Languages are a passion for me. But I sat down to wonder that in modern day Britain, I haven’t seen very many people who are multilingual. Is it because they just can’t be bothered to take up a language or is it because they don’t have the need to? I happened to read somewhere that English is the language spoken by the greatest number of non-native speakers and it shocked me to read that by 2025, every Chinese person, right from the rich to the poor will be able to speak English. Even in India, a large majority of the middle class speak English incredibly fluently. But I wondered, in a country like Britain, where people chose to go on holiday every year to various destinations in Europe and abroad, why is it that most people are monolingual? Is it a sign of weakness in intelligence? A sign of not needing to? Or is it just pure human nature?

Taking up a language is meant to be one of the most helpful things. Not only does it help jog up your memory and keep it fresh, but it could even beat diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Knowing a language is seen very greatly by universities and improving your chances of getting in. For jobs it is essential if you chose to live abroad and having a language in your CV means your chances of getting a job are multiplied. It eases the process of travel a lot more because for once, you can actually understand what other say. Languages broaden knowledge about cultures and keep those cultures alive. With all of these reasons present for every one to learn a language, I wondered – is it monolingualism that is increasingly popular or is multilingualism dying out? An increase in one would mean the decrease in another. Are we just ignorant to the fact that in this world, 6912 languages exist, waiting for us to learn just one more than we are born with?

What is really shocking is that the number of people now in Britain who do continue to be illiterate in their own language, English seems barely laudable. The number of people who struggle to pass GCSE English seems quite stunning. Many people struggle to get jobs because they can’t read or write and it seems bad that we can’t do anything to change that situation.

As I wonder about languages and why people don’t speak as many languages now, I feel that personally, now we aren’t bothered to learn languages. Holiday is just relaxation time rather than trying to understand different cultures. In a world filled with stress, learning a language is last in everyone’s agenda. The advantages of learning a language are copious and multilingualism, according to me, is the way forward. Still I hope that if we can’t keep the culture of multilingualism alive, other people from other countries will continue to. After all even though languages might be different, the people of the world are united.

I’d like to finish with two witty quotes, one by Geordie Howe, an ice hockey great from Canada who said, “All hockey players are bilingual. They know English and profanity.”

The other is by Mark Twain, the famous author, “In Paris, they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.”