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[22]Education
Why are we learning languages in a closed world?
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(Image credit: Alamy)
(Credit: Alamy)
By Sophie Hardach6th January 2021
Language learning spiked during lockdowns, commercial providers say.
But when no-one can travel, and the job market looks unstable, why have
people turned toward language now?
W

When the UK’s second lockdown hit in November, I was learning to
decipher a Luwian curse.

Luwian, a language spoken and written in ancient Turkey some 3,000
years ago, may not seem like the most obvious choice for a new hobby.
It survives mainly in the form of enigmatic symbols carved into
scattered [25]rock monuments. But spending a couple of hours a week
cracking this code, under the guidance of a Luwian expert, turned out
to be an almost magical form of stress relief. I’d signed up to the
course shortly before the lockdown, and after each session, I felt that
my mind had been cut loose from endless pandemic-related worries, and
was free to roam and discover – if only for an evening.

As obscure as Luwian may be, my urge to explore a foreign language was
right on trend in 2020. During the first lockdown in March, user
numbers for language-learning apps including Duolingo, Memrise and
Rosetta Stone rocketed, according to data from the companies. Duolingo
reported a 300% jump in new users. The numbers generally eased over the
summer, but saw another bump during the second lockdown. While Spanish,
French and German were popular choices, [26]Brits also tried out a wide
range of other languages. The uptake of Welsh and Hindi soared, for
example, with learners citing brain stimulation, cultural interest and
family ties as motivating factors. Cultural curiosity also boosted the
popularity of Japanese.
Studying Luwian, an ancient Turkish language, may not seem like an
obvious choice for a new hobby – but language learning has provided
many comfort lately (Credit: Alamy)

Studying Luwian, an ancient Turkish language, may not seem like an
obvious choice for a new hobby – but language learning has provided
many comfort lately (Credit: Alamy)

Of all the pursuits people have adopted amid the pandemic – [27]making
sourdough, working on screenplays – learning a language may seem like
an odd choice. After all, the world is effectively closed, with much of
international travel off limits. And even for those hoping that
language learning could improve their career prospects, the job market
remains unstable, with some in no position to change careers. But
turning to language may be able to uniquely connect us to something
many have longed to feel again.

A popularity spike

It seems that just as I had time travelled with Luwian, people all over
the UK jumped on languages as a means of mental escape.

“During lockdown, we weren’t able to travel, people’s holidays were
cancelled, and so I think people were maybe pining after cancelled
holidays and wanted to get a flavour of another country in their home,”
says Vicky Gough, schools adviser for the British Council, a UK
organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunity.

Deeper emotional factors may also have been at play. As Covid-19 swept
the globe and shattered old certainties, some took stock and decided it
was time to tackle long-neglected life goals. A [28]recent British
Council survey on lockdown language-learning suggests that for many UK
adults, a lack of foreign language skills is a cause of regret. Only 9%
of respondents said they had kept up the foreign language they learned
at school, but 64% wished they had done so. The pandemic may have
tapped into that pent-up interest.

As Covid-19 swept the globe and shattered old certainties, some took stock
and decided it was time to tackle long-neglected life goals

Juliet Waters, a 58-year-old retired primary school teacher who runs a
window business in Yorkshire with her husband, had long harboured
dreams of speaking a foreign language. She was particularly inspired by
the multilingual children she taught, such as a girl who spoke Polish
and Chinese at home, and English at school. “I’ve always been
absolutely fascinated by the younger children who can come into the
classroom and can switch from one language to another,” she says. “I
always wished that I’d been bilingual.”

In 2019, she and her husband went on a world cruise and made friends
from different countries who all spoke Spanish. Waters thought it would
be nice to learn Spanish, use it with her new friends and explore
Spain. When the UK locked down, and she found herself working from
home, with no visitors nor opportunities to go out, she threw herself
into that plan with a new intensity. Since April, she has been studying
Spanish every day for an hour over breakfast, and often again later in
the day, using books and CDs. She has written Christmas letters in
Spanish to her friends, and hopes to practice with them over Skype.

