Is Spanish the new French?

Over the last few years Spanish has certainly overtaken German in the popularity stakes when it comes to GCSE and A Level learning, but French has always remained constant in its take-up. Could this be changing, though?

French, in particular, has long featured in the curriculum of most secondary schools, and even some primary ones. Whilst learning the language has always enabled people to live and work with French people, the reasons for teaching it in decades gone by were arguably less professionally-orientated than today. Being able to speak French always had a certain amount of prestige attached to it, which is perhaps historically why it was taught. In addition, with foreign travel more limited, France, our closest continental neighbour, was a popular holiday destination and people were encouraged to learn the basics to get by.

In the globalised world of today, it’s much easier to live and work abroad, and there are far more large, international companies with a need for foreign language speakers. Whilst French still plays an important role on the world stage, possibly the most useful language on a global scale is Spanish. Spanish gives you access not only to Spain, but also to the scores of countries on the South American continent that have Spanish as a first language.

French, and German for that matter, are fantastic languages that will hopefully continue to be taught in schools, even if just for the close historical links that France and Germany have to Britain. Learning a language gives you a great insight into the culture of the people who speak it, which shouldn’t be overlooked.

Given the number of Spanish speakers in the world, and the emergence of Latin America on the global commercial stage, is it right that students should be encouraged to learn Spanish as a first option?

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Read the BBC’s full article on A Level take-up by subject

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