Down in the south of Italy, a quiet revolution is taking place.
State school teachers, – not language teachers, but PE teachers, history teachers, IT specialists – are being funded by the CLIL EU project to become qualified in another EU language and deliver one class a week in that language; pay and promotion will depend on it. Almost all are choosing English.
Under PON projects, also EU funded, Italian school pupils are spending up to three weeks, expenses paid, in UK language schools. Essential they believe to speak English.
Whether the grandees of Europe like it or not, English is increasingly the global language of professionals and the young: much, of course, encouraged by the Internet, social media, the music and gaming industries.
The European Union spends vast, and we do mean vast amounts of money on servicing, equally, the needs of its 23 language groups. To get a job in HQ EU and any hope of rising through the ranks you will need to speak at least two other languages apart from your mother tongue.
It’s no surprise to find Brussels staffed by many from smaller nations who have had to learn English to survive. Nor a surprise to discover their countries learn to lobby well for EU grants. All documentation is drafted in every language, however small, all of that has to be paid by the EU tax payer. In times of austerity should we consider a ‘lingua operanda’?
Arguments against have always played the “colonial” card or the unfair advantage given to the country whose native tongue was chosen. But the realistic truth is new technologies are increasingly making ‘global English’ culturally neutral.
Of course, employ translators so those in the Parliament with elected power can be understood by each other, but realise in the corridors, delegations will use mother tongues to promote their own positions.
Of course, still celebrate the richness and diversity of a polyglot Europe, but also realise the economic and social advantage of sharing one basic language, speaking with one voice when it comes to dealing with the challenge of European unity ahead.
English is no longer simply the language of the Brits, the Commonwealth and the US, although that is impressive enough. It is the chosen language of the world’s youth.
In Britain there is a government move to begin language classes in primary school and Education Secretary Michael Gove may be right that learning languages aids intellectual development, gives understanding of foreign cultures, makes travelling more rewarding and helps young Brits tick the box so they can fulfil the linguistic requirement for jobs and influence at the heart of Europe. But around the world it is English that is fuelling Facebook.
I would rather see the EU adopt the ‘global English’ of IT, banking and business, and concentrate its “polylingual” mind on saving the money and redistributing those resources towards creating real jobs and commercial competition.
Then, perhaps, a common language would be more successful than a common currency.
