Mind your languages! UK is warned it cannot carry on at bottom of class

-> Mind your languages! UK is warned it cannot carry on at bottom of class
Britons can no longer rely on the rest of the world speaking English to get by in the world of business or work, the European Education Commissioner warns.
Androulla Vassiliou cited figures which showed the UK languishing at the foot of a European languages league table - the EU had set a target of 50 per cent of people speaking two foreign languages fluently - yet in the UK only nine per cent of 15-year-olds spoke one foreign language. That compared with more than 80 per cent of 15-year-olds in the Netherlands and Sweden, who topped the table.

Reasons for the reluctance to persist with languages might include emphasis by successive governments on maths, science and technology. But overall, incentives to learn languages in Britain remain frustratingly haphazard. Primary schools are not required to teach a foreign language. Steve Smith, a teacher and blogger on language trends, notes that the university admissions system no longer treats a language as a core requirement. He thinks more should follow the example of University College London in re-introducing a GCSE requirement for all applicants.