Learning Languages

Why learn a foreign language?

There are many reasons to learn a foreign language, as can be seen from 700 reasons for learning languages, published by the Subject Centre for Languages Linguistics and Area Studies.

The Languages Work website offers the opportunity to explore the variety of reasons for learning languages for employment or leisure in some detail and provides illustrations of how they have come in useful for individuals in their work. "When you learn a language you also learn how other people live and find out about the world through their eyes" (Languages Work).

When should I start?

The government's National Languages Strategy recognises that young children have a talent for and natural interest in languages (page 10) but also that languages are a lifelong skill. It is never too late to start.