LBC Andrew Marr Interview with Richard Simcott on Language Learning Trends in The UK

[@davidlawson7558]

A very interesting listen. Thank you for sharing, Richard!

[@SpeakingFluently]

Glad you enjoyed listening to it!

[@ggagg123]

We should all speak as many languages as possible. Would you rather have one window to look at the world around you or two or three windows? Siarad Cymraeg.

[@derpauleglot9772]

I mean, yeah, I'm German and I do speak English, true. You can't learn every language in the world, and it's practical to have an international language. It's also true that learning language takes a lot of effort. I spoke to a lot of fluent English speakers and asked them to estimate how much time it took them to get to that level, usually 10k-20k hours. To put that into perspective, I´ve seen estimates that getting a bachelor's degree takes 5000 study hours (give or take). And in some cases, like teaching English or writing in English, you'll still be at a disadvantage simply for not being a native speaker. Even in less language-focused jobs, you'll still be at a disadvantage sometimes. You might propose sth. at work and have a native speaker disagree with you, and they're going to be able to make their arguments faster, more spontaneously, more precisely than you can. I'm reminded of that whenever I hear German speakers I know speak English, even those who are confident in their English skills. You're just not getting a 100% talking to them in a foreign language. This applies to me as well, of course. Even now that I'm back in Germany I still use English sometimes, and I meet a lot of people who are having a hard time trying to find motivation to learn German, even my students (I'm a German teacher). Not sure if people thinking "you guys made the effort to learn English, so now I'm unsure if learning your language is worth it, even though I live in Germany" is, you know, an optimal state. Here's the thing though, despite all that, I still feel like I have some advantages over a monolingual English speaker or a non-native English speaker who is not fluent in German. There are roughly 100 million people who speak German better than English, every language helps me connect to people, every language gave me a deeper understanding of culture, how countries and mentalities differ, history, how language works in general, French and English helped me with advanced German vocabulary etc. So yeah, if people think that English (or English plus their native language) is all they need, I can see where they're coming from, but I still feel like they're missing out somehow. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk :)

[@IbrahimAbdullahi-iu8ro]

I do like your videos

[@SpeakingFluently]

Thank you! That’s super kind of you to write.

[@STEPPER9]

A couple of his questions highlight why people are put off from learning languages; the gremlin that languages are difficult to learn. He said this a few times. People always want the easy option so as soon as people say this to them they would rather choose another way, especially the younger generations who are used to everything coming instantaneously.

[@SpeakingFluently]

It’s a fair point to make about people referring to languages are being “hard to learn”. This mantra is repeated so often that it ends up being believed as fact. Rome definitely wasn’t built in a day, but it was built!

[@5koKirilov]

you're from Hull, aren't you?

[@gilbertinabrozina8382]

❣️ "Promosm"