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		Students may be smarter than you think August 9 2004 A recent press report under the provocative title "Students opt for the easy life abroad" accuses British students, when they spend time abroad, of taking the "easy option" of going to an English-speaking country, like Australia or the USA, and says "they would rather go somewhere hot" - although more British students are also going to Canada and New Zealand, not noted for sun-drenched beaches. The original research was carried out by the Department for Employment, and we find them wringing their hands over the fact that student numbers going to our partner countries in the EU are dropping (despite the big subsidies that the EU offers for exchanges within the EU), while the numbers going to English-speaking countries are increasing. Of course the EU - and the British government - are keen to develop a sense of "European identity". They want to see more and more exchanges between EU countries, and by implication fewer students going to the Anglo-sphere, as some people are calling it. They are saying that British graduates, and the British economy, "will be at a competitive disadvantage within the global economy" as a result of our failure to make more effort to learn languages. So the accusation is that our students are too lazy to tackle the rigours of a foreign language, and too keen on lying in the sun, and that they will suffer as a result. I think that's nonsense. I believe that our students may be smarter than we give them credit for. Of course learning foreign languages is a good thing - but it requires an enormous investment of time and effort, which could possibly be better used learning something else, like brain surgery or nuclear physics. And the key insight is this: it is hugely more valuable for a continental to learn English, than for a Brit to learn a continental language. Why? Because like it or not (and the French hate it!), English is in fact the language of the world. It is the language of diplomacy, of science, of medicine, of the internet. So if you're born in Denmark, or Finland, or even France, learning English is essential if you want to make your way in a global economy. But if you're English, you already speak the global language. Fine if you want to learn French. It'll be great in France, and a few former French colonial territories. But it won't open the world to you, in the way that English would to a Frenchman. There are now no fewer than twenty official languages in the EU (and the cost of translation and interpretation in the European institutions is astronomic - but that's another story!). So if you learn just one of them, that still leaves the other nineteen. The report rightly points to "the important intercultural learning experience" that an extra language, and a period of study abroad, can deliver. Well yes. But is it worth the huge investment of effort in the study of a foreign language, particularly for those with little aptitude for languages? I think not. In my own case, I spent a dozen years working in South East Asia, among people who spoke Cantonese, Thai, Malay and Korean. And I got by just fine with English. I have now worked five years in the European parliament, and again find no problem using English. This year, even the electronic notice boards in the parliament have switched from French to English! There may be other benefits for students in going to English-speaking countries, especially for those who plan to make a career in business. On most measures, Anglo-sphere economies are out-performing EU economies. There are more great international corporations based in English-speaking countries than continental Europe. A grounding in US business practice, and a network of US contacts, for example, may be of greater long-term career benefit than a year in France - with or without the French language. There is another point which the euro-luvvies at the Department of Education will hate, but needs to be borne in mind. That is that language is fundamental to identity. In terms of both language and culture, many Brits feel much closer to the Aussies, the Canadians and the Americans than they do to continental Europeans. Many of us in Britain wonder why the political classes seem determined to drive us ever closer to the Continent, when our instincts are with the Commonwealth and the English-speaking world. At any rate, our students are voting with their feet. More are going abroad, and of those, an increasing proportion are going to the Anglo-sphere. I think they're making a smart decision, and I think our political leaders should take note.