Linguists are following the centre of gravity

The number of Britons taking modern languages at GCSE and A-level has fallen by a fifth since 2012, with a commensurate decline in university courses. The news has prompted the now traditional August breast-beating about what a blinkered people we are becoming. But look a little more closely at the figures and you will see that young people are making a perfectly rational choice.

The decline in modern languages is really a decline in French and German. Other languages – Spanish, Arabic, Chinese – are becoming more popular. Which is exactly what we should expect, given the way the world is changing.

When I was at school, it made sense to learn the languages of our closest neighbours. There were no cheap flights, and “abroad” tended to mean nearby. English had not yet become Europe’s common medium. Unless you wanted look a total idiot by shouting slow pidgin at the locals, you had to learn their speech.

Today, even in the most out-of-the-way French villages, young people tend to speak English. At the same time, translation software is becoming more effective. Sure, French and German both contain exquisite literature; but reading Flaubert in the original is, alas, likely to remain a minority pursuit.

The world’s demographic and economic centre of gravity is shifting east and south, but our language instruction has been slow to follow. Most teachers are still offering the same languages that they happened to learn in their own school days. Understandably, sixth-formers see other subjects as offering more immediate life skills. That isn’t insularity; it’s common sense.