The Issue of Language

Earlier this year I had to go to Head Office in Europe for a few days and while I got a lot of value from the meetings I had the one real lesson I got was around language.

Being a born and bred Brit and living in an English speaking suburb with an English speaking wife there is only one language that we ever use, English. So imagine how inferior I felt while having dinner with twelve of my co-workers from around Europe I discovered that the next least lingual person at the table only spoke three languages fluently. What was worse though was that I then discovered that they were only talking English because I was there. That certainly made me sit up and take notice. For the record the most lingual spoke six languages fluently and could get by in eight.

Upon getting home it raised a serious question. If we are to raise our son in a way that he is prepared for a world that does not yet exist what do we need to do? More importantly do we have an obligation to learn two more languages ourselves so we can teach him? If so which two?

The fact of the matter is that education levels are on the increase worldwide and business is truly global so it is fair to say that being mono-lingual could be a severe hindrance in twenty years from now. So now the choice. French has always been seen as a good language to learn, likewise German. However if we look at the current developing economies would Mandarin and Spanish be better options? How about Urdu or Arabic or Portugese?

The final question then comes do we as parents have an obligation to make our son as global as possible even if this means moving countries or even continent during his school life. This then becomes a discussion of does a formal education in one country help or hinder his future chances in life vs life experiences and diversity of outlook? This is then well above learning a language and a valuable discussion to have. We know that the formal education system is not the be all and end all that its made to be but it is essential none the less.

The fact comes back to an original question “what do we as parents have to do to prepare our son for a world that does not yet exist?” There is no right or wrong answer to this unfortunately so we must make the best choice that we can at the time.

Certainly food for thought.