Hard to put a price on learning a new language
I wouldn’t imagine the news that China’s economy “only” grew by nine per cent in the third quarter was much consolation to Gordon Brown in a week when Mervyn King said the UK economy was likely to enter a recession.
And his counterparts in the Gulf States probably can’t offer much solace either – the rise of sovereign wealth funds from these countries is another example of the growing power of the “emerged” economies.
One of the most striking things to come out of the maelstrom of the global economic system is the redrawing of the power lines on the financial map of the world.
Clearly this transition has many implications for Midland companies in terms of how they do business.
One thing that should be at the top of the agenda is how they communicate with the billions of potential customers out there.
According to a report out this week, despite a growth in student numbers studying science and maths, languages remained a “vulnerable” area.
Lord Jones of Birmingham has spoken out many times on the importance of foreign language capability in UK businesses and research shows that British companies are losing business and falling behind in the exploration of new markets because of lack of language skills.
As a nation we seem to suffer from a collective mentality which combines complacency and abject fear when it comes to speaking in a foreign language.
In a previous life, I used to teach English to Italian business people in Bologna.
My students, who included chief financial officers, graphic designers and secretaries, regarded speaking a foreign language not as a special badge of honour but as a fact of life.
Many were clearly embarrassed at speaking English at work but forced themselves to overcome this as they knew how important it was for their job.
The Government is hoping that we in the UK will be able to adopt this approach and from 2010, it will be a compulsory part of the national curriculum for children from the age of seven to 14 to study a modern foreign language.
But by the time those children enter the workplace – at least 10 years from now – the world economy will have changed dramatically.
It’s time we get over our collective embarrassment in order to get ahead in the meantime while we’re waiting for the next generation of linguists to emerge.