“It’s occupied me and it’s kept my brain going,” she says. But the
experience has also changed her on a more fundamental level, making her
realise that there are other things she wants to achieve. She is now
considering doing a post-graduate degree in musical theatre. “The fact
that I can still learn, and I’m enjoying it, I think that’s been a
little bit of a revelation to me.”
In 2019, Juliet Waters and her husband went on a cruise and made
friends who spoke Spanish, which inspired her to take up the language
in lockdown (Credit: Juliet Waters)

In 2019, Juliet Waters and her husband went on a cruise and made
friends who spoke Spanish, which inspired her to take up the language
in lockdown (Credit: Juliet Waters)

In fact, research has shown that studying a new language can stimulate
the brain and enhance creative thinking and mental agility, regardless
of the student’s level of proficiency. “It can mean you get more
flexible in how you think, because you begin to imagine phrasing
something in a different way in that other language,” says Bencie Woll,
a linguist at University College London and co-author of a report for
the British Academy on the [29]cognitive benefits of language learning.
This flexibility and creativity can even improve your grasp of your own
native language. Woll emphasises that the benefits arise as a result of
learning process, and have nothing to do with how quickly a person
advances. “This is not to do with being great at another language, this
is to do with beginning to learn another language.”

‘What is it that I actually want to do?’

For Sonny Chatters, a 19-year-old actor and philosophy student in
Essex, studying a new language was part of an even more radical
transformation, after the pandemic prompted him to overhaul his life
plan. When the virus struck, Chatters was in the process of applying to
drama schools, having acted professionally since he was a child. But
when theatres closed and drama schools announced that classes would be
held via Zoom, he felt an inner shift.

“I sat down and thought, what is it that I actually want to do?” he
recalls. He thought about other things he had long been interested in.
“It was at this time that I went, you know what, I want to study
philosophy, I want to learn a language. Let’s go for a difficult
language, let’s go for a language that’s completely different –
Japanese.”

Let’s go for a difficult language, let’s go for a language that’s completely
different – Sonny Chatters

He is now in his first year of a four-year philosophy degree, with an
option to spend the third year in Japan. He has been studying Japanese
with books, apps and podcasts for the past five months, motivated by
the thought of living in a country that has always fascinated him. Some
of his acting-related skills, such as persistence and memorisation, are
proving useful for this new ambition. Like Waters, he is also
fulfilling a deeper longing. “I’ve always wanted to learn a language.
It’s just something that’s extremely impressive.”

The allure – and practicality – of multilingualism

In the age of machine translation, and given the dominance of English
as a global lingua franca, it may be surprising that people still
treasure the idea of being multilingual. But those who start out
learning a language for self-fulfilment may find it still has many
practical benefits, too.

“We tend to think that everyone all over the world speaks English,
especially in business, so there’s no point in learning another
language. But actually, we do find that language skills are still
sought after by employers,” says Pawel Adrjan, an economist at the
Indeed Hiring Lab, which produces research based on data from the
Indeed job site.
19-year-old Sonny Chatters, an actor and student, turned to learning
Japanese during the pandemic (Credit: Sonny Chatters)

19-year-old Sonny Chatters, an actor and student, turned to learning
Japanese during the pandemic (Credit: Sonny Chatters)

Based on an analysis of Indeed’s 3.5 million job postings for the UK
this year, Adrjan found that even as borders were closed, demand for
people with foreign-language skills rose in sectors such as marketing,
sales and customer service. It shot up in the childcare sector, with a
40% increase, possibly because families were unable to travel and
instead hired nannies to provide native-speaker input. In tourism,
hospitality and retail, demand dropped, though that may change as
travel resumes.

“The fact that in jobs like sales and customer service, those skills
have been in demand for a while, suggests that really being able to
speak to customers in their language is really important for
businesses,” says Adrjan. “And that’s likely to continue, whether
business meetings are held in person or whether they are held by video
conference.”

Some of the big winners of the Covid-19 economy, such as global film
and TV streaming services and online retailers, are also boosting
demand for translators who can provide subtitles, dubbing and product
descriptions in different languages. This trend toward global content
began before the pandemic and is likely to outlast it, according to
Esther Bond, a London-based director at global research firm Slator,
which specialises in the translation industry. The lockdown-induced
shift to virtual offices and events has also fuelled a new trend:
companies providing interpreters for online conferences. “We’ve seen a
lot of interest and growth within platforms that offer remote,
simultaneous interpreting,” says Bond.

My smattering of Luwian is unlikely to make its way into any business
negotiation soon. But it does have some practical uses, since I
regularly write about scripts and languages. And it offered me
something very rare and precious in the pandemic year: a problem that
could be solved – and even a little hope to boot.
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