The most popular languages studied

According to studies of attendance of language instruction courses in the UK, French, German and Spanish – in that order – are the most popular languages taken by British pupils.

French is the most common language for a British pupil to learn at any level. Many reasons explain its popularity. For one, France is the most popular holiday destination for British travelers. Moreover, the Anglo-French political, economic and social relationship is continually developing. There is a high demand for bilingual English and French speakers in industry, and French is one of the most in-demand languages at degree level. It is offered in most schools across the UK to pupils from a young age. Many go on to learn French in London at advanced schools and universities before moving to France or starting jobs in politics, business, trade, or other relevant sectors.

German

German is the second most common language course in the UK for school pupils. A member language of the Germanic Indo-European language family, German is spoken by approximately 110 million native speakers and 18 million non-native speakers in the world. It is among the top business languages, and many European residents consider it important to learn seeing as it is one of the three most well-known languages in 21 European countries. This means you will encounter German speakers almost everywhere on the continent. The language also has a large media presence: more German books were published in Europe in 1995 than in France, Italy, Russia and Spain. The number of German films also match those released by Russia and the UK, while on the internet, the number of German Wikipedia pages is second only to that of English.

Spoken by around 400 million people in Europe and South America, Spanish is the third most sought-after language to learn by British pupils. The language is typically the gateway language for other Latin-based Romance languages such as Italian and Portuguese. It is also considered one of the easiest foreign languages to learn. Much of its vocabulary is similar to that of English, and written Spanish is almost entirely phonetic. Mastering the language opens the door for anyone looking to work in the United States, where Spanish-English bilingualism is highly prized due to the large percentage of Hispanic people living there. For many UK pupils wanting to learn Spanish London is a popular destination because of the quality of the language schools there and the diversity of culture in the city.