Andrew Hennigan Conseil - Bringing Two Beers Please. Why English is not enough

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Bringing Two Beers Please

Why English is not enough and what you can do about it

Over the years many people have asked me if there is any point in learning languages. Isn’t English enough these days, they say? Well, no, it isn’t. It is true that with a little English you can get a long way. Whenever you travel you are likely to find at least some signs in English and you are likely to meet some hotel employees who speak English with varying degrees of success, but this is by no means certain – in many parts of France you cannot rely on this and I’ve been in parts of Africa where I needed an interpreter just to talk to the interpreter. Even when they do speak English the amount of information you can exchange is often limited to the survival information like “Help, I need a doctor “or “Waiter, bringing two beers please”.

Even in countries like Sweden English is not enough. And Sweden is unique in my experience. This is a country where you can take it for granted that everyone speaks English. They take language learning seriously and they do not dub movies or TV. Everything except Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig is left in its original language and subtitled, so Swedish children are exposed to the sound of English all their lives. Even so you still need to know some Swedish. First of all there are the signs. Simply to survive on the Stockholm metro you need to be able to read the displays and understand the announcements and they are only in Swedish. But much more important is that people will speak English if you ask them, but between themselves they are talking Swedish. This means that you are not really participating fully in any group activity.

And that is just for the functional communications. But another reason for learning more languages is that it gives you access to new books, new songs, new poetry, new movies and other things that you would never have enjoyed otherwise.

Take, for example, the Italian joke:

“What are two pigs doing on the sofa?”

“The do the comfortable pigs!”

It is much funnier in Italian:

Cosa fanno due maili sul divano?

Fanno I porci comodi

And the Italian gag “There are some who can and some who can’t. I can.” Doesn’t get a laugh in English.

(It's "C’è chi può e qui non può. Io può." in the original.)

Many novels are not translated and many can never be translated, I defy anyone, for example, to make an accurate translation of Stefano Benni’s La Compagnia del Celestini, yet it is probably worth learning Italian just to read this book, one of the funniest I ever read but which depends entirely on word play and cultural references that are opaque to outsiders.

Learning languages has other benefits. Of course it makes life easier when you can understand what is happening around you. Of course it is nice to be able to watch movies in the original language. But as an extra plus, researchers have found that people who do learn languages keep their minds alert longer. And there is always an immense satisfaction when you can stand up and make a speech in a language that is not your own, or simply just chat with people in a different language.

Today it has never been easier to learn languages. Through streaming audio and video you can listen to radio stations from anywhere in the world, you can download podcasts, you can find people to chat with and you can use speech recognition software to monitor your pronunciation. With the DVDs sold in many regions you also have a choice of languages (but check the label; the ones sold in Italy seem to be the best).

In addition to using these new tools, I also recommend that you have some clearly defined goals for your language learning. For example, in one course my stated goal was to learn how to make a presentation in French, so for each lesson I prepared on a new subject and then during the lesson I delivered my presentation standing up, with a teacher at the back of the room posing as the audience. My latest goal is to master the art of podcasting in other languages, giving me the motivation and practice to polish my writing and speaking skills. This will be a struggle, but the payoff will be skills that are very useful for my work.

So to answer our original question, yes, you can probably survive with just English if all your communications needs can be satisfied with a handful of expressions like “Waiter, bringing me two beers”. But if you aspire to a richer life then go out there and learn at least one more language, then another, then one more again and so on. There are plenty of them out there. Believe me, you will never regret it .

Copyright 2007 Andrew Hennigan.

© Copyright 2007 Andrew Hennigan Conseil SARL.

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Bringing Two Beers Please Why English is not enough and what you can do about it Over the years many people have asked me if there is any point in learning languages. Isn’t English enough these days, they say? Well, no, it isn’t. It is true that with a little English you can get a long way. Whenever you travel you are likely to find at least some signs in English and you are likely to meet some hotel employees who speak English with varying degrees of success, but this is by no means certain – in many parts of France you cannot rely on this and I’ve been in parts of Africa where I needed an interpreter just to talk to the interpreter. Even when they do speak English the amount of information you can exchange is often limited to the survival information like “Help, I need a doctor “or “Waiter, bringing two beers please”. Even in countries like Sweden English is not enough. And Sweden is unique in my experience. This is a country where you can take it for granted that everyone speaks English. They take language learning seriously and they do not dub movies or TV. Everything except Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig is left in its original language and subtitled, so Swedish children are exposed to the sound of English all their lives. Even so you still need to know some Swedish. First of all there are the signs. Simply to survive on the Stockholm metro you need to be able to read the displays and understand the announcements and they are only in Swedish. But much more important is that people will speak English if you ask them, but between themselves they are talking Swedish. This means that you are not really participating fully in any group activity. And that is just for the functional communications. But another reason for learning more languages is that it gives you access to new books, new songs, new poetry, new movies and other things that you would never have enjoyed otherwise. Take, for example, the Italian joke: “What are two pigs doing on the sofa?” “The do the comfortable pigs!” It is much funnier in Italian: Cosa fanno due maili sul divano? Fanno I porci comodi And the Italian gag “There are some who can and some who can’t. I can.” Doesn’t get a laugh in English. (It's "C’è chi può e qui non può. Io può." in the original.) Many novels are not translated and many can never be translated, I defy anyone, for example, to make an accurate translation of Stefano Benni’s La Compagnia del Celestini, yet it is probably worth learning Italian just to read this book, one of the funniest I ever read but which depends entirely on word play and cultural references that are opaque to outsiders. Learning languages has other benefits. Of course it makes life easier when you can understand what is happening around you. Of course it is nice to be able to watch movies in the original language. But as an extra plus, researchers have found that people who do learn languages keep their minds alert longer. And there is always an immense satisfaction when you can stand up and make a speech in a language that is not your own, or simply just chat with people in a different language. Today it has never been easier to learn languages. Through streaming audio and video you can listen to radio stations from anywhere in the world, you can download podcasts, you can find people to chat with and you can use speech recognition software to monitor your pronunciation. With the DVDs sold in many regions you also have a choice of languages (but check the label; the ones sold in Italy seem to be the best). In addition to using these new tools, I also recommend that you have some clearly defined goals for your language learning. For example, in one course my stated goal was to learn how to make a presentation in French, so for each lesson I prepared on a new subject and then during the lesson I delivered my presentation standing up, with a teacher at the back of the room posing as the audience. My latest goal is to master the art of podcasting in other languages, giving me the motivation and practice to polish my writing and speaking skills. This will be a struggle, but the payoff will be skills that are very useful for my work. So to answer our original question, yes, you can probably survive with just English if all your communications needs can be satisfied with a handful of expressions like “Waiter, bringing me two beers”. But if you aspire to a richer life then go out there and learn at least one more language, then another, then one more again and so on. There are plenty of them out there. Believe me, you will never regret it .
Copyright 2007 Andrew Hennigan.
© Copyright 2007 Andrew Hennigan Conseil SARL.