多語種人才受歡迎，快來學習外語吧！

隨著英語成為了國際性語言，很多英語國家的年輕人逐漸對學習外語失去了興趣。《經(jīng)濟學人》雜志采訪了一些雇主，研究了相關數(shù)據(jù)和政策。最終的結果是他們對這一現(xiàn)象以及國家的未來深感擔憂?？磥韒onolingual（只會單一語言的人）真的是沒有出路了，大家一定要好好學習外語！

學習語言 再大聲一點.mp3

聽力原文：

THE last time she was recruiting for her export-sales team, Sarah Grain hired a Lithuanian who speaks Russian, Polish and German. Her two previous hires for Eriez Magnetics, which makes industrial equipment in South Wales, were an Italian who also speaks French, and a Venezuelan who speaks Spanish and Portuguese. All of them speak fluent English. “There were no British applicants who had the requisite language skills,” she says.

Ms Grain's conclusion is not unusual for a British company. In 2012 a European Commission survey tested the foreign-language proficiency of 54,000 students aged 14 and 15, in 14 nations. Sweden came top, with 82% of pupils reaching an “independent” or “advanced independent” standard. The average for all 14 states was 42%. England came bottom, with just 9%.

Part of the explanation is that many people's second language is English, while many Britons continue to believe that, as native speakers of the lingua mundi, they do not need to bother with foreign languages. They may be right—in terms of communication. But it means that, not only are they missing out on much cultural interaction, they may also be harming their own job prospects.

They have not been helped by the educational policies of successive governments. In 2004 Tony Blair's Labour government abolished the requirement to learn a language after the age of 14, causing the numbers taking a language GCSE exam at 16 to fall by half in state schools over the next seven years.

Concerned about this rapid decline, the coalition government brought in a new performance indicator called the English Baccalaureate, or EBacc, in 2011. A modern language was one of its five core disciplines. Language teachers—an embattled breed—rejoiced. The number of students entering a GCSE language exam in 2013, the first year the changes took effect, rose by 20% (see chart).

Now, however, those gains could be lost, as the government has seemingly loosened the requirement. From 2016, under a new initiative called Progress 8, it has extended the number of core subjects to eight, appearing to make learning a language voluntary. This has pleased some teachers, who felt the EBacc was too narrow, but linguists are aghast.

The decline of languages at GCSE has inevitably had an effect higher up the academic food chain. Though the number of those studying languages to A Level—the exams taken at 18—will increase thanks to the GCSE cohort of 2013-14, it is likely to fall back again. French and German are half as popular as they were 20 years ago. The number of universities offering language degrees has fallen, too: by 50% for German and 40% for French since 1998. The number offering Spanish has also fallen. Degrees in other languages, such as Chinese and Arabic, are becoming more popular, but they are still rare.

The economy and the labour market bear the consequences. In 2012 the British Chambers of Commerce found, in a survey of 8,000 British companies, that 96% had no foreign-language speakers. First-time exporters cited language as a barrier to entering international markets.

Though Britain makes up 12% of the population of the EU, less than 5% of EU civil servants in Brussels are British. Not enough Britons can fulfill the language requirement of being able to work in French or German. And even if monoglot Brits can get jobs at multinationals, claims Richard Hardie, non-executive chairman of the British arm of UBS, a bank, “the chances of getting to the top if you only have English are much lower than before”.

This lack of language skills also lowers growth. By exactly how much is hard to say, but one estimate, by James Foreman-Peck of Cardiff University, puts the “gross language effect” (the income foregone because language barriers alter and reduce international trade) in 2012 as high as ￡59 billion ($90 billion), or 3.5% of GDP.

Meanwhile, in September 2014 the government mandated that all primary schools must teach a language. Getting children started at a young age is admirable. But, with so few language graduates coming out of universities, who is going to teach them?

