English, languages and the British
It is ironic that though Britain is one of the most multilingual countries on earth, largely as a result of immigration, fewer and fewer British schoolchildren are learning a foreign language, as an article in the Observer newspaper points out. While some people worry about the baleful effect of English on the languages it comes into contact with it may turn out, instead, that its greatest effect is to stop British people learning other languages – which would have a much more negative effect on them than on anyone else! We live in a multi-lingual world where English is only one of the hundreds of languages on offer. Monolingualism harms the monlingual and makes the world a poorer place.