Why Bother?

Why do people bother to learn another language for tourist purposes? On the surface of things the answer would appear to be simple. Tourism concentrates multilingual and intercultural experiences significantly. It does so at times of great symbolic significance to tourists, times that are anticipated and that are associated, socially, culturally and often personally, with happiness. In order to survive in the multilingual, intercultural worlds of tourism being able to speak the language is an obviously advantage.

But in a globalising world that speaks English and assumes English to be a lingua franca there is nothing obvious about learning other languages. I teach languages to undergraduate students on degree programmes and our programme, like programmes in modern languages across the western world – languages other than English that is – is in crisis. The number of students applying for undergraduate courses is declining, and the siren voices asking what ‘use’ such courses are grow more shrill by the minute. The past decade has simultaneously seen an unprecedented growth in mobility across international borders and a decline in the learning of languages other than English in the mainstream of higher education across the globe.

At the same time the learning of languages for tourist purposes has become a growth industry. New beginner, intermediate and advanced courses proliferate across the spectrum of adult education and so-called lifelong learning.