Why we should mind our languages

During the past week, I have felt like a dinosaur. One daughter has just achieved the A-levels that will mlb baseball jerseyallow her to study French and Italian at Oxford. Another is about to start A-level Spanish. The third is eager to domlb baseball jersey two languages when she enters the sixth form. Meanwhile, my 11-year-old cardinals jersey
has baseball jerseysbeen at a language school in Touraine to learn some French. (Having glancedbaseball jersey atmlb jerseys his primary school exercise book wheremlb jersey Au Revoir was spelled “Ovwa”blackhawks jersey, I felt he needed a spot of immersion.)

But it seemspenguins jersey that I am one of a dwindling number of parents who think that it’s important to have even a smattering of a foreign language. The latest figures for GCSEs and A-levels show such a steep decline that German is all but kaput,jersey devils and even French is heading for la merde - For the first time it has been booted from the top ten most popular subjects (replaced by nfl merchandiseReligious Studies). The number of studentsnfl merchandise taking these languages at GCSE has nearly halved since 2002.

The decline in language A-levels
nhl hockey jersey is equally steep. Only 13,850 students took A-level French this year, a drop of more than 3 per cent NFL apparelin just 12 monthshockey jersey. German nhl team jerseydwindled hassteelers jerseysto just 5,548 candidates.

“Exotics” like Chinese, nfl merchandiseJapanese, Arabicnhl jersey and Polish are NFL jerseycreeping up at all levels but the overall trend is down and many university departments have closed in recent years, due to lack nhl jerseysof demand, saints jerseyleaving largely the Russell Group to keep the study of modern languages alivefootball jerseys Just 28,500 of nearly 2 million undergraduates at British universities are football jerseystudying languages. Three quarters of them are women. NFL jerseys