If I could write a letter to my 15-year-old self, I’d thank her profusely and congratulate her on taking one key decision. Although she had no idea at the time, I’d tell her how crucial that decision was to her entire path through life. I’d congratulate her for choosing to continue studying Spanish to AS and A-Level. Why?

        Two weeks ago I returned to my secondary school, King Edward VI School, for the first time in nine years. Nine years! After spending every weekday of my life there for seven years on the trot, one day I simply left and took nine whole years to return. So why did I return? It wasn’t for one of those awkward school reunions, it was actually to give a series of talks to 4th, 5th and 6th formers (aged 14-18). In total that day I spoke to some 300 students and I titled my talks ’50 Countries and Counting: How Languages Let Me Discover the World’. My aim was to try and convince the students at GCSE level to continue with a language to A-Level. For those who are unfamiliar with the British schooling system, we study 10 or so subjects to GCSE (age 16). After GCSEs we specialise down to just 4 subjects at AS Level (age 17) and then specialise even further to just 3 subjects at A-Level (age 18). Nationally it’s not compulsory to study a language even to age 16, but my school thankfully did make it compulsory. I also spoke to 6th formers (age 17-18) who are studying a language at A-Level and I explained why they should consider including a foreign language in their university degree as well.

       I bang on about the importance of learning foreign languages an awful lot to anyone in my vicinity, and it’s been a little while since I did so here on my blog, so I thought I’d share some of the key points from my talks to current students at KES.

        At age 16 I was studying English Language, Spanish, Business and Art at AS-Level. I had my heart set on being a journalist, and I wanted to study English at university and then do a Journalism qualification afterwards. I had it all planned out. I’m not even sure why a year beforehand I’d chosen to continue with Spanish to AS-Level, as I certainly wasn’t planning on becoming a linguist. Anyway, at age 16 I clearly remember going to a 1-to-1 with the careers officer and telling her about my plans to study English and become a journalist. She herself was an English teacher and quickly pointed out that the top universities teaching ‘English’ are actually teaching ‘English Literature’, not the ‘English Language’ A-Level that I had chosen, and that therefore I couldn’t apply to study English at a top university.

       This was news to me. I had always preferred the ‘language’ aspect to the ‘literature’ aspect anyway, so I wasn’t too sorry to miss out on all those literature degrees at top universities, but it did leave me feeling a bit flummoxed and confused about what to do instead.

       Basically, it was a sheer fluke. And now I can’t imagine what my life would be like, or what I’d be doing, if I hadn’t done a languages degree. I most likely would never have moved abroad, I wouldn’t have spent an Erasmus year in Italy and Spain, I wouldn’t have discovered all those amazing cultures, I wouldn’t have met my wonderful friends from all over the world, I wouldn’t have fallen in love with the boyfriends I met while living abroad, I wouldn’t have started an international graduate scheme, I wouldn’t have travelled so far and wide, and I probably wouldn’t be living abroad and studying for a Master’s in the Netherlands right now.

       Every single thing I’ve done and every opportunity I’ve had since age 18 has been a direct result of that decision to continue studying languages (honestly, that’s completely true), and the thought that I so very nearly could have chosen another subject is absolutely terrifying. Those 15-year-olds have such important decisions to make at such a young age!

What I wish I had known at age 15: Keep your options open

        Having realised that such a pivotal decision in my life took place at the mere age of 15, it seemed important to me that other 15-year-olds grasp this fact and consider their A-Level choices very seriously indeed. I showed the students this quote:

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” – Frank Smith

• Study that language at university
• Study a new language from scratch at university (known as ‘ab initio’, for which universities require proof that you have language learning ability, through an A-Level language)
• Combine any language with any other subject at university (eg. History and Spanish, Geography and French, Law and Italian)
• Study, work or teach abroad with Erasmus (which normally requires some proof of language learning ability too)
• Study for an entire degree in a different country (which are often far cheaper than in the UK)
• Take a Gap Year to travel, with the excuse of wanting to practice and improve your foreign language
• Easily pick up other languages later on, once you understand the grammar and language learning techniques
• Better understand the countries you travel to if you speak the language
• Count yourself in the 5.5% of the British population who speak a foreign language (isn’t it shocking that that is so low?!)
• Better position yourself in the job market (as speaking a foreign language in the UK is so rare for Britons, it’s a real asset in any job application)
• More easily find a job abroad (every single one of my six jobs abroad has required me speak the local language)
• Apply to a much wider range of jobs in lots of different countries
• Apparently earn 10% more than people without a foreign language
• Discover more of this beautiful world through more opportunities to travel and live abroad

         Here’s a great little video made a couple of years ago that demonstrates the sheer variety of roles that linguists can go into and why languages are so important in the job market.

        So if you speak a language or have used languages at any point in your life since school, I really urge you to return and give a talk to current students, to explain the opportunities open to them through languages and to open up their horizons. You can either get in touch with the Alumni team or the Head of Modern Languages at your old school directly, or if you live far away you can sign up to the Inspiring Languages website to be matched with local schools as a volunteer available to give talks. Here’s a fantastic guide that Inspiring Languages have produced about the benefits of giving talks about languages and how you can get involved.

        And if you also believe that learning languages is important, please share this post! Share it with current students that you know, share it with friends and family, so that as many young people as possible know there are language graduates out there for them to ask questions to.

Did you learn a foreign language at school? If you carried on learning, why was this? And importantly, if you gave up studying a language, why was that? I’d be fascinated to hear your experiences of learning languages at school.

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Other languages-related posts you might be interested in:

• Why You Should Learn A Foreign Language
• 8 Steps to Getting a First Class Degree in Modern Languages
• My Top 10 Tips for Learning a Foreign Language
• How to bring up your children to be multilingual

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