The Languages Work Pledge Counter is up to 305 (see our previous post). Signatories include Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, who said: "Learning languages helped me to get where I wanted to be in English football. When I learned English, I never imagined that one day I would manage Arsenal, but learning a language completely changed my life."
When Language is Everything signed the Pledge we said:
"We fully support the pledge. We would also welcome wider debate on the question of which languages young people should be learning: we are encouraged by the strong rise in the number of GCSE entries for Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese, for example. We also believe that the UK could do more to capitalise on its 'hidden' multilingual talent: according to one study, 30% of all London schoolchildren speak a language other than English at home."
You can sign the Pledge here.