UK’s most important foreign language is Spanish, finds British Council

The British Council reports that Spanish is the most important foreign language for the UK

Ever since English squeezed its ever-expanding body into the top table of languages, there’s been fevered (well, mildly animated) talk about which language should rightfully take its place at number two in the affections of the famously monolingual Brits.

It is a debate that has very little going for it, particularly as English is now far and away the most widely spoken second language on the planet. If you can speak and understand English, you can travel to every corner of the planet and have a cohesive conversation or interaction with the locals…

So it’s almost understandable that the UK is so linguistically inward-looking. However, the British Council – the UK government’s educational and cultural institution – has just published the results of a report that looked into what the most important language is for Britain, after English of course.

Their findings show that Spanish should be taught more readily in British educational establishments, based on a set of cultural, economic and political factors. For instance, the British Council looked at who is moving to the UK, where the Brits travel to, where economic growth is happening, where it might happen, and where the UK exports to.

French, German, Arabic and Mandarin completed the top five, but it was Spanish that finished on top, largely thanks to Spanish is actually more widely spoken as a first language than English, and that its influence is growing, not diminishing.

Some 406 million people speak Spanish as a native language (beaten into second place by Mandarin Chinese, which has 848 million native speakers) and it is the fifth-most widely spoken language among countries with which the UK has important business links.

Spain’s recent economic stability has been echoed by high-growth in other Hispanic countries such as Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Additionally, the British Council found that Spanish evening classes are the most popular language choice in the UK, and Spain is also the most visited holiday destination for Brits.

There has always been an open dialogue between the two countries, with traffic of people flowing mostly from the UK to Spain, with goods such as clothing, fruit and veg and cars flowing the other way. But today, thousands of Spaniards are moving to the UK to work, making the influence of the Spanish language on the UK economy even greater.

According to the British Council’s report, British businesses and the government should make a greater effort to prepare its staff to converse in languages other than English, with Spanish strongly suggested as the next best thing.

The proliferation of the English language has been great for Britain, but if the country is not careful, it could become one of the very few monolingual nations left on earth, with more and more people speaking it as a second language.

Adding a smattering of Spanish to one’s linguistic skills will do us Brits no harm whatsoever. And what’s more – not only is it important, widely spoken and not too difficult to learn, it’s fun, too!