Letter: Mother tongues

IN RESPONSE to your report, “Infants may be offered foreign language classes” (18 May), I believe the learning of a widely used European foreign language at an early age can be the key to the success of a country like Scotland.

When our son was two years old, we moved to Germany, where he attended a kindergarten. Within four years, he was fluent in German, although without real experience of the written word or formal grammar. In 1980, when he was five years old, we moved to the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium and, within hours, our son was interacting with the children on our street.

He started at a Dutch-speaking school a few months later, at the same level as his peers. He needed no extra tuition. He spent all his primary school years being taught in Dutch. He carried on to complete the first three years of his secondary education in Dutch and for the last two years he attended a British school.

He is not special or extraordinarily gifted at language; he just did what all kids are capable of at that important age, where they will communicate and not be embarrassed by their delivery.

Today, he lives in Scotland running a successful online retail business with, to date, sales in almost 80 countries.

Here is the message that I would want all primary education specialists. He can talk with customers in German, Dutch and French which puts them at ease and gives them confidence in the company and person they are dealing with. He inevitably gets the order and invariably a string of follow-up orders.

Another point not to forget is that when present at a trade show abroad, for instance, he is negotiating on the same level as his suppliers, which greatly enhances mutual respect.

If we extrapolate our experience to a national scale, it’s got to be right.

I’m only disappointed that the intention is to trial this idea in a few schools. It should be rolled out out across all schools. Success is guaranteed.

Alistair Scott

Barrhill

Girvan, South Ayrshire