Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

The Mercosur deal has not yet been finalised, but

"... the approved import quota for beef from Mercosur (99,000 tons) is quite low compared to the beef production in the EU (7.32 million tons) ..."

Page 7

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/uploads/documents/The%20EU%27s%20Beef%20with%20Mercosur%20by%20Detlef%20Nolte%2011.1.pdf

You will still have to go to Brazil to experience a real Churrasco with unlimited meat and very limited prices - I'm afraid.

Lars 😀

To add to that I've a friend who worked for a multinational in Ireland who applied for a role in their Dutch operations. On the advertisement it said learning Dutch was expected and help would be provided. He went for it, got the job, moved over, was settling in but when he asked who to speak to about his Dutch classes they all laughed and said they it was easier and quicker for them to talk via English with all the non-Dutch staff.

He's there almost two decades now, had to learn Dutch by himself.

Speaking from personal experience & observation; I have seen very little in the way of S.American beef in and around South or West Yorkshire in over a decade living in these parts. Once visited an Argentinian Steak house in Leeds for an office party circa 2012; that place closed a few months to a year later. I have yet to see meat products in the local Tesco - it is all British/Irish/NZ labelled - although perhaps there might be some packaged offerings in the frozen foods section. Nothing 'fresh' at any rate.

So I am not really sure just how much of a viable threat Brazilian beef is here. It might be able to make a dent or two over the long-term view but the same arguments were made with regards to NZ lamb and whilst it's more prevalent it has not dominated either depsite having had more time to develop a market. Proximity to your market matters at the end fo the day and until someone invents transporter technology that geographical point will always stand.

In Germany language proficiency depends a lot on where in Germany you are. West best, East less so. 

Where big industries are or US/UK forces are/were stationed English seems well understood.  West Berlin were (and i suppose still are) easy to get around in with English, Frankfurt AM*, amburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne much the same. I guess Hannover, Bremen, ... much the same too.

In Scandinavia most people and next to all younger people speaks English.  Lots of larger companies in Greater Copenhagen have foreign employees now.

At my job in DK we had several employees coming from the UK/Ireland or the US. If just one person didn't speak Danish, we just switched to English and our E-mails were often written to English too. 

*I had customers in Frankfurt and we communicated in English even though more of us from Denmark did speak some German and understood even more. 

Lars 😀

Indeed, but there are lots of jobs in countries like Germany and France where you couldn't get by on just English alone (literally anything involving customer service for example) and would have to have some knowledge of the local language at least. So this new Brexity idea that students in England have no need whatsoever to learn a foreign language during their lifetime doesn't really hold up.

For sure, but it means that England is becoming even more monolingual than it was 50 or 100 years ago. Even in the 1920s and 1930s, it was commonplace for English secondary school students to learn a foreign language.

The good news from Ireland is that foreign languages are still holding up well : some 82% of girls took a foreign language in the Leaving Cert last year (64% for boys),

I think it's more that it limits UK people. The more monoglot a culture is, the less opportunity for interaction/engagement with other cultures. Even if, visa requirements notwithstanding, you do go abroad, you can't read the papers, watch the television, go to the theatre, etc; you largely socialize with other anglophones and stick to English-friendly venues; and so on.

The report by the British council, on which i think much of the Times article is based, has a number of interesting statistics and makes a few interesting points.

1, The biggest point is that there is a socionomic and academic divide with those on lower socionomic and academic levels less likely to take a foreign language.

2, Student attitudes to foreign languages seems to have changed negatively since Brexit. Teachers also report some parents actively discouraging the learning of foreign languages

3, Many schools relied on language teachers from EU and are having difficulty in recruitment.

The full report is here

Finally, as to whether it is worth learning a foreign language or not, the report has this

"A growing body of evidence supports the idea that shared language is an important driver of attraction and willingness to trade and do business. For example, Egger and Lassmann (2012) found that, on average, having a common language increases trade flows by 44%."

For a country that intend to trade with the world, foreign language skills would seem to be important.

I don't think the British Council make any assumptions in their report, they simply note what teachers are telling them. As you say, it might be because of a perception that with access to EU 'cut off' it is seen as pointless.

But other evidence for Britain cutting itself off from Europe. The British Motorcyclists Federation, BMF, have decided to leave the European Federation , FEMA, even tough there is no need to. And Norway And Switzerland are both members. Of course this is a niche group of people.

Obviously it depends on peoples perceptions, but there is definitely a separation from Europe happening in the UK, whether for political or just pragmatic reasons.