Recently, the British Council released a special report titled "Languages for the Future," which ranks all languages in the world other than English based on their strategic significance to the UK. Chinese (Mandarin) ranked fourth. The top three are Spanish, Arabic, and French, followed by German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish, and Japanese, with Russian and Turkish tied for eighth place. The report also points out that while foreign language proficiency is crucial for the UK's future development, the foreign language skills of the British people need improvement.
The report evaluates the importance of each language to the UK's prosperity and security by scoring them across economic, geographical, cultural, and educational dimensions. The scoring criteria include: UK export trade, industry demand, government trade priorities, emerging markets, diplomatic and security priorities, public interest in languages, national travel destinations, government international education strategic priorities, and the prevalence of each language on the internet.
Because English currently holds a dominant position globally, the British public lacks enthusiasm for learning foreign languages, resulting in low foreign language proficiency. The report states that three-quarters of the British population cannot use any of these ten languages for simple communication. Among the current permanent residents of the UK, only 1% can speak Chinese (Mandarin). Other languages, ranked by proportion, are French (15%), German (6%), Spanish (4%), and Italian (2%), while Arabic, Russian, and Japanese are each at 1%, and Portuguese and Turkish are at less than 1%. The 2013 Confederation of British Industry (CBI) economic survey report showed that only 36% of employers were satisfied with their employees' foreign language skills, whereas satisfaction with information technology application skills reached 93%. In the "European Survey on Language Competences" organized by the European Commission, the foreign language proficiency of primary and secondary school students in England was lower than in all other participating countries and regions. The number of students choosing foreign language subjects in high school graduation exams has shown a downward trend in recent years, with a 5% decrease in 2013 compared to the previous year.
To address the deficiency in the British people's foreign language skills, the main recommendations proposed by the report include: giving foreign languages the same importance as traditional core subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics); incorporating foreign languages into the mainstream curriculum and deepening understanding of the corresponding cultures; making full use of all language teaching resources and opportunities; and industry investment in the cultivation of employees' foreign language skills.
The opening introduction of the report reflects the importance it places on the Chinese language. The foreword, written by the Director of Strategy at the British Council, begins by mentioning that he saw a quote by Nelson Mandela on language at a university in Beijing. Mandela said, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." The report presents this statement in both Chinese and English.
