Markus Jud comments

Very interesting article .. and after spending too much time reading through only the first half of the epic discussion I feel quite confused. Nevertheless just my 2 cent: In the German speaking part of Switzerland we are right now discussing whether to continue to teach both English and French in primary school ... or if it might make more sense to start with just one foreign language. Some people say we should start with English because the kids are more motivated to learn a language you can use all around the world (enabling you to understand internet posts frrom all around the world, too ...). Others say, kids will learn English anyway, so better focus on French, because motivating kids for French is the bigger challenge for the teachers. No-one says that German is enough. Nevertheless this does in no way affect our pride of speaking our very own variant of German nobody else in the world will understand. ;-) Having travelled to different countries in Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East, Northern and Southern America I can say: the ability to communicate in English is quite helpful. So English is not only a key to the USA and the UK, but to many other countries as well, while any other European language is less universal today.