Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says young people are using its app more than their elders
Universities are blaming a “societal shift” for the axing of dozens of foreign language degrees and even entire departments, citing a lack of demand among students – but can years of study be easily replaced by AI or online translation tools?
Not so, according to Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.
“Sometimes people say: ‘There’s translation apps now so why would you need to learn a language?’ But that’s not what young people in the UK are saying, they are actually spending more time learning languages on Duolingo than any other age group,” Lynas said.
“There’s good cultural reasons to learn languages – the UK is part of a global and interconnected world and there’s a need to reach out to other people in ways that translation tools can’t manage.
