Lazy linguists

I can empathise with

Matt Mohan-Hickson’s experience at not being able to speak a foreign language (The News, May 24).

I had a similar problem in my teens when on a first visit to Greece found myself tongue-tied for a fortnight. It was truly all Greek to me.

Some few years down the line I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live and work in both France and Germany where I was able to build on my schoolboy knowledge of both languages to workable daily fluency.

Like Matt, I learned from bitter experience we Brits are broadly content to remain monolingual. To use Matt’s own terminology, arrogant and lazy when it comes to expressing themselves to others in their own language.

Portsmouth is a major continental seaport, yet on arrival at immigration and customs, there’s not one friendly Bienvenue or Willkommen to be seen, and all the entry information is in the native tongue.

Contrast that with arrival in seaports in France where British tourists are welcomed in English and sightseeing information about local amenities and attractions is immediately on display to help them find their way around and make their visit an informed, enjoyable experience.

Matt is right to conclude it’s a tragedy as a nation we are so content at being monolingual.

For me it’s simply nationalist schizophrenia. I feel British, but our understanding of our

European heritage is diminished by selfinflicted language barriers.

Winston Churchill summed it up perfectly in a 1948 Amsterdam speech primarily given in French.

‘We hope to see a Europe where people of every country will think as much of being a European as of belonging to their native land, and that without losing any of their love and loyalty of their birthplace.

‘We hope wherever they go in this wide domain, to which we set no limits in the European Continent, they will truly feel: "Here I am at home. I am a citizen of this country too”.’

R Thomson

Gosport

We Brits are broadly content to remain monolingual