We British are notoriously amongst the worst linguists in the world. It does not help that we are an island and are less likely to make a casual trip abroad than someone living in say, Luxembourg. Nor does the fact that English is so widely spoken. Go to Germany and adress someone in German with an English accent, and they will politely reply in perfectly good English. It takes a lot of effort to get them to conduct a conversation in German especially if one speaks it badly, and there is never the opportunity to improve.
So this is good new especially when it will help break down our insularity. But who will teach these foreign languages and what languages should be taught?
In the past, French was the first language that most people were taught, presumably on the assumption that France was the foreign country they were most likely to visit. But that is no longer so. One never knows what foreign language one might need to know. Spanish? Russia? Arabic? Chinese? Swahili?
So perhaps the best choice would be a well-structured language, which means a classical language. Through this, children would learn how languages are put together, thereby enabling them to learn a particular language later on, according to their needs.
How about Latin?
Hear the news in Latin (with a Finnish accent)
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