Just read a hilarious article on The Times website, which I’d urge you all to have a look at (quickly now, while it’s still free!). It’s obviously an exercise carried out, in jest, to make a sobering (but potentially valid) point.
Said point being that language skills among us Brits, according to this article, are not of a high standard. Also, judging by this article our standards can be quite funny, too – though admittedly not always as bad as the example as this picture, below, paints of some native English speakers.
Expectional: Language wit. Or at least half of it.
That said, wouldn’t it be nice to see language checks on similar signs in another country to see if we really are that bad compared to, for example (and to add to our sense of self-loathing, obviously) one of our close European neighbours?
However, if a non-English speaker was to call ALS, we could make use of our Instant Telephone Interpreting service, which opens the call to a live (human) interpreter. This service is widely used by many of our public sector clients.
With Instant Telephone Interpreting, you don’t actually need to learn any other languages, and you don’t need to demand that your callers speak English. So, while that might, to some, keep our stereotypical reputation intact, it does ensure that people can converse with others speaking another language – and do so with ease.
Calls for the most frequently requested languages can be connected within 30 seconds, so you never have to refuse a call from a non-English speaker – not to mention never having to wind up in some smarmy piece in the Times.
What are your experiences of language awareness?
Hi,
I have just come across your blog on language skills within the UK and the lack of different languages spoken. I was unable to read the article posted on The Times, due to it being outdated.
I full agree that with the use of telephone interpreting, there is no urgent need to learn or speak another language, or maybe it’s an excuse not too!
I recently had an experience in which I had no alternative to search and use an interpreter for one of my clients, who was in fact Swedish and working in the UK for a few months on business. However, his English skills were basic, so you can imagine that this was going to be a difficult few months! Luckily, I made the effort to learn the basics of the Swedish language. I was fortunate enough to find an excellent language interpreter company who were able to interpret both on the phone and were able to translate word documents from Swedish into English and vice versa.