BRITAIN'S TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 73, 23 September 1930, Page 14

BRITAIN'S TRADE

PEQBLEM OF TONGUES

MORE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED

A powerful appeal to the nation to change its old and somewhat apathetic attitude towards the study of languages is made by the Committee on Education for Salesmanship, in their second interim report, says the "Daily Telegraph." The Committee has returned to the subject of Britain's inferiority as linguists as compared with foreign nations, and the handicap which this imposes in commerce. In their first report the Committee stated: — . • . . "In almost all markets it is a damaging and often, a fatal handicap if representatives, whether., principals or subordinates, cannot converse freely with the customer in his own language as well as read his newspapers and trade journals; and perhaps an equal handicap if correspondence from headquarters is not conducted in that language. Our export trade, however, is often so handicapped." The Committee have now before them the results of an inquiry which at their request Lord Eustace Percy, then President of the Board of Education, directed to be made into the teaching of modern languages in other countries. The countries reported upon aTe Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany.

THREE TONGUES,

In the countries visited it was found that boys and girls entering commercial employment at 16 would probably have received instruction in two foreign languages sufficiently for practical purposes in convection with their occupations, immediately or after comparatively little further practice. The provision of full-time education up to the age of 18 or 19, with a deliberate outlook on a commercial ca'reei, was a marked feature of the systems investigated. The provision of libraries was often on very generous and very intelligent lines. "It is sometimes said that the Englishman is naturally a bad linguist," states the .report. "This we believe to be entirely untrue. It is true, however, that he is very often self-conscious and has a dread of making a fool of himself iii a language which he-' has never been effectively taught to think in, and therefore to speak with ease. "He knows enough to realise his deficiencies, with the anomalous result that he is usually most diffident in using French, the language in which he has received instruction for the longest time.

"Moreover, it has to bo remembered that foreign customers arc- often proud of their knowledge of English, and glad of the opportunity to practise it on an Englishman, a fact which lessens his chances of becoming fluent in their language." The Committee express the bolief that the main causes of the higher status of modern languages in the countries visited was to be found in the keen appreciation of their intrinsic value.

NEIdHBOUR'S VIEW.

"Modern languages are, in a word, regarded not only as having high practical value, but also as effective instruments of education in. the broadest sense. Public opinion—that is to say, the opinion of the parent, the pupil, and industrial and commercial interests —is unanimous on this point; that a higher standard of practical attainment is looked for and Beeped; and that somo expertness in foreign languages is the mark of an educated person and useful member of the community.

"Por our particular purpose it is very evident that the progressive business man regards the matter as one of immediate concern from the point of view of his owu trade and that of the country as a whole."

The Committee, which is presided over by Sir Francis Goodenough, and consists of the representatives of the principal industries of the country, will in due course make its recommendations. Meantime in the first and second reports (the latter is on sale) educational administrators and teachers have before them the results of the Committee's inquiries.