

Yeah, so this is where it all comes from in the UK, because essentially we know that we can get by with English.

I mean when I said “lazy” I mean that was no offense to English people I think it happens to all of us. I'm assuming people if the whole world speaks Chinese, and when we travel we can get by with Chinese then there's a less of an incentive to learn another language.

I would say the reasons why we learn languages are one interest.

Communicate.

And communicate, and most cases you communicate in order to be able to earn money.

To earn money to do things

Exactly

But that doesn't mean, although we're saying that 62% of UK citizens can't really speak a second language or at least cannot speak it fluently. That doesn't mean language is not taught in your schools.

Languages are compulsory in pretty much all schools in the UK to a certain degree.

It’s compulsory. However, they don't say you have to learn one certain language, right? It's not really like everyone needs to learn French; you can choose.

Yes, you can choose, so traditionally, French is the most common, then you’re also able to learn German or Spanish. Generally, it's French, German, and Spanish.

I remember 安澜 you learned German, right?

Yep, that was my language.

Why did you choose German?

Partly because I didn't like my French teacher.

Typical.

Second of all, I actually liked German, I still do. I wish I’ve kept up with German because I’ve forgotten so much, because I do like watching German TV shows and German films and things like that.

Interest is really the most important thing.

But I remember when I was at school, I actually ask can I learn French and German? And they said to me no, it was too difficult which is a shame because I would really love to study both.

Exactly, that is so strange because people have different talents and you are someone who's talented in learning languages, so why not?

Thank you.

Oh, yeah. You speak very good Chinese, which brings me to another question. You said French, German, and Spanish, right? These are the main languages. Don't you have to learn things like Latin, Greek, these…

Traditionally yes, so Latin and Greek was incredibly common until the early 20th century. It's much less popular now because it does have this sort of class background to it.

Is it like people in higher classes that in expensive private schools they tend to learn.

Yes, public schools they would actually offer more Latin and Greek.

So for example, my school they didn't offer Latin or Greek.

Let me remind people because 安澜 just said public schools, but remember in the UK public schools actually are very, very, very expensive and exclusive private schools.

Yes.

So you have state schools and then private schools and then public schools like Eaton or Harold.

I went to a state school, I went to a comprehensive.

So they didn't teach you Latin or Greek.

No. As I say I had to learn it. I learned it because of interest and I learnt Latin for IGCSE because I then went on to study Latin Greek University.

(IGCSE 是International General Certificate of Secondary Education，是国外14岁至16岁全世界考试最多人数的体系之一，是CIE（Cambridge International examination）剑桥全球测试的一部分。)

When you're applying for universities, do you have to get tested in Latin and Greek?

I applied for Oxford. And they did actually test me on Latin and Greek.

I see, that…

But back then I didn't really know Greek. So it was very, very difficult.

I think now I understand what you're saying about the class thing. It's like, why do people say Oxbridge, very exclusive, kind of elitist, it's also… they were screening people based on your knowledge of Latin and Greek.

I was actually applying for Latin and Greeks.

OK, so that explains.

It’s not… I was studying Biology or something like that.

All right.

But talking about the class thing as well, it's… you also get that a little bit with French, for example, having a knowledge of French is still somewhat seen as quite highly educated…

Posh thing

It’s quite posh. It's a state of symbol.

A lot of British people do actually speak what is called schoolboy French.

I understand that, the idea of schoolboy French is perhaps just like popping out French words being able to curse a little bit in French, and also being able to order some food in French.

Yeah, so just under 1/4 UK population can speak and understand some degree of French.

But with British accent.

Well, with British accent, it’s something that we feel embarrassed. Most British people feel very embarrassed speaking French.

For example, I can understand some French, but I can't really speak it, if you put me in France, then I'll be able to order a drink or ask for directions that type of thing, just very basic.

To be honest I think it's very similar to a lot of Chinese. I mean very young Chinese now speak quite good English actually. But if you go back a little bit, you… many Chinese would know certain English words, but not really able to use the language effectively, but they travel they will probably use body language, which I'm assuming is the same with British people in France.

Yeah, but then again, also French people do speak some degree of English as well.

They would be doing the same.

Yeah.

Okay, but so far we've been focusing on these languages, what about other languages like say Chinese, do schools offer Chinese classes?

Yes, the government is actually encouraging study in more languages such as Chinese, Arabic, the languages that were never really traditionally taught.

So for example there are some schools are now offering Chinese as IGCSE. Unfortunately, though the number of students study in a college or university, so at a higher level, is actually declining a little bit, which is a shame.

It is a shame, but I mean to devote your entire university days to learn a language that is particularly difficult. It really takes devotion and sort of like determination.

Yeah, but it's not all bad, because I would say British people have this tendency they do generally want to learn foreign languages, they are interested. You can see this on, for example, Netflix where lots of people now are watching foreign TV shows…

With subtitles

With subtitles, so about 10 years ago, people were very interested in Scandinavian dramas, now there's French, German, Spanish, people are getting more interested in these languages; and actually in 2020 during the lockdowns because of COVID in the UK, 10% of British people started to learn a foreign language.

Finding things to do during the lockdown.

Exactly, and language learning apps are becoming more popular.

So Spanish, French and Chinese are among the most popular.

Yeah, I've noticed that actually.

And also, because of Squid Games, Korean is becoming more popular.

That is an odd reason to learn, it’s like I've watched a horror or suspense Battle Royal style Korean dramas, so now I want to learn Korean.

Yeah, but then again also if there's a very popular Japanese TV show, then people want to learn Japanese.

I think this is the thing, right, language is never just learning a few words. It's always linked very strongly with the culture. So when people are interested in certain cultures or certain things from a certain culture, they are more inclined to learn the language. Interest truly is the best teacher.

Absolutely

On that note, I think we're gonna wrap up. Leave us a comment in the comment section. Let us know apart from English, what is a language that you would like to learn?

Until next time

We'll see you next time.

Bye

Bye.