Language Skills
Bonjour, ca va? Is this all you can remember from GCSE French? If so, you and many UK graduates could be in trouble. According to specialist multilingual recruiter Euro London Appointments, UK graduates risk falling massively behind in the global economy because of their lack of language skills. However, modern European languages are only part of the picture as there is also a real shortage of Asian and emerging market language skills. Without these skills, graduates - particularly in the finance, marketing and IT sectors - will find it difficult to secure the plum roles that offer an attractive salary as well as lots of opportunities for international travel Julie Ferry, The Guardian, Saturday 20 January 2007 |
So, if you want to brush up your language skills – or learn another language from scratch – where should you start? Below are some useful information resources for Learning another Language
In Canterbury and Kent
Be suspicious of native-born Esperanto speakers. Coup de grâce - French for lawnmower. If English is supposed to be the lingua franca, how come there’s no word in English for lingua franca? There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.Jennifer Doubleday If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.Nelson Mandela It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English - up to fifty words used in correct context - no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.Carl Sagan Through learning language, we learn about culture. Un homme qui parle deux langues est bilingue. Un homme qui ne parle qu'une langue est anglais. A man who speaks three language is trilingual. A man who speaks two languages is bilingual. A man who speaks only one language is English. Claude Gagnière |
- University of Kent Language Express www.kent.ac.uk/cewl/courses/language-express.html
offer ten languages in Canterbury and French in Medway including summer courses: Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish.
- Language courses in Kent at all levels, full and part-time, from Floodlight http://kent.floodlight.co.uk
- Kent Adult & Community Education www.kentadulteducation.co.uk
- Canterbury College www.cant-col.ac.uk evening GCSE and A-level courses in French, Italian and Spanish
Overseas
General information and links
- Travel Tree www.traveltree.co.uk/pages/language-schools.asp Search by language or by country.
- Links to provides of short language courses in Spain, Latin America, Germany, France and Portugal, from Newcastle University www.ncl.ac.uk/sml/yearabroad/shortlangcourses
- A list of language schools exhibiting at the annual Language Show www.thelanguageshow.co.uk/page.cfm/action=Exhib/ExhibID=00066l
- Europa pages www.europa-pages.com courses in France, Spain, Germany and Ireland
Some course providers:
- Cactus Language www.cactuslanguage.com/en
- Projects Abroad www.projects-abroad.co.uk/projects/language-courses French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic
Links to specific languages
- French www.institut-francais.org.uk/courses
- German www.daad.de/deutschland/deutsch-lernen/02940.en.html
Summer Schools in Germany www.daad.de/deutschland/deutsch-lernen/sommerkurse/00490.en.html - Italian www.icilondon.esteri.it/IIC_Londra/Menu/Imparare_Italiano
- Japanese www.jpf.org.uk/language
- Spanish londres.cervantes.es/en/default.shtm
Self-study and online learning
- BBC www.bbc.co.uk/languages
- Linguaphone www.linguaphone.co.uk
- Open University www.open.ac.uk/education-and-languages
- Rosetta Stone www.rosettastone.co.uk
Now continue to our other skills pages or see our modern langages careers page
Last fully updated 2011