isten in English

[German] [French]

If you don't speak French or German, or you do and were just appalled by how I do it, I asked you how you are and if you speak another language.

Well here in England, new BBC analysis of data has shown that foreign language learning in schools is at an 18 year low. The BBC's Education Editor Branwyn Jeffreys sent this report.

[German]

Alice and Jocelyn, two students at Cardiff University, have a disappearing skill: they've learnt German and with the language an understanding of the history and culture of one of our biggest European neighbours.

There were 250 people in my year, and I was the only one doing German A level. They actually don't do that anymore in my school.

So that's completely gone as an option for people who are younger than you. How do you feel about that?

I think it's really sad. I think especially with what's going on with Brexit and everything, it's such a shame that we're losing such an important European language from our schools. Germany is a really cool place and I think if we're losing German as a subject in our schools, then we're losing that that drive to go and visit Germany and incorporate both our cultures and unite as one.

The decline in language learning has been happening for 20 years, but many now believe it's reached a critical tipping point. French appears to be following a similar pattern of decline. Professor Claire Gorrara at Cardiff University says linguists across the UK are seriously worried.

People may speak English, but we know that three quarters of the world's population does not speak English. It also opens up to other cultures, enables us to be more tolerant of otherness and other cultures. And for young people today to be globally mobile and to present a global Britain, they will need to be able to access other cultures in ways that make them valuable employees and valuable cultural ambassadors. And without languages, [they are] they will be deficient in both those areas.

The perception is that languages are too hard. Schools worry about their results. Pupils too.

[Mandarin]

But on a smaller scale, other languages are flourishing. Melbourne Village College in Cambridgeshire scrapped French and German three years ago. Instead, Spanish and Mandarin are among the options these pupils weigh up.

It's just quite unfortunate and different languages because not everyone can learn English just because we don't want to learn every other language.

I think it's really important because you get to learn other places, cultures, and their like their food, their cuisine, and everything like that.

Some will argue this is the future: languages with big global reach. Others will fear we’re becoming ever more distant psychologically from the countries geographically closest to us.