There has been a determined campaign by the MFL Twitterati to seek the views of our Deputy Prime Minister on the state of language learning in this country, and what his government proposes to do to support it. Sadly, Mr Clegg has not responded to any of the numerous tweets sent over the last month or so by a significant number of people in at least 5 languages.
You would think that, as a multilingual politician himself, impressively at ease in at least 4 languages, he would have an interest, and might actually be flattered to think that we might turn to him help champion our cause. We have now resorted to email and snailmail, and I include here the text of my first email/letter to Nick Clegg. I will, of course, post any reply received:
"Dear Mr Clegg
As you are a mutlilngual politician, we would be very interested in hearing your views on the state of language learning in England, and what your government proposes to do to support it. If I could quote you just one statistic: in Italy students receive 140 hours per year of foreign language tuition. The EU average is about 118 hours per year. In England it is 62 hours per year. Over the three years of Key Stage 3, Years 7 to 9, that equates to about 6 weeks' study.
Sir Digby Jones and other business luminaries have expressed the view that recovery could well be overseas-demand led. With our lamentable national language skills deficit, this seems unlikely. Yes, they will sell to us in English, but they will always prefer to buy from us in their own language. I'm sure that the Chambers of Commerce could give you chapter and verse on the amount of trade lost to the UK because we have very few people with the necessary language skills and cultural understanding to sell successfully abroad.
Given your laudable ability to communicate in 4 languages, you should be well placed to champion the cause of language learning, emphasising its importance not least in the world of commerce, but in the development of rounded individuals who are global citizens with a keen sense of intercultural understanding.
There has been a determined campaign by professional linguists on Twitter to seek your views on this subject, Regrettably, you have chosen not to respond. You seem more interested in condemning the Burmese elections. We are therefore turning to email and post to get our point across. We will not be silent, and we look forward to the day when you feel able to share your thoughts with us.
I await your response with interest."
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