Sexist A-level results photojournalism...

In the UK, A-level results day passed in a blur of over- and underachievement, breathtakingly sexist photojournalism and the crashing of the UCAS site – so situation normal. The newspapers faithfully reported on our teenagers getting smarter, with 1 in 12 results being at the highest A* grade and added predictable asides on the exams being easier nowadays – probably.

These items, along with the impending inaccessibility of a university education to all but the most minted of 18 year-olds (or more accurately the most minted of 18 year olds’ parents), were the dominating news stories of the day. As seems the norm this summer, this conveniently buried other news; among which was another story, although doubtlessly less important than the situation in Libya or Somalia, that is nevertheless important to us all.

As a bit of a languages geek – I’d like to say connoisseur, but that’s a stretch – I was dismayed to hear that modern languages entries are still in their sad decline. The Guardian reported on this waning of interest; in stark contrast to the spectacular increase in maths and science A-Level entries – attributed to the “Brian Cox effect”. Gone are the days of ‘mathletes’ being geeky, it seems that romantic notions of the Rive Gauche are being replaced with students thinking that studying French – or indeed any language – is just plain gauche.

Having studied languages at school, then university, then working as a translator I understand that I have a somewhat biased opinion. I never had a problem putting on the accents, and was blithely unaware if I sounded silly (don’t burst my bubble) – any embarrassment I had when I travelled evaporated on sight of the widening eyes and delighted smile of the person upon whom I was inflicting my best “Ich heiße Jo”. But my dismay at the lack of interest in languages runs deeper than believing that the simple buzz of being able to communicate in another country is a cheap, safe high everyone should enjoy.

In our current world of conflict, prejudice and lack of tolerance, the need to communicate with each other and understand other cultures is greater than ever. We’re fast approaching the ten year anniversary of September 11^th – surely one of the greatest and most catastrophic collisions of culture we’ve seen; a product of a refusal to see another’s point of view and the parent of countless deadly misunderstandings and acts of intolerance since.

It is ridiculous to suggest that these problems could be solved simply by being able to order a chana masala like a local, but with language study comes knowledge and appreciation of a culture. So much of a country’s soul is sewn into its words, woven over time with history, tradition and humanity. Learning a language provides an insight into these secrets; by being able to communicate with one another we can all get under this blanket of understanding and realise that our differences should be celebrated and our similarities capitalised on – as we are all, in the end, human.