What better reason to learn French – to win the X Factor of course!

When we came across this story at Euro London, we couldn’t help but read on. A British student winning the French X Factor?! It sounds absurd, but Matthew Raymond-Barker touched the European nation’s hearts with his renditions of pop classics in the native language. Although admitting being less than perfect at the language when he [...]

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What kind of language learner are you?

Whether you’re a natural when picking up the lingo on holiday or just can’t get your head round your adiós and au revoir, we all have different learning styles when approaching languages. The process in which you learn a language can often determine whether you throw your books down in frustration or reel off vocabulary [...]

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Bilingual Officers – The Future of Policing?

Ever had your purse pinched? Well fear not, the police’s latest weapon in the fight against crime is here: the bilingual officer. The recruitment of overseas officers is a police initiative set up to crack down on foreign gangs, many of whom target the Westfield shopping centre. French-speaking officers have been used in an undercover [...]

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5 easy ways to make sure your language skills don’t go rusty

If you’re a multilingual jobseeker, your language skills are your bread and butter. In a competitive market, particularly with many bilingual and multilingual graduates out of work, it’s important that, if you’re not a native speaker of your chosen language, you keep your skills as honed as possible. With that in mind, we’ve come up [...]

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The top five reasons to learn a second language

With English fast becoming a global language, and certainly the language of business, many people have taken on the attitude that it’s unnecessary to learn a second language. After all, if everyone speaks English, who needs to make the effort? Here at Euro London Appointments, we seriously disagree! We are always talking about how language [...]

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Languages – should the government make up its mind?

When it comes to language learning in the UK, the figures aren’t great. Less and less students are taking languages but we’re hearing more and more stories about the increased importance put on learning them. So where do we stand?  I think that more needs to be done to encourage young people to study languages [...]

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Too little, too late?

Why the government made languages optional, as the business world becomes increasingly international, is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Employers need more linguists than ever to help them build and maintain strong relationships with customers and colleagues overseas, but statistics show there are less and less young people learning languages at school since [...]

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We must save the year abroad

It’s great news that the Government is going to fund the placement scheme for undergraduates studying abroad for the next year. But we must make sure that this funding doesn’t just last a year, but is long-term. What is the alternative? The UK could be in danger of developing a real language skill shortage that [...]

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GCSE shake up

Seven years after the Labour government removed the compulsory requirement for students to study a foreign language at age fourteen, the Government of today looks set to change things. A recent article in the Guardian reports that in a shake-up of the league tables, the number of pupils taking a language should increase. New plans [...]

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No GCSE in languages, No place in our sixth form!

Is this the way forward? Simply not allowing pupils into a particular sixth form if they have not studied a language at GCSE? Well according to two schools in Essex it is the very answer! Both schools have claimed that from 2012 no pupils will be accepted into their sixth form unless they have at [...]

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