Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin 'clashed' yesterday over the issue of language skills and satisfying the needs of multinationals who have to import foreign language speakers to fill thousands of vacancies. In particular, PayPal took a few shots at the state of language graduates in the country.
(You can read the full match report: Kenny admits concerns over standards of language teaching after PayPal jobs news (via The Journal.ie) http://jrnl.ie/523895 )
The most intriguing part of the discussion is the following statement from Enda, during leader's questions:
(You can read the full match report: Kenny admits concerns over standards of language teaching after PayPal jobs news (via The Journal.ie) http://jrnl.ie/523895 )
The most intriguing part of the discussion is the following statement from Enda, during leader's questions:
'Kenny accused Martin of seeking to restore his own pilot programme, saying many schools were taking independent measures to teach foreign languages to their students.
The MLPSI had been “of benefit”, Kenny said, but it “does not meet the views of where we’re headed for the future” – when modern languages would be “absolutely critical for the development of the country”.'
Read what he said again and see if you can tell what he's saying.
THE MLPSI, which cost €2m per year to run and provided language teaching in 550 primary schools, was axed in the last budget. A temporary reprieve was provided, to allow the MLPSI to see out the academic year. By the time they had axed the MLPSI, it was working with a skeleton staff of two, and yet they still provided schools with an opportunity to learn French, Spanish and German among others. They will now be out of a job, not to mention the many teachers who were in their employment to provide the classes.
These languages provide us with the tools to conduct trade and cultural dialogue properly with other countries. Take German as an example: We export billions of Dollars worth of goods to Germany, a land which remains completely untapped to us, primarily because of a lack of language and cultural skills. Our exports admittedly nearly halved between 2008 and 2010 for obvious reasons, but business is still there to be done.
All languages suffer. Access to the Spanish speaking world remains largely untapped, bar ordering a cup of Barry's tea in Fuerteventura. Russian, Portuguese, not to mention Polish and Hindi, are only learned by the tiniest minority. High-tech, agri-tech, pharmaceuticals, engineering, we have it all in spades, but we could have more, but for the pathetic language skills possessed by our workforce.
Part of the problem, indeed the whole problem, rests on attitude. A true story: A friend of mine, who moved to Germany last year, told me he was attending the language classes provided by his employer. The sessions consisted largely of Irish lads asking how to say 'sure it's grand' in the case they had an unfortunate misunderstanding in a bar when they're having 'the craic'.
Rather than unlock whole cultures, rather than see the career opportunities such learning might provide - my friend definitely works in the high end of high tech industry - is our attitude that we have the lowest possible expectation of ourselves? If so, where does this come from? There are many suspects, but this is a widespread conspiracy: From parents and students, one group happy they learn anything at all, the other often resistant to applying themselves (a way too complex issue to dismiss with 'laziness'), to educators and the mandarins running the system, the former either overburdened or under-resourced (including developing their teaching and language skills), the latter more interested in resolving issues in Maths and Science, due to the fact that low achievement isn't confined to the language classroom - it's endemic among our young. The tragedy is that apart from the economic benefits of learning a language, we risk a cultural atrophy, we risk ignorance of fascinating, beautiful, tragic civilizations who languages are the vehicles of Cervantes, Voltaire, Kant, Tolstoi, Adam Mickiewicz and Valmiki among others.
When Kenny dismisses the MLPSI on partisan grounds, when his Sub-Sir Humphryspeak mangles the English language to the tiniest particles of meaningless sounds, what possible hope can we have for leadership in terms of language policy in Ireland? What possible hope is there for retaining the multinationals enticed here by the alleged high quality of our education system, who were, either by design or delusion, brought here ultimately under false pretenses,
