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The main foreign language in UK schools should be SPANISH and not French.
This is the opinion of a journalist in The Guardian, who argues that the lingo is more globally relevant – and much cooler than its neighbour across the Pyrenees.
With the massive success of Bad Bunny (KAROL G), Rosalia, and KAROL G coinciding in a shift in British student’s language preferences, musical artists are putting Spanish on the radar for youngsters.
The Guardian Spanish was the most popular language for GCSE students to choose in England last year, with more than 136,000 entries.
The number of entries in French was just below 133,000.
Spanish, which is spoken by 486,000,000 native speakers worldwide, is the second-most common native language, after Mandarin. It is therefore more important to aspiring linguists, compared with French, whose native speakers number only 74,000,000.
Spanish, writes Gary Nunn, will open more doors for Brits both in terms of employability, post-Brexit travel and an undeniable ‘cool factor’.
Nunn attributes this ‘coolness’ to Hispanic musicians, including Bad Bunny.
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Bad Bunny is the Puerto Rican musician born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio. He has helped to make Spanish popular in teens’ minds and encouraged them to learn it.
Bad Bunny was the first exclusively Spanish album to win the Grammy for Best Album.
The first solo artist ever to headline a Super Bowl halftime performance and sing almost exclusively in Spanish, was also a historic moment for him at last week’s Super Bowl.
During an appearance on Saturday Night Live (SNL) ahead of the Super Bowl performance he told fans they had ‘four months to learn’ the language prompting Duolingo to launch a ‘Bad Bunny 101′ course.
TikTok & Instagram went viral with videos that young people shared to learn the language.
The British education system is behind the curve, with French being taught more often.
The Guardian Reports state that by 2025, French will be taught in approximately 70% of primary schools across England. Only 26% of these schools offer Spanish.
French also remains the most widely taught language at Key Stage 3 in England and Wales, and at S1 and S2 level in Scotland (ages 11–14).
In England, French is still the most popular GCSE language. Last year, 91% of schools taught French, compared to 76% who offered Spanish.
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In Wales the percentages were 79% French and 54% Spanish.
The Scottish GCSE equivalent of National 5 (French and Spanish) is offered at roughly the same ratio in Scotland.
The UK’s schools and universities are seeing a decline in the number of students studying languages.
Only 2.94% of A levels in 2024 were in modern languages. And undergraduate university admissions for Spanish, German Portuguese, and French fell by 30% from 2019 to 2024.
Nunn is convinced that Spanish’s cool factor could encourage British teens to take up a foreign language.
He explains that although French is still the most popular language on paper, Spanish has become the preferred choice of students.
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