I feel a Daily Mail-style rant coming on, and for that I apologise in advance.
I read something today that has really, really bugged me. Apparently foreign exchange trips are under threat from new child-protection rules which require families taking part to be thoroughly vetted.
(Obviously) I understand the need to protect children from abuse, but I have to say I find this story very worrying.
I am among the minority of British people who speak another language fluently. I studied French at university, have spent 18 months in total living there – a year of which was spent teaching English conversation to some very unresponsive teenagers – and ended up gaining a distinction in my oral exams at the end of my degree.
Seven years after my last period living in the country – in France’s beautiful third city of Lyon – two of my closest friends are French and I’m still in contact with others I met while I was there.
My vocabulary has inevitably shrunk from not using the language on a daily basis but being able to converse fluently with someone in another tongue has enriched my life and remains one of my proudest achievements. Most of my friends back home are envious of this.
I am constantly shocked by British people’s arrogant attitude towards foreign languages. Because the world speaks English we can’t even be bothered to try and pick them up. But to me personally, learning French was never particularly to do with using it for a career – it was just more for the sake of learning and the love of communicating.
I was outraged when the government did a u-turn on GCSE languages last year and allowed teenagers to give them up altogether at 14. My other half is of the last generation that was not forced to take languages to GCSE level (my school year had to) and it’s now one of his big regrets.
Given half the chance, kids will drop any subject that involves proper work. I chose geography GCSE over history because we got a week off school for a field trip. I even chose geography A-level for pretty much the same reason.
I think it’s very, very bad for British society if we can’t be bothered to communicate with anyone other than Americans, and members of our former colonies.
Now there’s a chance that exchange trips may not take place in the future. Between the ages of 14 and 17 I spent about six weeks in total with a family from Biarritz, in south west France.
Marie-Charlotte, my “correspondante” didn’t really like this country – or speaking English – so only came here once. But the experience for me is what gave me the confidence to take my language studies to the level I did.
By the end of each fortnight I was using teenage slang, thinking and even dreaming in French. I was immersed in their culture – watching endless game shows on TV, playing pelote (a Basque game) and boules and partaking in long, leisurely lunches every day. My trips gave me the balls to travel somewhere alone and forced me to fit in with young people my own age from quite a different culture. I have amazing memories from those years and wouldn’t change it for the world. I hate the idea that my own children – if and when I have them – may not get the chance to benefit from these experiences.