Why we need a multilingual Olympics
1. Why we need a multilingual Olympics
2. So how can language skills help to deliver a successful
Games?
3. What needs to happen now?
4. What we can offer?
5. Resources for schools
Aspirations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games are high. They have been described as an opportunity to ‘inspire a generation’, ‘to reinvent ourselves as a tourist destination’ ‘to upgrade our skills base in customer services’ and ‘to harness the passion of our creative and cultural industries to throw the greatest party the world has ever seen’.
Our country will be host to athletes and spectators from more than 220 countries; we will, literally, be ‘welcoming the world’, with all its richness of languages and cultures represented, mirroring the ‘superdiversity’ we have at home.
Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has said ‘London is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, constantly renewing itself, and how home to 200 ethnic communities, who speak a total of 300 languages. We want to involve all of these people and communities in delivering our Games.’
The success of London’s bid was underpinned by our capital city’s projection of itself as a global city, able to reach out and connect with the world through the vibrant cultural and linguistic resources in its population. The Games are seen as an opportunity to build on this image to boost tourism and to enhance Britain’s ‘global brand position’ for years to come.
We see a major uplift in our language capability, linked to the aspirations of the National Languages Strategy, as key to this.
Language skills will be vital, not only to overcoming the communication barriers which could undermine the efficient running of the Games, but to achieving the higher aspirations we have for the legacy of the Games.
We believe that language skills can benefit our country before, during and after the Games. In customer services, in tourism, in boosting the ambition and achievement of young people, in aligning our skills base more closely to the needs of employers, and in capturing the potential of the Games for business success at the time and as a legacy for the future, languages must surely play a crucial role.
The Games has been described as ‘a catalyst for a lasting social legacy of improved skills and educational opportunities’. We want to see language learning at the heart of this, and capture its potential to transform lives and open up horizons. The Games provide a crucial opportunity to address the disparity between the 14-19 curriculum and the employability skills needs of employers. That will mean positioning languages as a vocational skill, as well as an academic accomplishment by integrating a language element into each of the new Specialised Diplomas and making full use of the NVQ language units and the new Asset Languages qualifications.
1. Why we need a multilingual Olympics
2. So how can language skills help to deliver a successful
Games?
3. What needs to happen now?
4. What we can offer?
5. Resources for schools
