It has long been suspected that many British people are quite lazy when it comes to learning new languages. Our blasé attitude towards foreign language skills means that the British public are losing out on key jobs, work and business opportunities in Europe.
According to a recent report it seems that British workers are only getting 5% of work and business opportunities within the European Parliament as a result of not having the sufficient language skills to carry out the work. This is in spite of almost 12% of British people making up the European population.
The EU Parliament had its first British jobs fair on Monday 9th May in the hope that it would encourage more British people to learn foreign language skills and take on work and jobs in Europe. The EU Parliament has been expressing concern at the way British people are under-represented within the administrational centres of Europe. It was reported that if British people were to learn better foreign language skills then they would be able to work in jobs ranging from administration to policy makers in the European Parliament and Commission.
This latest move by the EU Parliament seems to prove that it is committed to including the British public in more European jobs. However, since the government made it possible to drop foreign language studies at GCSE level, the number of British students learning a foreign language has dropped considerably which in turn severely affects their chances of getting international jobs or becoming involved in international work and business opportunities.
Clearly, if the British people want to be able to compete in Europe within business and jobs then we have to start to lose our snobbery when it comes to English and learn a foreign language.

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