中文譯文：

最后一次為自己的海外銷售團隊招聘，Sarah Grain聘用了一位可講俄語、波蘭語和德語的立陶宛人。她為藝利磁鐵—位于南威爾士的一家制造工業(yè)設備的公司—先前兩次聘用的人分別是會講法語的意大利人和會講西班牙語與葡萄牙語的委內(nèi)瑞拉人。而他們都能說流利的英文。Sarah表示，“沒有符合必備語言技能的英國求職者?！?/p>

Grain女士對一家英國公司的此般結論已經(jīng)讓人見怪不怪了。早在2012年，歐盟委員會就針對來自14個國家、14到15歲年齡不等的54000名學生進行了外語熟練程度的測試。瑞典學生以其中82％的人可達到“靈活使用”和“駕輕就熟”的程度而位居榜首。所有14個國家的平均人數(shù)為42％。英國墊底，僅僅有9％。

部分原因是許多人的第二外語就是英語，這也是大部分英國人始終堅信的事，而作為以lingua mundi（世界性語言）為母語的人，他們著實無需為外語而煩心。他們可能是對的——從溝通方面來說。但這卻意味著他們不僅會錯失多文化交流機會，也會危及到他們的工作前景。

歷屆政府的教育政策并未使他們獲益。2004年，托尼布萊爾的工黨政府廢除了年滿14歲就要學習一門語言的要求，此舉直接導致之后的七年，公立學校的學生在語言方面GCSE（普通中等教育證書）考試的通過率直降一半。

考慮到人數(shù)驟降，聯(lián)合政府在2011年頒布了一項名為英國文憑證書（EBacc）的技能指標?，F(xiàn)代語言是5個核心學科之一。語言老師——隨時嚴陣以待的一群人—都欣喜若狂。新指標頒布后第一年就見成效，2013年參加GCSE語言考試的學生人數(shù)增長了20％。

但是現(xiàn)在，隨著政府對此項要求的逐漸放松，這些成績可能會慢慢丟失。自2016年起，在一項名為Progress 8（8步走）的新倡議下，核心學科擴展至8門，這一舉措使得語言學習更自主化。這讓部分老師十分欣喜，他們認為Ebacc范圍狹窄，而語言學家卻對此舉大為震驚。

GCSE中語言的減少，不可避免的會對提高學術競爭有所影響。盡管隨著2013-14年GCSE的人氣回溫，那些語言學習高達A級—18歲方可參與的考試—的人數(shù)將會增加，但它仍可能再次降低。相較于20年前，法國和德國的人數(shù)已降了一半。提供語言學位的大學數(shù)量也已減少：自1998年起，德國減少了50％，法國減少了40％。提供西班牙語學習的學校也已減少。其他語種學位，比如漢語和阿拉伯語，正變得越來越多，但它們依然很稀缺。

經(jīng)濟和勞工市場直接承擔此般后果。在2012年，英國商會發(fā)現(xiàn)，在一份涉及8000家英國公司的調查中，有96％的公司都沒有會外語的人。首次試水的出口商將外語定為打入國際市場的一大障礙。

雖然英國占歐盟總人口的12％，但在布魯塞爾擔任歐盟公務員的英國人卻少于總人數(shù)的5％。沒有完全合格的英國人能夠滿足可在法國或德國工作的要求。而且即使只會單一語言的英國人在跨國公司工作，來自瑞銀集團—一家銀行—英國分公司的理查德·哈迪表示，“若你只會講英語，那么你能高升的機會相比于以前已經(jīng)大大降低了?！?/p>

在幽暗的語言世界，有些許明亮之處。部分英國大學正在從以文學導向的學位轉變至與類似法律和商業(yè)學習的實踐學科關聯(lián)的聯(lián)合學位。一些科學家正在學習他們學科需求之外的語言，這會使他們更加稱職。

與此同時，政府在 2014年9月要求所有的小學都要教授語言。讓孩子們在幼齡時期接受語言教育是極好的。但是，從大學走出的語言學畢業(yè)生幾近為零，誰又能來教他們呢？

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