Out of its 27 member states, the European Union has 24 official languages, although many more are spoken in the daily lives of people across the continent. So how are all these countries capable of successfully working together? The key is multilingualism: the ability to speak and understand multiple languages instead of only your own mother tongue.
Multilingualism is one of the founding principles of the United Nations, a core value of the organisation, and an enabler of diplomacy and collaboration between countries. It can contribute to achieving global peace and security, and is one of the drivers of justice and human rights.
Multilingualism is a skill that’s becoming vital in a global society, which gives language learning a key role to play when it comes to education.
Education: building essential skills
Education is a fundamental human right. However, according to UNESCO, 781 million adults in the world are illiterate – corresponding roughly to the entire population of the continent of Europe – and 63 million secondary-level children are out of school. According to United 4 Social Change, youth unemployment has remained at around 22% since 2005. That’s where the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) come in: SDG 4 aims to provide inclusive and quality education, promote lifelong learning, literacy skills and social skills by 2030. Meanwhile, SDG 8 sets the goal of growing economic productivity and encouraging diversity in the workforce.
Not only can education allow people to lead safer and healthier lives; it promotes an equal society and helps us acquire the skills needed to find a good job, crucial in a world where, according to the International Labour Organization, 200 million people were out of work in 2018. Today’s job market requires people to have the skills necessary to adapt to its rapid changes and stand out in an increasingly competitive world of work. This is where language learning comes in.
A worthwhile reward
A poll conducted by the British Council found just over one in three British people reporting the ability to hold a conversation in another language. This is seen as a real concern, not only in terms of our economy, influence and security, but also because being monolingual can be a disadvantage at a personal level.
With a language qualification under your belt, you’re often more likely to get a good job quickly. After all, when you study a language, you don’t just study the language itself; you cover all sorts of topics, like another country’s literature, cinema, cultural traditions, history and political situation. This helps to develop your general knowledge and outlook, not just your linguistic skills.
One of the best things about studying a language at university is that many institutions offer a semester abroad. Living overseas can be a very rewarding experience as you immerse yourself into another culture and make lifelong friends. This is the best way to understand the way a language works. Some students study at a university in the country of their target language, while others undergo placements in schools as teaching assistants.
Overall, learning languages broadens the mind and teaches us that people from different cultures think in different ways, ultimately making us more open minded and accepting of others. According to various studies, multilingualism is also good for the brain as it improves our memory and overall intelligence. Knowing another language makes you better at decision making, and has even been shown to prevent dementia.
Which languages to learn?
So which languages are the best to learn? According to the British Council, the ten most important ones other than English are Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese. Spanish is heard throughout Latin America and is widely spoken in the US. As the main language spoken in Brazil, Portuguese is also present in South America.
English, French and German are the working languages of the EU institutions, and in Africa, knowledge of Arabic, French and Portuguese can also be very useful. As the US is the current dominant superpower, English is regarded as an international language, but China’s population is 1.4 billion, and with it having the second largest economy, Mandarin is becoming more and more prevalent on the world stage.
Everybody has their own reasons for wanting to pick up one language over another. People who live in countries with more than one official language, like Belgium for example, might want to learn Dutch if their mother tongue is French, or vice versa. Some countries have several languages, like Switzerland, which is split between French and German, with a small region of Italian speakers in the south.
Other countries like Spain have one dominant language as well as some regional ones, such as Catalan, Basque and Galician. Then you find dialect variants of the same language, such as Flemish spoken in Flanders, Scouse in Liverpool and Ch’ti in Picardy, making language studies all the more entertaining!
If you’re searching for the right language for you, just ask yourself what you want to gain from it. Your spouse could be bilingual, so you might feel like learning some Romanian to impress the in-laws over Christmas dinner. Perhaps your company has a client in Cyprus, so Greek could be useful for the occasional business trip. Or maybe on holiday you fell in love with Prague, and wish to dabble in some Czech to get to know the culture. Whichever one you pick, learning a language is an enriching experience that you’ll never regret doing. Besides, learning one language often opens doors to others.
Language learning needed now more than ever
Speaking more than one language is important in the world of today. For most of us, this means picking up a foreign language at school. It’s sad to see that, despite SDG 4 aiming to provide everyone with quality education, there are reports that state schools who face severe funding cuts may decide to drop languages from their curriculum. This would mean fewer students choosing to study languages at university, later leading to inevitable cuts there, too.
We need to speak out about the advantages of multilingualism. Not only is it good for our mental health and personal development, but it also allows us to connect with others both at home and around the world, reaping the benefits of living in a truly global community. The value of language learning to the nation should also not be forgotten, as it can help in the broader scope of international relations. For a country that’s now seeking trade deals and solidifying diplomatic ties in other parts of the world, a multilingual workforce has never been more essential.
