"Unless we have sufficient numbers of people who speak modern foreign languages - and not just the useless modern foreign languages like French" said British Minister Chris Bryant. With the changing world we live in, is this a reasonable point of view?

The former British Foreign Office Minister, Chris Bryant, has told the media that French is a ‘useless’ language to be learnt by any young people. Instead, he is a strong supporter for the younger generation to immerse themselves in the study of Mandarin Chinese and Arabic languages.

The former Minister said that Mandarin Chinese and Arabic languages are going to be the more important languages in the world in the foreseeable future compared to the French language. The words straight from the horse’s mouth: "Unless we have sufficient numbers of people who speak modern foreign languages - and not just the useless modern foreign languages like French".

Bryant’s statement has raised quite a few eyebrows and some even said that the ex-minister was running a risk of insulting the neighbouring country. However, Bryant defended his position strongly by drawing from his first hand experience while he was the Minister for Europe under the previous Labour Government. He replied, "I've said this to the French. I think they realise there are problems".

What the ex-minister is essentially saying is that French is no longer seen as the key diplomatic language that it used to be. In fact, the paradigm has shifted since 30 years ago. He urges the UK government to put more effort in introducing new foreign languages to the younger generations. Bryant’s recommendation should come as no surprise to the academics because research published earlier this year have seen the popularity of European languages (in particular French) had fallen dramatically amongst secondary school students. The report showed that less than 50 percent of secondary pupils are gaining a good GCSE grade in their European languages.

He pointed out that the government got it wrong previously and now less people in the UK are learning foreign languages. Based on his experience in the Foreign Office, he stated, "the number of people who spoke foreign languages has diminished, and the number who can confidently speak them is pretty low."

Bryant added, "my biggest concern is that the effortless British superiority with which we stride around the economic world means that all too often we are the only country that presents business people in other countries who do not speak even the rudiments of a foreign language. That is a big problem."

As China is becoming one of the world super powers, it is only natural that the business world also starts to embrace the skill to communicate in Mandarin Chinese. On the other hand, the Arabic countries are an extremely difficult market to penetrate if one does not know the native language. Furthermore, the emerging markets in South America will also see a rise in demand for Portuguese and Spanish speakers within businesses. These are some of the factors that influence the former Minister to come to the following conclusion, "the most useful languages to speak at present are Mandarin, and Spanish and Portuguese because of Latin America, and we need to focus on Arabic as well".

It is never too late to start, if that is what you are thinking. Indeed, you are right. Learning a new language and able to speak it fluently is going to be a great asset for future career prospect. We all got to start somewhere so make it a point to start now.