this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2024
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185
UK quit Erasmus because of Brits’ poor language skills (www.politico.eu)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
28 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Britain turned down the offer to remain a member of the cultural exchange program after Brexit.

The U.K. decided to leave the EU's Erasmus+ student exchange scheme because Brits’ poor foreign language skills made membership too expensive to justify, a senior British official has revealed.

Lower take-up of the scheme by British students compared to other nationalities — put down to a weak aptitude for language learning — meant London expected to pay in nearly €300 million more a year than it received back, Nick Leake, a veteran senior diplomat at the U.K. Mission said this week.

It comes as youth organizations on both sides of the channel launch a renewed push for the U.K. to rejoin the scheme — and as an EU advisory body urges the Commission to get negotiations going.

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

So if I am reading this correctly, the problem is that UK students are not interested in going abroad (weak foreign language skills) and many Continental European students want to come to the UK (as almost everyone is learning English).

This means the UK has to pay more money than it receives.

But with this money, they would be 'buying' the chance to hold the interest of highly educated young people, who might love the British way of life and come back to work in the UK...

Sounds like just another step into economical and cultural irrelevancy.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Jup, Brexit is full of these we pay more money than we receive kind of things. Like duh, you receive a whole lot more than just money. But somehow everything needs to be a monetary gain?

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago

I went grocery shopping the other day but I ended up paying more money than I received so I guess I'll just starve because it's cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

School I went to cost more than the school I did "study abroad" at. I was paying for someone else to go to my school while I was gone. Was study abroad great? Yes. I hope that other person had a good time too.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

Saving some money short term, losing a whole bunch long term.

[–] [email protected] 85 points 7 months ago (1 children)
  • “we suck at foreign languages, it’s terrible!”
  • ”yes we should do something about it. Let’s minimize our exposure to foreign languages!”
  • profit?!
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I guess they think speaking Galactic Basic is enough to get by everywhere

[–] [email protected] 64 points 7 months ago (2 children)

weak aptitude for language learning

This is such bullshit. As a Brit abroad, our problem is weak language education. We are taught to such a poor degree and we are not taught how to learn a language. It's been the biggest struggle of my adult life trying to get conversational and after a year I am still way behind my cohorts - it's not some genetic predisposition to being bad at language learning, but a lack of language infrastructure in childhood.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Amazingly native English speakers the world over seem to have this genetic predisposition! All of us just can’t seem to get it together when it comes to becoming multilingual.

OR… maybe it comes from being born into mastery of the language everyone else on earth is trying to learn. I get three words in Spanish out before my conversation partner asks to switch to English. What am I gonna do? Stamp my feet and demand I get to practice my hobby and deny them the opportunity to work on a valuable career skill. Nah. We’ll speak in English.

Your ancestors (assuming you are British) created a global language hegemony. My ancestors moved from southern Italy to the US and learned their language.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Not entirely sure what you're saying, sorry if I got it wrong, but it seems like you're implying I said the opposite of what I actually posted.

My point was there is no genetic predisposition to being bad at language learning but that the language education in the UK is woefully bad. I've spent more time learning how to learn Spanish than actually learning it because we're not taught the skill of language acquisition from childhood.

The reason the government hasn't invested in language skills is because it's the lingua franca (the irony of that phrase isn't lost on me), but the argument of "weak aptitude for language learning" used in the article is patently false.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I was agreeing with you and being a little sarcastic. Of course you are right, there is nothing genetic about it.

There is very little incentive for native English speakers to learn a second language because English is far and away the most popular second language.

Which I’m sure is a contributing factor to the complete lack of investment in second language education the anglophone world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Ahh just misread then, all good :D

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I did French for three years, and never got further than telling people my name, how old I was, and how many brothers and sisters I had.

Thing is, we don't need it. We go on holiday to a tourist trap, all the locals know enough English for us to get by. We import TV and movies, pretty much all in English. We go online, it's mostly English, and anything that isn't is a click to translate.

It's the real Esperanto.

Living and working in a big European country (e.g. France, Germany, Spain or Italy) would be a pain without knowing the language, and our lack of language skills is probably to blame for Brexit because most of us have never even considered moving away.

Edit: Plus we've stolen enough words from our neighbours that if you're reading something, there's probably the odd word you can recognise in there.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

and our lack of language skills is probably too blame....

Not sure if this was on purpose or not XD

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Swype typing be tricky. Works just enough that I don't proof read.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

and who's fault is that, smhsmh

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

whose

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Can somebody explain how poor language skills relate to the UK paying more? The article just makes it seem obviously correlated

[–] [email protected] 43 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Erasmus = student exchange between universities.

If you end up hosting other people's students but nobody else hosts yours, then you end up spending more on education.

According to the article UK students are less likely to go overseas because they can't speak any of the languages.

It's a bit like if you kept having your kids' friends over to dinner but your own kids were too picky to ever eat dinner at their friends' houses.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

That makes sense, thanks!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So do the government fully pay for the students they host? Or is it a subsidised thing?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

I think most likely governments pay into Erasmus and then individual universities get fees reimbursed. The appeal of it for students is you don't pay international fees.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Makes sense in that context

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago

The article also alleges a “poor aptitude” for language learning, without making any attempt to stand up such a staggering claim, which places the blame on students for being thick.

Terrible piece of writing

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

If you go to a bar and you don't understand what the bartender is saying, you don't understand how much money they want, so you just hand them your wallet and they take as much as they want. It's like that probably. Yes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I’d bet because it requires adults with better language skills.

We had a few exchange students when I was growing up and if the student was considered “mostly fluent” they’d come alone and have a group they’d meet with.

Students who were barely fluent often time had an adult with them.

I’d gather the exchange groups with less fluency require more adults, even if they’re not paid they have transport costs and whatnot.

That said, you’re totally right. It’s wild the article just goes “and of course it’s more money” as if it’s common knowledge why.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Something's not right here, I can feel it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

BRUSSELS — The U.K. decided to leave the EU's Erasmus+ student exchange scheme because Brits’ poor foreign language skills made membership too expensive to justify, a senior British official has revealed.

Lower take-up of the scheme by British students compared to other nationalities — put down to a weak aptitude for language learning — meant London expected to pay in nearly €300 million more a year than it received back, Nick Leake, a veteran senior diplomat at the U.K. Mission said this week.

Leake was representing the British government at a meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), an EU advisory body drawn from civil society organizations across the bloc.

At the session of the body's external relations section on Wednesday, delegates approved a recommendation calling for the European Commission to “strengthen negotiations with the U.K. government for the full reintegration of the U.K. into Erasmus+.”

María Rodríguez Alcázar, president of the European Youth Forum, said: “We trust that all the recommendations in the EESC's opinion, including the U.K.'s reassociation to Erasmus+, will be discussed and implemented by decision makers from both sides of the channel.”

Jan Hendrik Dopheide, a senior EU official working on relations with the U.K., told the same meeting that the Commission was talking to member states about how to proceed on the issue of youth mobility in general.

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