‘The world is one country’.  According to Raj this is why learning languages are so important.   We were interviewing members of the public to find out what learning languages meant to them.  This was part of Answer English’s celebration of the European Day of Languages.  We asked over 20 randomly chosen people a whole series of questions about their knowledge and opinion of being able to communicate in foreign languages.  The results make interesting reading.

If asked what percentage of people speak English as a native language in the world, what would you say?   Most of the public we asked thought around 40%.  As I alluded to yesterday one extraordinary gentleman thought 85% of the world spoke English as their Mother Tongue.  In fact it is just 6%.  75% of the world’s population don’t speak any English at all.  Perhaps this should provide some inspiration for all the British people who think that they do not need to speak any other language because the whole world speaks English anyway.

Without exception everyone we asked thought it important to be able to communicate in other languages.  And most people international travelling as the primary reason to learn another language.  Let’s hope the facts wake people up and make them more enthusiastic about learning other languages. If everyone would just only learn a few words in another language it would make communication a lot easier and then the world truly would be ‘one country.’

You can see some of the interviews from yesterday on You Tube clicking on the following links:

People and Languages  What Languages Mean to People  The Meaning of Languages to People